THE COMMENTATORIAL SPIRIT. 291 



Aristotle, and a compend of his logic : Theodore 

 Metochytes, who was famous in his time alike for 

 his eloquence and his learning, has left a paraphrase 

 of the books of Aristotle on Physics, on the Soul, 

 the Heavens 13 , &c. Fabricius states that this writer 

 has a chapter, the object of which is to prove, that 

 all philosophers, and Aristotle and Plato in par- 

 ticular, have disdained the authority of their prede- 

 cessors. He could hardly help remarking in how 

 different a spirit philosophy had been pursued since 

 their time. 



3. Greek Commentators of Plato and others. 

 I have spoken principally of the commentators of 

 Aristotle, for he was the great subject of the com- 

 mentators proper; and though the name of his 

 rival, Plato, was graced by a list of attendants hardly 

 less numerous, these, the Neoplatonists, as they are 

 called, had introduced new elements into the doc- 

 trines of their nominal master, to such an extent 

 that they must be placed in a different class. We 

 may observe here however, how, in this school as in 

 the Peripatetic, the race of commentators multiplied 

 itself. Porphyry, who commented on Aristotle, was 

 commented on by Ammonius; Plotiiius's Enneads 

 were commented on by Proclus and Dexippus. 

 Psellus 14 the elder was a paraphrast of Aristotle; 

 Psellus the younger, in the eleventh century, at- 

 tempted to restore the New Platonic school. The 

 former of these two writers had for his pupils two 



13 Deg. iv. 168. M Ib. iv. 169. 



U2 



