THE COMMENTATORIAL SPIRIT. 287 



of vast effort and difficulty. We may quote, as an 

 expression of this temper, the language of Sir 

 Henry Savile, in concluding a course of lectures 

 on Euclid, delivered at Oxford 4 . "By the grace 

 of God, gentlemen hearers, I have performed my 

 promise ; I have redeemed my pledge. I have ex- 

 plained, according to my ability, the definitions, 

 postulates, axioms, and first eight propositions of 

 the Elements of Euclid. Here, sinking under the 

 weight of years, I lay down my art and my instru- 

 ments." 



We here speak of the peculiar province of the 

 commentator ; for undoubtedly, in many instances, 

 a commentary on a received author has been made 

 the vehicle of conveying systems and doctrines en- 

 tirely different from those of the author himself; 

 as, for instance, when the New Platonists wrote, 

 taking Plato for their text. The labours of learned 

 men in the stationary period, which came under 

 this description, belong to another class. 



3. Greek Commentators on Aristotle. The com- 

 mentators or disciples of the great philosophers did 

 not assume at once their servile character. At first 

 their object was to supply and correct, as well as to 

 explain their teacher. Thus among the earlier com- 

 mentators of Aristotle, Theophrastus invented five 

 moods of syllogism in the first figure, in addition to 



4 Exolvi per Dei gratiam, Domini auditores, promissum ; 

 liberavi fidem meam ; explicavi pro meo modulo, definitiones, 

 petitiones, communes sententias, et octo priores propositiones 

 Elementorum Euclidis. Hie, annis fessus, cyclos artemque repono. 



