ARISTOTLE. 



AUISTOTLK. 



ni 



garden with walk* (in Greek ' peripatoi *), when Aristotle uwd to 

 deliver hw instruction to hi* disciples; whence Us school obtained 

 the name of the ' Peri|*trt:c.' It appear* that bin habit wai to give 

 one leoture in the early part of the day on the abstnuer parts of hi* 

 philosophy to hu more advanced scholars, which WM called the 

 morning walk,' and la*ted till the hour when people drat and anointed 

 thrnnelTn ; ami another lecture, called the 'evening walk,' on more 

 popular subjects, to a larger and leu (elect data. It wat probably 

 during the thirteen yean of hi* second residence at Atheni that 

 Aristotle compoecd or complete*! the greater part of hu works which 

 have descended to our days. Among the work* which especially belong 

 to thU |*riod of hi* life an hi* treatise* on natural history ; which, 

 a* hu been correctly observed by a writer on this aubject (Dr. Ki.M, 

 ' BridgewaUr Trcatue,' 4c.. p. 299), are not to be considered a* con- 

 taining the remit of hi* tiwn obaervatioua only, but a* a collection ( 

 all that had been observed by other* a* well a* by himself. It is stated 

 by Pliny (' Nat Uit.,' viii. 7) that " Alexander the Great, being smitten 

 with the drain of knowing the nature* of animal*, ordered several 

 thousand persons, over the whole of Asia and Greece, who lived by 

 hunting, bird-catching, and fishing, or who had the care of park*, herd*, 

 birr*, stows, and aviaries, to furnish Aristotle with material* for a work 

 on animals." We an likewise Informed that Aristotle received from 

 Alexander the enormou* sum of 800 talent* to prosecute hi* researches 

 in natural history. CallUthenes, who, as we have already seen, attended 

 Alexander in his expedition to Asia, sent from Babylon to Aristotle, 

 in compliance with his pnvious injunction*, the astronomical obser- 

 vation* which wen preserved in that ancient city, and which, accord- 

 ing to the statement of Porphyrius, reached back as far as 1903 years 

 before the time of Alexander the Gnat ; that is, 2234 years before the 

 Christian era. (Simplicius in ' Arutot de Ccclo.,' fol. 123, A. L 18,ed. 

 AM. 1527.) The tran*mis*ion of the observations to Aristotle is stated 

 by Simplicius as a known fact : the length of time he gives on the 

 authority of Porphyrius. We know however from Cicero (' De Hep.,' 

 i. 10) that astronomical observations were sometimes calculated back 

 by the ancient priests ; snd consequently that observations stated to 

 be of remote antiquity may not be leu fabulous than the adventures 

 of early kings and heroes. 



Aristotle bad at this time reached the most prosperous period of his 

 life. The founder and leader of the principal school of Greece, and 

 the undisputed head of Grecian philosophy, surrounded by hi* nume- 

 rous disciples and admirers, protected by the great conqueror of A-i:i, 

 and by him furnished with tho means of following hi* favourite 

 pursuit* and of gratifying hi* universal spirit of inquiry, he bad 

 probably little left to fill up the measure of a philosopher's ambition. 

 But he did not continue to enjoy the favour of Alexander till the end. 

 Callisthenes had o Bended Alexander, and had been executed on a 

 charge of having conspired with some Macedonian nobles to take 

 away his life (ALEXANDER; CALLJSTHEBES) ; and the king's wrath 

 appear* to have extended to his kinsman Aristotle, as being the 

 person who had originally recommended him. (Letter of Alexander 

 to Antipater in Plutarch'* ' Alex,' c. 55.) It i not however probable 

 that this circumstance caused any active enmity between the royal 

 pupil and bis master ; indeed, Aristotle appears to have been consi- 

 dered to the last a* a partisan of Alexander, and on opponent of the 

 democratic interest. When the anti-Macedonian party obtained the 

 superiority at Athens in consequence of Alexander's death, an accusa- 

 tion sgainst Aristotle was prepared, the pretext being, as in the case 

 of Socrates, 'impiety' or ' blasphemy.' He was charged with having 

 paid divine honours to Hermeias, the prince of Atarneu* ; and perhaps 

 with teaching some irreligious doctrines. In order to escape the danger 

 which threatened him, and to prevent the Athenians (as he is reported 

 to have said) from "twice sinning against philosophy," in the begin- 

 ning of B.C. 322 be quitted Athens, and took refuge at Chalcis, in 

 Eubcoa, an island then under the Macedonian influence, leaving 

 Theophrutus hi* successor in the Lyceum. Aristotle died at Chalcis 

 of a disease of the stomach, in the autumn of B.C. 322, being in the 

 sixty-third year of hi* age. Hi* frame is said to have been slender and 

 weakly, and hi* health bad given way in the latter part of hi* life, 

 having probably been unpaired by hi* unwearied studies and the intense 

 application of his mind. The story of bis having drowned himself in 

 toe Euripus of Eubcoa is fabulous. 



The characteristic of Aristotle's philosophy, as compared with that 

 of Plato, is that, whereas the Utter gave a free scope to his imagina- 

 tion, and by his doctrine of idea* independent of the objecU which 

 they represent opened a wide -'oor to the dreams of mysticism, the 

 former wat a doss and stric. observer of both mental and physical 

 phenomens, avoiding all the seductions of the fancy, and following a 

 seven, methodical, and strictly scientific course of inquiry, founded 

 on data ascertained by experience. The truly philosophical character 

 of bis mind, and his calm and singularly dispassionate manner of 

 writing, an not more remarkable than the vast extent both of his 

 reading and of hi* original researches. His writings appear to have 

 embraced the whole circle of the theoretical and practical knowledge 

 of bis time, comprising treatises on logical, metaphysical, rhetorical 

 lical, ethics), political, economical, physical, mechanical, and 

 aedical science : he likewise wrote on some part* of the mathematics; 

 and, besides a collection of the constitution* of all the states known 

 in hu age, both Grecian and barbarian, he mnde chronological compi- 



lation* relating to the political and dramatical history of Greece. Hi* 

 works however though embracing so large an extent of subjects, wen 

 not a men encyclopaedia or digest of existing knowledge ; some of the 

 sciences which he treated of were created by himself, and the others 

 wen enriched by fresh inquiries, snd methodised by his systematic 

 diligence. To the former belong his works on analytics and dialectic*, 

 or, as it is now called, logic; to the invention of which scien 

 distinctly lays claim, stating that " before his time nothing whatever 

 bad been done in it." (' Soph. Kleuch.' c, 31, 6.) Nearly the same 

 remark applies to his metaphysical treatise. " But of all the science*)" 

 (we use the word* of Cuvier) " there i* none which owes more to 

 Aristotle than the natural history of niml 1 Xot only was he 

 acquaint* d with a great number of species, but he has studied and 

 described thorn on a luminous and comprehensive plan, to which, 

 perhaps, none of his successors has approached ; classing the facts, 

 not according to the species, but according to the organ* and fun 

 the ole method of establishing comparative results : thus it may bo 

 said that he is not only the most ancient author of comparative 

 anatomy whose works have come down to us, but that he i* one of 

 those who have treated this branch of natural history with the most 

 genius, and that he best deserves to be taken for a model." (Kidd, 

 ' Bridgewatcr Treatise,' c. 1 0, 3, and ' Appendix.' This author has given 

 a comparison of Aristotle's account of animal* with the discoveries of 

 modern science.) Among the science* which Aristotle found partly culti- 

 vated, but which he greatly advanced, the more prominent am those 

 of rhetoric, ethic*, and politics. Of rhetoric he defined the province 

 and analysed all the ports with admirable skill and sagacity ; his 

 treatise on the passions, in this short but comprehensive work, has 

 never been surpassed, if it has over been equalled, by writers ou 

 (what may be termed) descriptive moral philosophy. His < 

 writings contain an excellent practical code of morality ; hi* remarks 

 on friendship are also deserving of especial notice ; n subject much 

 discussed by the ancients, but which ha* legs occupied the attention 

 of philosophers since love has played a more prominent part in conse- 

 quence of the influence of the German* and the introduction of the 

 manners of chivalry in western Europe. His treatise on 'Polit: 

 not, like Plato's ' Republic ' and the work* of many later speculators 

 on government, a mere inquiry after a perfect state ; but contains an 

 account of the nature of government, of the various form* of which it 

 i* susceptible, and the institutions best adapted to the societies in 

 which those forms are established ; with an essay, though unhappily 

 an imperfect one, on education. This treatise is valuable not only 

 for its theoretical results, but also for tho large amount of information 

 which it contains ou the governments of Greece and other neighbouring 

 countries. 



In these philosophical treatises Aristotle occasionally mention* 

 other* of his writings, which be calls ' exoteric.' From the manner 

 in which he sometimes speaks of them, referring to them ou points of 

 no great obscurity or difficulty with a sort of contemptuous or conde- 

 scending tone it would seem as if they were not of a strictly scicnf ilic, 

 character. (' Eth. Nic.' i. 13 ; vL i ; ' PoUV iii. 4; vii. 1.) In another 

 place he says, that he has often considered the Platonic doctrine of 

 ideas both in his exoteric and his strictly philosophical works (' Kth. 

 Eud.' i. 8). Plutarch and Cicero mention this class of Aristotle's 

 works, some of which appear to have been in the form of dialogues. 

 His systematic treatises, which formed a connected body of philosophy, 

 were called ' acroamatic,' that is, destined for lectures (though he 

 never himself use* that name in hi* extant writing*); and were thus, 

 as Galen says, confined to his scholars and friends. This disti; 

 between the acroamatic and exoteric writings is mentioned by Gelliua 

 (' N. A.' xx. 5), who states that the former included subjects of a 

 refined and abstruse philosophy, and physical and dialectical questions; 

 the latter rhetorical and sophistical exercises and political knowledge. 

 The distinction of these two kinds of treatises i* referred to by several 

 ancient writers. It appears to have consisted chiefly in the form of 

 the work (most of the exoUric writings being dialogues), in the 



the more remarkable for the multiplicity of his knowledge, th.: 

 quantity of hi* writing*, the sweetness of his style, the acuteness 

 of hi* discoveries, or the variety of his works (x. 1. S3) : in his extant 

 works, however (all of which belong to the acroauiatio class), his 

 style is in most part* singularly dry and unattractive, and not uiifre- 

 quently obscure, from the extreme conciseness of the expression and 

 the abruptness of the transitions. It seems, indeed, as if he was 

 sometimes intentionally negligent, and even ungramniatical, from his 

 contempt for all ornament or polish of style. These peculiarities of 

 stylo are doubtless attributable to tho destination of his philosophical 

 writings, which often appear to bo rather note-books for his lecture*, 

 requiring further expansion and illustration, than finished treatises 

 prepared for publication. The obscurity of Aristotle, which has been 

 so much complained of, is in most part* like the obscurity of a mathe- 

 matical treatise, which appears so great to a beginner ; as in both cases 

 the difficulty of comprehension arises not from the defect of the 

 expression, but from the closeness and subtlety of the reasoning. The 

 work* which were thus used a* lecture-books probably never obtained 

 much circulation during Aristotle's lifetime, except among his diociple* 



