9n 
MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 
has any bearing. The whole treatise is a text-book 
of human feeling, — a storehouse of taste and intel- 
lectual gratification. 
The Poetics of Aristotle is a mere fragment, one 
book only remaining out of three of which the trea- 
tise originally consisted ; but, imperfect as it is, it has 
been uniformly regarded as the great authority of 
the laws of criticism in poetry. The portion extant 
is almost exclusively confined to the consideration 
of the drama. The remarks on Tragedy, Comedy, 
and the Epos, are singularly applicable to the prin- 
ciples of modern criticism ; making allowance for the 
difference of manners and opinions, and the dissimi- 
larity of taste which the advancement of society 
has created between the dramatic models of Athens, 
and those of the nineteenth century. The loss of 
this part of the work is the more to be regretted, as 
it most likely contained much valuable information 
concerning Greek writers, whose works, perhaps 
whose names, are now unknown. 
The Theoretic branch of Aristotle’s philosophy, 
comprehending Physics, Mathematics, and Meta- 
physics, is the most entertaining, but at the same 
time the most defective part of his works. The term 
Physics appears to have been understood in the 
Peripatetic School in a very extensive sense, com- 
prising the science of beings corporeal and incor- 
poreal, and also that of substance in general, with 
its attributes and properties, abstractly considered. 
What is now called Metaphysics, did not receive 
