ISITY 



MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 



of that period any allusion to the doctrines of the 

 Peripatetic school, or the philosophical renown of its 

 founder. The edition of Andronicus made them 

 better known, as his example of studying and illus- 

 trating them was soon followed by various other 

 commentators. 



To enumerate the host of Greek, Latin, Jewish, 

 Arabic, and Christian writers who imitated the 

 Rhodian editor in giving expositions and criticisms 

 on the different works of Aristotle, would be foreign 

 to our purpose. Their very names would fill a vo- 

 lume. From the era of Augustus to the invention 

 of printing, the works of the Stagirite passed through 

 the hands of more than 10,000 commentators ; and 

 after that period, several thousands more were added 

 to the catalogue, amongst whom are to be classed 

 not a few of the venerable fathers of the church, who 

 borrowed from this armoury the intellectual weapons 

 which rendered them invincible in their theological 

 wars. The first generation of these expositors be- 

 gan in the age of the Antonines with the labours 

 of Taurus the Berissean, Adrastus, Alexander the 

 Aphrodisaean at Rome, Galen the celebrated physi- 

 cian, Atticus the Platonist, and Ammonius Sacchus 

 of Alexandria. Under the Roman emperors, they ' 

 continued to flourish ; and in the long list we find 

 the once revered names of Aspasius, Syrianus, 

 Olympiodorus, Plotinus, Porphyry, Themistius, Pro- 

 clus, the second Ammonius, Damascius, Simplicius, 

 Philopoimsj and Johannes Damascenus. By the 



