48 
MEMOIR OP ARISTOTI.E. 
observation some have thought to savour too much 
of arrogance and self-conceit to have been made by 
Aristotle ; but whether it was ever uttered or not, 
his success soon demonstrated that he had not rated 
his scholastic talents too high. The Academy be- 
ing in the possession of his friend, he made choice 
of the Lycseum, a place which Pericles had prepared 
for the exercising of his soldiers, and which lay in 
the immediate suburbs of Athens, on the banks of 
the Uissus. It was well shaded with trees, and 
adorned with a temple of the Lycian Apollo. Here 
lie established a gymnasium, where he taught philo- 
sophy to such as had an inclination to hear his dis- 
courses. It was his custom to teach walking con- 
stantly every day along the shady avenue (or Peri- 
paton) of the temple, until the hour of anointing, 
which the Greeks generally performed before meals ; 
and from this habit his scholars and his philosophy 
derived the name of Peripatetic- His Acroatic lec- 
tures were given in the morning to those who were 
his regular pupils. A considerable part of them is 
still preserved in his works, which form an abstract 
or syllabus of treatises on the most important branches 
of speculative science. His Exoteric discourses were 
held after supper (always an early meal with the 
ancients), at which occasional visitors were admit- 
ted. They constituted the amusement of his even- 
ing walks ; for he thought exercise peculiarly useful 
after eating, for animating and invigorating the na- 
tural heat and strength, which the too rapid succes- 
