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books have come down to us is, undoubtedly, the Greek 

 philosopher, Aristotle. He was born in 384 B.C., and lived at 

 the time of the Macedonian supremacy. His father was 

 physician to King Philip of Macedon, while he himself 

 became later tutor to Alexander the Great. Thus he was a 

 man of some importance, and enjoyed during most of his 

 life the favour of the Royal House of Macedon, which then 

 practically swayed the balance of affairs at Athens, in which 

 city Aristotle spent the most fruitful years of his life. He 

 studied philosophy for some years under Plato, and subse- 

 quently founded a school of his own. Before the days of 

 books, to form a school was the best way for a scholar or 

 philosopher to make his views known to the world. It 

 appears that it was during the time that Aristotle carried on 

 his famous academy that most of his treatises were written. 

 This was towards the end of his life. For after the death of 

 Alexander the Great the Macedonian party lost favour in 

 Athens, and Aristotle was charged with impiety — a charge 

 which the Athenians seem to have been fond of bringing 

 against anyone whom they desired to get rid of. He left 

 Athens and went to Chalcis, where he shortly afterwards 

 died, B.C. 322. 



Aristotle left his writings to Theophrastus, his favourite 

 pupil and his successor in his academy. After the death of 

 the latter these treatises met with varied fortune ; at one 

 period lying concealed in a vault at Scepsis in Asia Minor, 

 but they subsequently arrived at Rome, where they met with 

 a more deserved fate. The treatises of Aristotle which gave 

 him perhaps the greatest renown, such as the " Rhetoric " or 

 " Metaphysics," do not concern us here, and of his treatises 

 on natural history that entitled " Researches about Animals," 

 in ten books, is perhaps the most interesting. Considering 

 the unsettled times he lived in, and the poor means he had 

 of studying natural history, his works are marvellous, and, 

 as we shall see, they remained the standard works on the 

 subject for centuries afterwards. As I quoted a few words 

 from Homer and Hesiod, so I will give you an ensample of 

 Aristotle in a few sentences : 



" Nature passes so gradually from inanimate to animate 

 things, that from their uninterrupted connection their 

 boundary and the mean between them is indistinct. The 

 race of plants succeeds immediately that of inanimate 

 objects. Compared with other bodies plants appear to 

 possess life, though when compared with animals they 

 appear inanimate. For a person might question to which 



