50 MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 



upon the subject. Had this work survived, the ca- 

 talogue would have been more perfect, but unfortu* 

 nately it is no longer extant. 



Like other great men, Aristotle had enemies and 

 detractors, as well as admirers. Of their calumni- 

 ous charges, some were so absurd as to refute them- 

 selves. They have been perpetuated in the sar- 

 casms of Lucian, and the lying whispers of Athe- 

 nseus, which, in more recent times, have been too 

 often mistaken, even by the learned, for true his- 

 tory. In Athens, the jealousy and envy which 

 usually accompany superior talents, were inflamed 

 by philosophical prejudices, and professional rivalry 

 Sophists and sciolists, soothsayers and satirists, as- 

 sailed the Stagirite, and vied with each other in 

 heaping obloquy on a character, the ornament of 

 his own age, and destined for many centuries to be 

 the great instructor of mankind. So long as Alex- 

 ander lived, whose name then filled the whole civi- 

 lized world, his preceptor was unmolested, even 

 amidst the turbulence of the Athenian democracy ; 

 and it was not till the year following the death of 

 that prince, that the rancorous malignity which had 

 been suppressed burst forth against Aristotle with 

 resistless violence. That he regarded with equal 

 contempt vain pretenders to real science, and real 

 professors of sciences which he deemed vain and 

 frivolous, is obvious from innumerable passages in 

 his moral and political works. But it was on ac- 

 count of his theological opinions, which, as we have 

 stated al*ve were too refined for the grossness of 



