8 
MEMOIR OP ARISTOTLE. 
pular, that the Stagnate did precisely ivhat he is 
clamed by Lord Bacon, Hobbes, Malebranche, and 
other French philosophers, for not doing. The au- 
thor of the Leviathan frequently combats, under the 
name of the Peripatetic philosophy, abstract essences, 
substantial forms, and innumerable other doctrines, 
metaphysical as well as moral and political, with 
nearly the same arguments by which Aristotle, their 
supposed author, had long before victoriously re- 
futed them. The evil of confounding the simpli- 
city of this philosophy with ' Platonism, was igno- 
rantly perpetuated from age to age, through a suc- 
cession of critics and commentators, not excepting 
the latest of them all, Mr Harris and Lord Mon- 
boddo, who perpetually ascribe to Aristotle the doc- 
trine of general ideas, which he repeatedly and for- 
mally denied. His logic was misrepresented by 
Locke and Lord Karnes ; and even Dr Reid speaks 
of him harshly, as having purposely obscured his 
analytical rules by unmeaning illustrations. But 
wherever his principles and tenets have been studied 
with a competent degree of honesty and informa- 
tion, they have never failed to produce a conviction 
of their soundness and perspicuity; and, at the same 
time, an admiration for the wonderful discoveries 
and attainments in a man deemed the wisest of an- 
tiquity, ami to whom, even in modem times, it will 
be easier to name many superiors in particular 
branches of knowledge, than to find any one rival in 
universal science. 
