54 MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 



titles of above 200 treatises, only a few of which 

 are extant. The fame of the Lycseum, which the 

 Stagirite himself had maintained unimpaired through 

 life, was amply sustained by his successor, whose 

 increasing reputation soon attracted an audience of 

 2000 scholars. His friendship was courted by some 

 of the most powerful kings and princes of his time, 

 amongst whom were Cassander and Ptolemy, who 

 had succeeded Alexander on the thrones of Macedon 

 and Egypt. 



Aristotle did not long survive his retirement to 

 the shores of Euboea. He died within twelve 

 months after leaving Athens ; persecution and exile 

 having probably shortened his days, as he was only 

 in his sixty-third year. The manner of his death, 

 like various circumstances in his life, gave rise to 

 many false and contradictory reports. St Justin 

 says that he died of shame and vexation at not be- 

 ing able to explain the cause of the tides in the Eu- 

 ripus, an arm of the sea on which Chalcis stood, 

 and which, as Lucian avers, ebbed and flowed seven 

 times in twenty-four hours. Upon this assertion 

 has been engrafted the puerile story, that he threw 

 himself into the waves in despair, exclaiming, " Eu- 

 ripus shall take Aristotle, since Aristotle cannot 

 comprehend Euripus." Suidas states that he poi- 

 soned himself by drinking hemlock an assertion at 

 variance with truth, and rendered altogether impro- 

 oable, from the fact, that in his writings the Stagirite 

 always speaks of suicide as a shameful and cowardly 



