ARISTOPHANES 



346 



ARITA 



thus establishing an oligarchy (which see). 

 Athens and Sparta at various times, and Rome 

 for two centuries before the formation of the 

 Empire, were true aristocracies. In modern 

 use the word has a wider meaning, equivalent 

 to the best; thus we speak of an aristocracy 

 of brains, of wealth, and of birth. See GOV- 

 ERNMENT. 



ARISTOPHANES, ar is tof ' a neez (444-380 

 B.C.), the greatest writer of comedy in ancient 

 Athens. His plays were in poetry, and of the 

 forty which he wrote, eleven have survived. 

 These comedies give a picture of the political 

 and social conditions of Athens in his time. 

 He was not afraid to ridicule such well-known 

 men as Cleon, Alcibiades and Socrates, though 

 his later plays are less personal than the 

 earlier ones. 



Aristophanes was a master of language and 

 rhythm, and his songs and chants show his 

 richness of imagination. His plays are remark- 

 able for wit, rollicking fun, originality and 

 mocking satire. Of the plays that have come 

 down to us the most important are The 

 Knights, The Clouds, in which Socrates is ridi- 

 culed, The Wasps, The Birds and The Frogs, 

 the latter a satire on Euripides. 



ARISTOTLE, air is tot "I, (384-322 B.C.), the 

 greatest of ancient philosophers, generally re- 

 garded as the wisest man Greece ever produced. 

 He was born at Stagira, a Greek colony in 

 Thrace, and there received his early educa- 

 tion. At the age 

 of seventeen he 

 went to study at 

 Athens, where he 

 remained for 

 twenty years. He 

 was a favorite pu- 

 pil of Plato, who 

 called him "the 

 intellect of his 

 school." About 

 343 B.C. Aristotle 

 removed to Pella, 

 the capital of 

 Macedonia, and ARISTOTLE 



became the teacher of Alexander the Great. 

 After the conquest of Persia, Alexander pre- 

 sented him with a sum equal to nearly a 

 million dollars, and aided his scientific re- 

 searches greatly by sending him a specimen 

 of any plant or animal unknown in Greece 

 that was found on his expeditions. This 

 friendship led the Athenians to accuse Aristotle 

 of favoring Macedonia in the affairs involving 



the two countries, and he was forced to flee 

 to the island of Euboea, where he died. 



While at Athens Aristotle taught in the 

 Lyceum, a gymnasium near the city, and his 

 school is sometimes referred to by this name, 

 though more commonly called the Peripatetic 

 School. This name, taken from the Greek 

 word meaning walk, was given because Aris- 

 totle walked up and down in his garden while 

 teaching. 



Aristotle was the creator of natural science. 

 He was the first to divide the animal kingdom 

 into classes, and came near discovering the 

 circulation of the blood. His moral and polit- 

 ical theories, set forth in the Ethics and the 

 Politics, give his ideals of government and a 

 description of the model state. To him also 

 is due the syllogism, the .simplest form that an 

 argument may assume, as in "All animals are 

 mortal; I am an animal; therefore I am mor- 

 tal"; and it was he who established the so- 

 called "cosmological argument" for the exist- 

 ence of God. This is, in substance, that every- 

 thing in the world has a fixed cause, and back 

 of the long succession of causes there must 

 be an infinite being, a first something, absolute 

 reason, God. 



Before the eleventh century Aristotle was 

 but little known to the Christian world, 

 although his writings were prized by the Ara- 

 bians for three centuries prior to that time. 

 For four centuries he remained the authority 

 of the Christian thinkers, but gradually his 

 teachings became distorted and misunderstood. 

 With the revival of learning (see RENAIS- 

 SANCE) his works were carefully studied and 

 correctly interpreted, and their effect is felt 

 in all modern philosophy, notably in Bacon, 

 Kant, Spinoza anpl Descartes. Only portions 

 of Aristotle's writings have come down to us. 

 Of his preserved works the most important are 

 Logic, Rhetoric, Poetics, Physics, Metaphysics, 

 Ethics, Psychology, Politics, History of Ani- 

 mals, Meteorology. See PERIPATETIC SCHOOL OF 

 PHILOSOPHY; PHILOSOPHY; PLATO. C.W.K. 



ARITA, a town of Japan noted for its pot- 

 tery works, which have been in existence since 

 the sixteenth century. The porcelain produced 

 there is highly esteemed for its artistic finish 

 and durability, and is made of the white clay 

 known as kaolin, extensive deposits of which 

 are found in the vicinity. Arita is situated in 

 the western part of the island of Kiushiu, about 

 fifty-eight miles north of Nagasaki, with which 

 it has railway connection. Its population is 

 about 6,000. 



