64 MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 



partment that the fertility and ingenuity of his intel- 

 lect was most signally displayed. 



Some authors accuse him of having studied to be 

 obscure for the sake of being thought original, and 

 of being less anxious to discover truth than to ac- 

 quire fame. " His writings (says Dr Reid) carry 

 too evident marks of that philosophical pride, va- 

 nity, and envy, which have often sullied the charac- 

 ter of the learned. He determines boldly things 

 above all human knowledge, and enters upon the 

 most difficult questions, as his pupil entered upon a 

 battle, with full assurance of success. He delivers 

 his decisions oracularly, and without any fear of mis- 

 take. Rather than confess his ignorance, he hides 

 it under hard words and ambiguous expressions, of 

 which his interpreters may make what they please. 

 There is even reason to suspect that he wrote often 

 with affected obscurity, either that the air of mys- 

 tery might procure greater veneration, or that his 

 hooks might be understood only by the adepts who 

 had been initiated in his philosophy." * That there 

 may be some truth in the charge of vanity cannot 

 be denied, and this " infirmity of noble minds" was to 

 be expected in a man who had the daring ambition 

 to be transmitted to all future ages as the Prince of 

 Philosophers as one who had earned every branch 

 of human knowledge to its utmost limit. But it is 

 manifestly unfair to impute to him all the obscurities, 

 errors, and contradictions, that are now to be found 

 ^ r Reid's Analysis of Aristotle's Logic. 



