198 ERRORS ATTRIBUTED TO ARISTOTLE. [LECT 



can be excused by no theoretical prepossession and 

 which are contradicted by the plainest observation. 



What, after all, were the original manuscripts of 

 the " Historia Animalium " \ If they were notes of 

 Aristotle's lectures taken by some of his students, any 

 lecturer who has chanced to look through such notes, 

 would find the interspersion of a foundation of general 

 and sometimes minute accuracy, with patches of 

 transcendent blundering, perfectly intelligible. Some 

 competent Greek scholar may perhaps think it worth 

 while to tell us what may be said for or against 

 the hypothesis thus hinted. One obvious difficulty 

 in the way of adopting it is the fact that, in other 

 works, Aristotle refers to the " Historia Animalium " 

 as if it had already been made public by himself. 



