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THEOPHRASTUS. 1 5 



phrastus, or one who speaks divinely. Theophrastus 

 studied with Plato, and on the death of his master, 

 left the academy and mixed with the turbulent poli- 

 tics of the day, but in a truly patriotic spirit. He 

 was absent from Athens for many years, and the 

 historian Plutarch writes that Theophrastus de- 

 livered his country twice from the oppression 

 of tyrants. One of the defeated at the battle of 

 Chaeronaea, Theophrastus returned to Athens, gave 

 up the military life, and became the favourite pupil 

 of Aristoteles in the Lyceum. 



Theophrastus became an earnest student of 

 Aristoteles' teaching, and his singular grace of ex- 

 pression and knowledge of his mother tongue soon 

 made him a prominent philosopher. 



When Aristoteles retired, his pupil became his 

 successor; and as he combined the knowledge of 

 that teacher with the eloquence of Plato, his success 

 was extraordinary. The number of his pupils, on 

 one occasion, is said to have amounted to two 

 thousand who flocked around him from all parts of 

 Greece. He soon began to feel the effects of his 

 well-deserved and useful success upon the envious 

 minds of the men who had caused the retirement 

 of Aristoteles. And this envy and malice were 

 rendered all the more intense because, having been 

 a gallant soldier, and being a great teacher of 

 advanced knowledge, Theophrastus became an 

 authority on all intellectual subjects. A man was 

 put forward by a party in the State, to bring the 

 same charge of impiety against Theophrastus 



