OF THE UNIVERSE. CONQUESTS OF ALEXANDER. 157 



the Stagirite to the empirical research of facts in the 

 domain of nature, to the workings of the mind when 

 plunging into the depths of speculation, and to the for- 

 mation of a scientific language y by which everything 

 may be accurately denned. Thus Aristotle remains, for 

 thousands of years to come, according to Dante's fine ex- 

 pression, "il maestro di color che sanno" ( 233 ). 



The belief in an immediate enrichment of Aristotle's zoo- 

 logical knowledge by the campaigns of Alexander has been 

 rendered very uncertain, if not entirely dissipated by re- 

 cent and very careful researches. The miserable compila- 

 tion of a life of the Stagirite, which was long ascribed to 

 Ammonius the son of Hermias, has given rise, among many 

 other historical errors ( 234 ), to that of the philosopher having 

 accompanied his pupil at least as far as the banks of the 

 Nile ( 235 ) . The great work on animals appears to have been 

 of very little later date than the Meteorologica, and the 

 latter is shewn by internal evidence ( 236 ) to belong either to 

 the 106th or at the utmost to the lllth Olympiad; there- 

 fore, either fourteen years before Aristotle came to the court 

 of Philip, or, at the latest, three years before the passage of 

 the Granicus. Some particular notices contained in the 

 nine books of the history of animals, have indeed been 

 brought forward in opposition to the view here taken of 

 fchefj* P9r]y fOTnpletion : particularly the exact knowledge 

 which Aristotle appears to have had of the elephant, of the 

 bearded horse-stag (hippelaphos), of the Eactrian camel 

 with two humps, of the hippardion supposed to be the 

 hunting tiger (Guepard), and of the Indian buffalo which 

 was first brougjit to Europe at the time of the Crusades. 

 It should be remarked, However, that the native place of the 



