104 



GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 



Aristotle's 



other dis- 

 accounts. 



not before that time have squandered his property, except through 

 the culpable negligence of his guardian, Proxenus ; and any supposition 

 of this sort is precluded by the singular respect testified for that indi- 

 vidual in his ward's will, the substance of which or perhaps a codicil 

 to it has been preserved to us by Diogenes Laertius. 1 In it he 

 . directs the erection of a statue of Proxenus and of his wife, he ap- 

 points their son Nicanor (whom he had previously adopted) to be 

 joint guardian, with Antipater, of his own son Nicomachus, and also 

 bestows his daughter upon him in marriage. It is impossible to con- 

 ceive that such feelings could have been aroused in the ward by a 

 negligent or indiscreetly-indulgent guardian; and we should hardly 

 have reverted to the story in question, except to remark how the very 

 form of the calumny seems to indicate that the favourite studies of 

 Aristotle, in the early part of his life, were such as his father's pro- 

 fession would naturally have led him to, Physiology and Natural 

 History. 8 Indeed, nothing is more probable than that he might have 

 given advice to the sick; science and practical skill being in those 

 times so inseparably connected, that the Greek language possesses no 

 terms which formally distinguish them and from this circumstance 

 the report may have arisen, that he attempted medicine as a pro- 

 fession. 



There are some other accounts equally discrepant with the chro- 

 no ^g7 f Apollodorus, which we have taken as our standard. One 

 of these is, that Aristotle did not attach himself to Plato until he was 

 thirty years of age : another, that on his first arrival at Athens he 

 was for three years the pupil of Socrates. 3 The first of these, which 

 rests on the sole authority of one Eumelus, 4 a writer of whom nothing 

 more whatever is known, may perhaps be a feature of the story of 

 Epicurus which we have just discussed: it has been conjectured, 

 however, with great appearance of probability, that its sole foundation 

 is the well-known maxim of Plato, that the study of the higher phi- 

 losophy should not be commenced before the thirtieth year. The 

 second, as it stands, is absolutely unintelligible, Socrates having been 



1 Vit. Arist. sec. 1116. The genuineness of this document is confirmed by 

 the notice which Athenseus (xiii. p. 589) gives from Hermippus, relative to the 

 provision for Herpyllis, which quite agrees with what we find in it. Compare, too, 

 the author of the Latin Life (ad fin.), from whom it appears that Ptolemy and An- 

 dronicus had each of them inserted a testament of Aristotle in their works. 



2 Athenseus tells the story, after mentioning several tenets of Aristotle on matters 

 of natural history, in reference to which he calls him *' the medicine-vendor" 

 (o q>a,pa.i><fft>a*.ws). There is a curious passage, too, in a work of Aristotle's (the 

 Politics, p. 1258, line 12, ed. Bekker), which seems to have some bearing upon 

 this matter. It may almost be taken as an explanation of his conduct, if it was 

 such as we have supposed. Timseus of Tauromenium related, that at a late period 

 of his life (tyl TVS >./*/;) he served an obscure physician in a menial capacity. 

 (Aristocles, ap Euseb. xv. 2.) For the character of Timseus, see Oasaubon ad 

 Diog. Laert. x. 8. 



3 Pseudo-Ammonius. Vita Latina. 



4 Ap. Diog. Laert. Vit. Arist. sec. 6. All other accounts are unanimous in repre- 

 senting him as becoming Plato's disciple while very young. 



