MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 41 



and invigorating amidst objects of the highest intel- 

 lectual pursuits, might thereby learn the more readily 

 and the more perfectly to comprehend ordinary mat- 

 ters. This recondite philosophy, which Aristotle 

 first delivered to his royal pupil, and afterwards to 

 his hearers in the Lycseum at Athens, received the 

 epithet of Acroatic, to distinguish those parts of his 

 lectures which were confined to a select audience, 

 from such as were delivered to the public at large, 

 and these were called Exoteric. This technical di- 

 vision of the writings of the Stagirite, has given rise 

 to a variety of different opinions and disputes. Some 

 have imagined that in the two kinds of prelections just 

 noticed, he maintained contrary doctrines on the sub- 

 jects of religion and morality. But the fact is quite 

 the reverse ; his practical tenets being uniformly the 

 same in both. His Exoteric or popular Treatises, 

 nearly resembled the philosophical dialogues of Plato 

 or Cicero ; while his Acroatic writings, contained in a 

 concise energetic style peculiar to himself, those deep 

 and broad principles on which all science is built ; 

 and, independently of which, the most perverse rea- 

 sonings, and the most intricate combinations, are but 

 matters of common mechanical practice.* 



The sublimity of this abstract and recondite philo- 

 sophy, accorded exactly with the loftiness of Alexan- 

 der's mind. Amidst the tumult and bustle of distant 

 war, he considered it a source of pride to have made 

 an acquisition which was then denied to the vulgar ; 

 * Dr Gfllies'a Analysis of Aristotle's Ethics and Politici. 



