MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 65 



in his writings ; considering that the greatest, and 

 perhaps the best, part of them are lost, and that his 

 copyists and interpreters have ascribed to him innu- 

 merable opinions which he did not hold ; while by 

 universally confounding his solid sense with the fan- 

 cies of Plato, they have introduced incongruities and 

 absurdities of which he was never guilty. 



We do not say with some of his extravagant ad- 

 mirers, that he treated all his subjects in a manner 

 complete, so as to surpass every preceding exertion of 

 the human intellect. This eulogium is only partial- 

 ly true. But the praise and merit must be allowed 

 him of having introduced and exemplified a stricter 

 method of philosophising than what had been before 

 observed in the Grecian schools. In every doctrine 

 and theory he excluded the mixtures of poetry and 

 fable which, in some degree, still prevailed ; and he 

 endeavoured to subject every hypothesis to the test 

 of reason and argument. He framed with penetra- 

 tion and acuteness superior to all others, the rules 

 of logical induction and demonstrative reasoning. It 

 was from the accuracy and the novelty of his sys- 

 tem in this respect, as well as from the universality 

 of his genius, which appeared to master every subject 

 of study with equal facility, that some of the ablest 

 judges in antiquity, on perusing his elaborate treatises 

 on the different branches of knowledge, hesitated not 

 to pronounce him " the most excellent in all science, 

 Plato only excepted." This is the opinion of Cicero, 

 to whose philosophical works the world at large is 



