ARISTOTLE. 



179 



this work. In the Greek manuscripts, the first book is denoted by 

 the letter (A) ; the second, not by the letter (B), but by (a) ; the 

 third by (B) ; the fourth by (F) ; and so regularly on to the four- 

 teenth. 



The thirteenth and fourteenth books are not found in the old Latin 

 version, or that of Argyropylus. The second book (a of the Greek 

 MSS.) was considered by some of the ancient commentators to be 

 the work of Pasicrates the Rhodian, brother of Eudemus. Alexander 

 of Aphrodisias says that it is by Aristotle, but is mutilated. Others 

 have held that it is a sort of scholium, and that its proper place is as 

 a preface to the second book of the ' Physical Lectures.' And the 

 circumstance of its being denoted by so singular a mark in the manu- 

 scripts would lead us to conclude that some opinion of this sort was 

 widely received. 



XXX. Nicomachean Ethics, (i. n. in x.) ($9i 



This is one of the most perspicuous, as well as most valuable, of 

 the works of Aristotle which has come down to us. Although in a 

 scientific form, there is a reference throughout to practical utility ; and 

 Aristotle himself seems to avow that he has sacrificed some of the 

 rigidness of his method to this consideration. It is, however, un- 

 equalled to this day as a treatise on morals. On the subject of the 

 name different accounts are given. Most of the ancient commentators 

 assert that it was so called by Aristotle because inscribed to his son 

 Nicomachus. Cicero appears, as we have seen, to consider the son 

 the author. Petiti endeavours to show that the treatise was written 

 at a time when Nicomachus was not born. It was probably, like 

 the ' Rhetoric,' worked at by the author after having been published, 



1 These are not mentioned by Diogenes. 



