58 MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 



free by his heirs, so soon as they seemed worthy of 

 liberty ; an injunction conformable to the maxim in- 

 culcated in his Politics, that slaves of all descrip- 

 tions ought to be liberated whenever they merited 

 freedom, and were qualified for enjoying it. The 

 testament concludes with instructions as to the per- 

 formance of such marks of respect as he considered 

 due to the memory of his relations, and to the religion 

 of his country ; viz. the erecting of the statues he 

 had dedicated to Proxenus and his wife ; to his own 

 mother and brother, Arimnestus; and, finally, to 

 Jupiter and Minerva, the Preservers (S&>rj^g?), which 

 he had vowed to them for the health of Nicanor. 

 These latter were to be placed at Stagira, and to con- 

 sist of " statues of beasts of stone of four cubits." 



The private character of Aristotle seems to have 

 been irreproachable. That he had many detractors, 

 who envied him his popularity, and have transmitted 

 very unfavourable accounts of his moral qualities, 

 has already been mentioned. Some earned their 

 extravagant censures so high, as to accuse him of 

 every vice that can degrade human nature. He was 

 stigmatized as a glutton, a libertine, and a parasite, 

 adapting his philosophy to the corrupt practices of 

 the great ; as a sordid miser, who sold the oil which 

 he had used medicinally, and even the empty brass 

 pots in which it was contained ; and as an ungrate- 

 ful ci tizen, who betrayed the place of his birth to the 

 Macedonians. These and numerous other charges 

 were the pure offspring of calumny, and owe their 



