150 GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 



before us, is the probable interpretation, although there is no positive 

 authority that it is the true one. The son Nicomachus was brought 

 up by Theophrastus, and if we are to credit Cicero's assertion, that 

 the Nicomachean Ethics which are found among Aristotle's works, 

 were by some attributed to him, must have profited much by his 

 master's instructions. It seems, however, more likely that Aristocles's 

 account of him is the correct one, who relates that he was killed in 

 battle at a very early age. 1 



Fate of ^ The works of Aristotle are said to have met with a most singular 



orks. tle S mischance. They are related to have been buried some time after his 

 death, and not to have been recovered till two hundred years after- 

 wards. This story is so curious in itself, and of such vital importance 

 in the history of philosophy, that we shall make no apology for in- 

 vestigating it thoroughly, in spite of the length to which this article 

 has already been extended. 



stiaho's The main authority for the opinion is Strabo, in a passage of his 



unt ' geographical work, 2 where, having occasion to speak of Scepsis, a 

 town in the Troad, he mentions two or three persons of eminence who 

 were born there. One of these is Neleus, the son of Coriscus, a person 

 who was a scholar both of Aristotle and Theophrastus, and who 

 succeeded to the library of the latter, in which too was contained that 

 of the former. " For Aristotle," Strabo goes on to say, " made over 

 his own library to Theophrastus (to whom he also left his school), 

 and was the first that I know of who collected books and taught the 

 kings in Egypt to form a library. Theophrastus made them over to 

 Neleus ; he took them over to Scepsis, and made them over to his 

 heirs (ro7c juer' avrov) uneducated men, who let the books remain 

 locked up without any care. When, however, they observed the 

 pains which the kings of the Attalic dynasty (in whose dominions the 

 town was) were at to get books to furnish the library at Pergamus, 

 they buried them under ground in a sort of cellar, and a long time 



1 Aristocles, ap. Euseb. loc. cit. ; Cicero, De Fin. v. 5. 



2 Geogr. xiii. p. 124, ed. Tauchnitz. We have translated the whole of this cele- 

 brated passage as it stands in the text of all the printed editions. But besides the 

 words T<i re 'ApiffTOTf\ovs Kal to. &eo(ppd(rrov f3ifi\ia, which we look upon as a 

 marginal note that has crept into the text, there appears to us to be unquestionably 

 a corruption in the latter part. In default of the authority of MSS., a conjecture 

 can only be received with great caution; but still we should be inclined to think, 

 that immediately after the word irpoffehdfteTO should come /col f3i0\io(co!)\ai rives 



'AA.eai/8peia, and that after f}if3\io0-f]KT)s probably followed something like 



Kal trap' avrov 6 'PdSios 'kvtipAviKos eviropfaas T&V avnypafyuv els peaov e07j/ce, 

 Kal ai/eypatye rovs vvv <pepo/J.evovs irivanas. Plutarch, Vit. Syll. c. 26, from whom 

 we have taken these words, unquestionably follows Strabo in the account which he 

 gives of this affair. He cites him by name almost immediately afteiwards, as is 

 remarked by Schneider. (Praef. ad Aristot. H. A. p. Ixxx.) It was, however, 

 scarcely the Geography, but the Historical Memoirs of Strabo, which was his 

 authority through the life of Sylla. Hence the slight divarication of the two nar- 

 ratives : in the topographical work the circumstances of the story which are most 

 connected with Scepsis are principally dwelt upon; in the other those connected 

 with Sylla. 



