54 
MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 
titles of above 200 treatises, only a few of which 
are extant. The fame of the Lycmum, which the 
Stagirite himself had maintained unimpaired through 
life, was amply sustained by his successor, whose 
increasing reputation soon attracted an audience of 
2000 scholars. His friendship was courted by some 
of the most powerful kings and princes of his time, 
amongst whom were Cassander and Ptolemy, who 
had succeeded Alexander on the thrones of Macedon 
and Egypt. 
Aristotle did not long survive his retirement to 
the shores of Euboea. He died within twelve 
months after leaving Athens ; persecution and exile 
having probably shortened his days, as he was only 
in his sixty-third year. The manner of his death, 
like various circumstances in his life, gave rise to 
many false and contradictory reports. St Justin 
says that he died of shame and vexation at not be- 
ing able to explain the cause of the tides in the Eu- 
ripus, an arm of the sea on which Chalcis stood, 
and which, as Lucian avers, ebbed and flowed seven 
times in twenty-four hours. Upon this assertion 
has been engrafted the puerile story, that he threw 
himself into the waves in despair, exclaiming, “ Eu- 
ripus shall take Aristotle, since Aristotle cannot 
comprehend Euripus.” Suidas states that he poi- 
soned himself by drinking hemlock — an assertion at 
variance with truth, and rendered altogether impro- 
bable, from the fact, that in his writings the Stagirite 
always speaks of suicide as a shameful and cowardly 
