146 GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 



But independently of the superior authority of Apollodorus, and the 

 evidence which Aristotle's own opinions, expressed in more than one 

 place, on the subject of suicide, afford, in contradiction of this story, 

 the fact of Chalc.is being then under Macedonian influence, and, conse- 

 quently, a perfectly secure refuge for any one persecuted for real or 

 . supposed participation in Macedonian politics, is quite enough to 



induce us to reject this story. A yet more absurd one is repeated by 

 some of the early Christian wiiters. Mortification, according to them, 

 at being unable to discover the cause of the Euripus ebbing and 

 flowing seven times every day, induced him to throw himself headlong 

 into the current. 1 Of this story it is scarcely necessary to say more 

 than that the phenomenon which produced such fatal consequences to 

 the philosopher does not really exist. The stream constantly sets 

 through the narrow channel between Eubcea and the mainland from 

 north to south, except when winds blowing very strongly in an oppo- 

 site direction produce for a time the appearance of a current from 

 south to north. 2 But instead of wasting time upon the refutation of 

 these foolish accounts, we shall perhaps please our readers better by 

 bringing together a few circumstances which appear to confirm the 

 statement of Apollodorus, to which independently of them we should 

 not be justified in refusing belief. 



Confirmation Aulus Gellius 3 relates that Aristotle's scholars, when their master 

 doss's 1 stlte- k a d passed his sixty-second year, and being in a state of extremely 

 xnent. bad health, gave them but little hopes that he would survive for any 



length of time, entreated him to appoint some one of their body as his 

 successor, to keep their party together and preserve the philosophical 

 views which he had promulgated. There were at that time, says 

 Gellius, many distinguished men among his disciples, but two pre- 

 eminently superior to the rest. Menedemus (or, as some suppose it 

 should be written, Eudemus), a Rhodian, and Theophrastus, a native 

 Aristotle's of Eresus, a town in the island of Lesbos. Aristotle, perhaps un- 

 o?a slTccestor willing that his last moments should be disturbed by the heartburnings 

 which a selection, however judicious, might produce, contrived to 

 avoid the invidious task, and at the same time to convey his own sen- 

 timents on the subject. He replied, that at the proper time he would 

 satisfy their wishes ; and shortly afterwards, when the same persons 

 who had made the request happened to be present, he took occasion 

 to complain that the wine which he usually drank did not agree with 

 him, and to beg that they would look out for some sort which might 

 suit him better for instance, said he, some Lesbian or Rhodian ; two 



1 Pseudo Justin Martyr, Parsenet. ad Grsecos, p. 34. Sta TroAAV afio^iav /cat 

 alffxvvnv Au7T7j0eis, /jLereffTfj TOV fttov. Gregor. Nazienz. Orat. i. in Julian, p. 23. 

 Later writers go so far as to put various sentiments into his mouth immediately 

 before the perpetration of this rash act. Elias Cretensis (Comm. in S. Greg. 

 Orat. iv.) attributes to him the words " Quoniam Aristoteles Euripum non cepit, 

 Aristotelem Euripus habeat." 



2 Tanaquil Faber, Epp. Critic, i. 14. 

 8 Noct. Att. xiii. 5. 



