90 MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 



has any bearing. The whole treatise is a text-book 

 of human feeling, a storehouse of taste and intel- 

 lectual gratification. 



The Poetics of Aristotle is a mere fragment, one 

 book only remaining out of three of which the trea- 

 tise originally consisted ; but, imperfect as it is, it has 

 been uniformly regarded as the great authority of 

 the laws of criticism in poetry. The portion extant 

 is almost exclusively confined to the consideration 

 of the drama. The remarks on Tragedy, Comedy, 

 and the Epos, are singularly applicable to the prin- 

 ciples of modern criticism ; making allowance for the 

 difference of manners and opinions, and the dissimi- 

 larity of taste which the advancement of society 

 has created between the dramatic models of Athens, 

 and those of the nineteenth century. The loss of 

 this part of the work is the more to be regretted, as 

 it most likely contained much valuable information 

 concerning Greek writers, whose works, perhaps 

 whose names, are now unknown. 



The Theoretic branch of Aristotle's philosophy, 

 comprehending Physics, Mathematics, and Meta- 

 physics, is the most entertaining, but at the same 

 time the most defective part of his works. The term 

 Physics appears to have been, understood in the 

 Peripatetic School in a very extensive sense, com- 

 prising the science of beings corporeal and incor- 

 poreal, and also that of substance in general, with 

 its attributes and properties, abstractly considered. 

 What is now called Metaphysics, did not receive 



