178 GEEEK PHILOSOPHY. 



philosophy to be extremely cautious how he infers the opinions of 

 Aristotle upon any subject from it. 



XXVI. On Indivisible Lines. (Trepi aro/zwv ypajujuw*'.) 



This tract is said by Simplicius to have been by some of the ancient 

 commentators ascribed to Theophrastus. 



XXVII. The Quarters and Names of the Winds. (aW/zcuv Qiaeic 



KCLl TTpOOT/yOpiat.) 



A fragment from Aristotle's work 7Tpi ertyzc/wv xt-i/iwvwv, men " 

 tioned by Diogenes in his catalogue. This is found in some manu- 

 scripts of Theophrastus's work, but Salmasius considers it to be 

 Aristotle's. 



XXVIII. On Xenophanes, on Zeno, on Gorgias. (Trepi EevotyavovQ, 

 Trepi ZrjwvoQ, 7Tpi Fopy/ov.) 



This fragment, according to Brandis, is the only one of all the 

 works which have come down to us under the name of Aristotle's, 

 which presents the least indication of that treatment which the manu- 

 scripts are said to have met with at the hands of Apellicon. This, 

 too, and the 4 Mechanics,' are the only works which Patritius allowed 

 to be genuine. It is singular that one of the manuscripts ascribes 

 it to Theophrastus. Another gives as a title Kara rat 3oae rwv 



lAo<7O0WJ'. 



XXIX. The Metaphysics, (i. II ....... xiv.) (TO. pera ra 



This collection of treatises is said to have been called by Andronicus 

 by this name, because when he endeavoured to group the works of 

 Aristotle together systematically, these remained after he had com- 

 pleted his physical cycle, and he had no better resource than to put 

 them together after it. Harris 1 gives a different account of the names, 

 which he grounds on a passage in a manuscript work of Philoponus. 

 Men, he conceives, were led to the study of the highest causes by an 

 ascent from the contemplation of the lower or physical. Hence the 

 first philosophy which treats of them was, from being subsequent in 

 time to these physical inquiries, called Metaphysical. Brandis 2 re- 

 lates from a manuscript commentary of Asclepius (a writer of no 

 great value), that Aristotle had during his lifetime committed the 

 several treatises, the aggregate of which goes by this name, to his 

 scholar Eudemus, who considered that they were not in a fit state for 

 publication; but that after his death subsequent Peripatetics (ot 

 yueraytWorepoi) endeavoured to work them up into a whole, supply- 

 ing what was deficient from other works of their founder. Whatever 

 may be the truth of this story, it is unquestionable that the arrange- 

 ment of the several books is merely arbitrary ; and several variations 

 have been proposed, among others one by Petiti, which we annex, 

 with the addition of those works named by Diogenes Laertius in his 

 catalogue, which he conceived to be identical with the several parts of 



1 Additional note to the second of The Three Treatises, pp. 364, 365. 



2 Rhein. Mus. i. p. 242, note (19). 



