ERRORS ATTRIBUTED TO ARISTOTLE. 205 



to absurdities which can be excused by no theoretical 

 prepossession and which are contradicted by the plainest 

 observation. 



What, after all, were the original manuscripts of the 

 " Ilistoria Animalium " ? If they were notes of Aris- 

 totle's lectures taken by some of his students, any lec- 

 turer who has chanced to look through such notes, would 

 find the interspersion of a foundation of general and 

 sometimes minute accuracy, with patches of transcen- 

 dent 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. 



