APPENDIX. 299 



the materials and notes he had collected is quite distinct, 

 and I do not think that it can be precisely ascertained at 

 the present time. The conjecture I have hazarded (light 

 enough, I must confess) does not sa.y much in favour of the 

 story of abundant treasures supplied by Philip, or Alex- 

 ander, to our philosopher, for the composition of his Na- 

 tural History. But these persons form a very poor esti- 

 mate of the study and labour bestowed by Aristotle upon 

 the History of Animals, who imagine that our philosopher 

 had only access to such books as now remain, forgetting 

 those of which time has robbed us. 



Most of all we must regret his Zw/xa, which appears to 

 have given a more accurate description of animals, and his 

 avarofuxa, which further contained notices of their internal 

 structure, and was illustrated by drawings to which he often 

 refers in his Natural History, as well as in his works on the 

 parts and the generation of animals. It will scarcely be 

 possible to fix with any accuracy on the number of books he 

 employed, after the great carelessness of librarians, and the 

 many facilities for error in copyists, arising from the method 

 of notation by letters. Antigonus Carystius, in his sixty- 

 sixth chapter, increases the number of volumes given by 

 Pliny, for he writes seventy ; and if the titles of the books, 

 as they are given by Diogenes Laertius and Athenaeus, are 

 compared with those published, the number of books re- 

 lating to Animal History to which he may have had access 

 are readily estimated, even should every book of every work 

 be reckoned as a separate book, and the list compared with 

 the number given by Pliny. 



In the memory of our fathers and grandfathers (for, alas ! 

 at the present time few trouble themselves with the works 

 of the ancients) there were many who blamed Aristotle for 

 these works, both for his manner of treating the subjects and 

 his narratives of the lives and habits of animals, and vexed 

 them with questions and disputations. 



These objections will be better answered, when we 

 come to those passages of the History. It may, however, 

 be of some general avail to put a stop to these objections, 

 which were urged against his manner of teaching ; and I 

 hope to be able to point out some peculiar sources from 

 which Aristotle appears to have derived the more difficult 



