ARISTOTLE. 107 



hundred and fifty-eight (according to others one hundred and seventy- 

 one or two hundred and fifty-five) States, which, judging from some 

 fragments which have been preserved, involved their history from the 

 earliest known times to his own. 1 Of this invaluable work a great 

 many scraps remain. On those which relate to Athens, Sigonius is 

 said to have based his account of that commonwealth. 2 And another, 

 (or the draught of it,) for which this apparently formed the founda- 

 tion, the * Polities', has come down to us in all probability in the state 

 in which it was left at the moment of the author's death. We may 

 conclude the evidence which these productions afford of their writer's 

 activity and industry with an anecdote preserved by Diogenes (* Vit. 

 Arist.' sec. 16). Apparently to prevent the remission of attention 

 which results from nature insensibly giving way under the pressure of 

 extremely laborious study, he was accustomed to read holding a ball 

 in one hand, under which was placed a brazen basin. On the 

 slightest involuntary relaxation of the muscles, the ball would fall, and 

 by the sudden noise which it made, at once dissipate the incipient 

 drowsiness of the student. 



But this intense love of knowledge had not the common effect of His geniality 

 converting him into a mere bookworm. In his works we see nothing 

 like an undue depreciation of the active forms of life, or even of its 

 pleasures. And this is the more remarkable as we know that his 

 frame was delicate, and his constitution weakly, and that in the latter 

 part of his life he suffered much from bad health, 3 circumstances 

 which in general lead to an under- estimate of those pursuits for which 

 a certain robustness of body is a necessary condition. His attention 

 to neatness of person and dress was very considerable ; indeed, it is 

 said that he carried it to an extent which Plato considered unworthy 

 of a philosopher. 4 Whether this account be true or not, it is certain 

 that his habits and principles were the reverse of cynical, that he 

 enjoyed life, and was above any unnecessary affectation of severity. 

 " Not apathy, but moderation," is a maxim ascribed to- him by 

 Diogenes. 5 



We have seen that Plato felt and testified the highest admiration piato's sen- 

 timents 



held innocent of any charge till found guilty; that of the peers to demand an towards him. 

 audience of the sovereign, and to be the ultimate court of appeal in civil cases, are 

 so many hituiuftetra. They are not referable to one standard of political justice, 

 because our consitution contains monarchical, aristocratic, oligarchal, and demo- 

 cratic elements. But the Greek states were almost always pure oligarchies or pure 

 democracies. 



1 Diog. Laert. Vit. ; Pseudo-Ammon. and Vit. Lat. Compare Cicero, De Fin. v. 

 4, 10; Varro, DeL. L. vii. 3. 



a Nunnez, ad Vit. Pseudo-Ammon. p. 59. 



3 Censorinus, De die natali, cap. xiv. " Aristotelem ferunt naturalem stomachi 

 infirmitatem crebrasque morbidi corporis offensiones, adeo virtute animi diu sus- 

 tentasse, ut magis mirum sit ad annos kiii. eum vitam protulisse, quam ultra non 

 pertulisse." Compare Gellius, xiii. 5. 



4 JElian, Varia Historia, iii. 19 ; Diog. Laert. Vit. Arist. init. 



5 Vit. sec. 31. 



