ARISTOTLE. 47 



Common Errors, refutes this assertion on the follow- 

 ing grounds: — In the first place, his death is related 

 to have taken place in two ways by Diogenes Laer- 

 tius ; the one, from Eumolus and Phavorinus, that 

 being accused of impiety for composing a hymn to his 

 friend Hermeias, he withdrew to Chalcis, where he 

 drank poison ; the other, by Apollodorus, that he 

 died of a disease in his stomach, in his sixty- third 

 year. Again, the thing is in itself unreasonable, 

 and therefore improbable ; for Aristotle was not so 

 apt to be vexed by the difficulty of accounting 

 for natural phenomena, nor is there any evidence 

 that he endeavoured to discover the ebb and flow 

 of the Euripus, for he has made no mention of 

 it in his works. Lastly, the phenomenon itself is 

 disputable ; and it appears from a comparison of 

 testimonies on the subject, that the stream in ques- 

 tion flows and ebbs only four times a-day, as is the 

 case with other parts of the sea, though it is sub- 

 ject to irregularities dependent upon the winds 

 and other causes. " However, therefore, Aris- 

 totle died," concludes our author, " what was his 

 end, or upon what occasion, although it be not al- 

 together assured, yet that his memory and worthy 

 name shall live, no man will deny, nor gratefull 

 schollar doubt : and if, according to the Elogie of 

 Solon, a man may be onely said to be happy after 

 he is dead, and ceaseth to be in the visible capacity 

 of beatitude : or if, according unto his own E thicks, 

 sence is not essentiall unto felicity, but a man may 

 be happy without the apprehension thereof; surely 

 in that sence he is pyramidally happy, nor can he 

 ever perish but in the Euripe of ignorance, or till 

 the torrent of barbarisme overwhelme all." 



