,62 - A R I -S T O T L E. 
but, not f«Cceedt|ig in this profeflton, he went to Delphos they were fold to-one Apelticon, a rich citizen of Atheiis* 
to co'nfult the oracle what courfe of life he fhould follow ; Sylla found them at this man’s houfe, and ordered them 
when he was advifed to go to Athens and (ludy philofo- 
phy. He accordingly went thither about eighteen years of 
age, and ftudied under Plato till life was thirty-feven. By 
tills time he had fpent his w hole fortune ; and we are told 
that he got iris living by felling powders, and forne receipts 
in pharmacy.. He followed his flu dies with moft extraor¬ 
dinary diligence, lo that Ire foon furpaffed all in Plato’s 
fcltool. He ate little, and flept lefs; and, that he might 
not over-deep himfelf, Diogenes Laertius tells us, that he 
lay always with one hand out of the bed, having a ball of 
brafs in it, which, by its falling into a bafon of the fame 
metal, awaked him. We are told, that Ariftotle had (e- 
Veral conferences with a learned Jew at Athens, and that 
by tliis means he inftrufted himfelf in the fciences and re¬ 
ligion of the Egyptians, and thereby faved himfelf the 
trouble of travelling into Egypt. When he had ftudied 
about fifteen years under Plato, he began to form different 
tenets from thofe of his mafter, who became highly piqued 
at his behaviour. Upon the death of Plato, he quittted 
Athens; and retired to Atarnya, a city of Myfia, where 
his friend Hermias reigned. Here he married Pythias, the 
tiller of this prince, whom he is faid to have loved fo 
paffionately, that he offered facrifice to her. Some time 
after, Hermias having been taken prifoner by Meranon the 
king of Perlia’s general, Ariflotle went to Mitylene the 
capital of Lefoos, where he remained till Philip king of 
Macedon, having heard of his great reputation, fent for 
him lo be tutor to his fon Alexander, then about fourteen 
years of age: Ariffotle accepted the offer; and in eight 
years taught him rhetoric, natural philofophy, ethics, po¬ 
litics, and a certain fort of philofophy, according to Plu¬ 
tarch, which he taught nobody elfe. Philip erected fta- 
tues in honour of Ariftotle; and for his fake rebuilt Sta- 
gyra, which had been almoft ruined by the wars. 
The laft fourteen years of his life he fpent moflly at 
Athens, furrounded with every affiftance which men and 
books couldktfford him for profecuting his philofophical 
enquiries. The magifirates gave him the Lycaeum for 
his fchool, fo famous afterwards for the number of his 
difciples; and here he compofed many of his principal 
works. The glory of Alexander’s name, which then fill¬ 
ed the world, infured tranquillity and refpect to the man 
. whom he diftinguifhed as his friend : but, after the pre¬ 
mature death of that illufirious protestor, the invidious 
jealoufy of priefls and fophifls inflamed the malignant and 
fuperftitious fury of the Athenian populace, and the fame 
odious pafiions w hich proved fatal to the offenfive virtue 
of Socrates fiercely affailed the fame and merit of Arif¬ 
totle. To avoid the cruelty of perfecutjon, he fecretly 
withdrew to Chalcis in Euboea. This meafure was fuffi- 
ciently juftitied by a prudent regard to his perfonal fafety ; 
but, left his conduct fhould appear unmanly, when con- 
trafted with the firmnefs of Socrates in a fimilar lituation, 
he condefcended to apologize for his flight, by faying, that 
he was unwilling to afford the Athenians a fecond oppor¬ 
tunity “ to fin againft philofophy.” He feems to have fur- 
vived his retreat from Athens only a few months ; vexa¬ 
tion and regret probably ended his days. It is faid, that he 
threw himfelf into the fea, becaufe he was not able to ac¬ 
count for the ebbing and flowing thereof. 
Befides his treatifes on philofophy, he wrote alfo on poe¬ 
try, rhetoric, law, &c. to the number of 400 treatifes, ac¬ 
cording to Diogenes Laertius; or more, according to Fra. 
Patricius of Venice. An account of fuch as are extant, 
and of thole faid to be loft, may be feen in Fabricius’s 
Bibliotheca Grtzca. He left his writings with Theophraftus, 
his difciple and fuccelfor in the Lycteum ; and forbade that 
they lhould ever be publilhed. Theophraftus, at his death, 
trufted them to Helens his friend and difciple ; whofe heirs 
buried them in the ground at Scepfis, a town of Troas, to 
fee are them from the king of Pergamus, who made great 
fearch every where for books to adorn his library. Here 
theyday concealed 160 years, until, being almoft fpoiled, 
to be carried to Rome. They were fome time after pur- 
chafed' by Tyrannion, the grammarian : and Androriicu.s 
of Rhodes, having bought them of his heirs, was in a man¬ 
ner the firft reftorer of the works of this great philofopher : 
for he not only repaired what had been decayed by time 
and ill-keeping, but alfo put them in a better order, and 
got them copied. There were many who followed the 
doffrine of Ariftotle in the reigns of the twelve Csefars, 
and their numbers increafed under Adrian and Antoninus : 
Alexander Aphrodinus was the firft profefforof the Peri¬ 
patetic philofophy at Rome, being appointed by the em¬ 
perors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus; and in fuc- 
ceeding ages the dodlrine of Ariftotle has prevailed among 
almoft all men of letters, and many commentaries were 
written upon his works. 
The firft doTors of the church difapproved of the doc¬ 
trine of Ariftotle, as allowing too much to reafon and fenfe ; 
but Anatolius bifnop of Laodicea, Didynms of Alexan¬ 
dria, St. Jerome, St. Auguftin, and feveral others, at length 
wrote and fpoke in favour of it. In the fixth age, Boethius 
made him known in the weft, and tranflated fome of his 
pieces into Latin. But, from the time of Boethius to the 
eighth age, Johannes Damafcenus was the only man who 
made an abridgement of his philofophy, or wrote any thing 
concerning him. The Grecians, who took great pains to 
rellore learning in the eleventh and following ages, applied 
much to the works of this philofopher, and many learn¬ 
ed men wrote commentaries on his writings: amongft thefe 
were Alfarabius, Algazel, Avicenna, and Averroes. They 
taught his doftrine in Africa, and afterwards at Cordova 
in Spain. The Spaniards introduced his dodtrine into 
France, with the commentaries of Averroes and Avicen¬ 
na ; and it was taught in the univerfity of Paris, until 
Amauri, having fupported forne particular tenets on the 
principles of this philofopher, was condemned of herefy, 
in a council held there in 1210, when all the works of 
Ariftotle that could be found were burnt, and the reading 
of them forbidden under pain of excommunication. This 
prohibition was confirmed, as to phyfics and metaphyfics, 
in 1215, by the pope’s legate ; though at the fame time he 
gave leave for his logic to be read, inftead of St. Auguf- 
tin’s ufed at that time in the univerfity. In the year 1265, 
Simon, cardinal of St. Cecil, and legate from the holy fee, 
prohibited the reading of the phyfics and metaphyfics of 
Ariftotle. All thefe prohibitions, however, were taken 
off’ in 1366; for the cardinals of St. Mark and St. Mar¬ 
tin, who were deputed by pope Urban V. to reform the 
univerfity of Paris, permitted the reading of thofe books 
which had been prohibited ; and, in the year 1448, pope 
Stephen approved of all his works, and took care to have 
a new tranfiation of them into Latin. 
Of the celebrated Poetic of Ariftotle, a correct and fu- 
perb edition was given in 1795, from the Clarendon prefs, 
edited by the learned and ingenious*Mr. Tyrwhitt; who, 
however, did not live to fee its entire completion. The 
interefting nature of this celebrated work, as containing 
an illuftration of the principles of the fineft compofitions 
of the Grecian mufe, cannot pafs unnoticed by the man of 
tafte, as affording him the mod accurate principles by 
which he may judge and diferiminate; but above all we 
would recommend it to our modern play-wrights. Arifto¬ 
tle fays, Ap%s pen xca 01 ov 0 fjcvOo; rsi; T%ctyuhc<.<;, and 
fxiyifov ($£—n nccxit or^ccyfjt.a.Tuv avru.? i;. “ The fable is the 
very life and foul of the drama,” and “ its proper con- 
ftrudtion the principal and mod important point.” How 
little it is fo confidered by the prefent race of dramatifts, 
their loofely-planned ftories and improbable plots yield a 
a lamentable proof. Extravagant character, meagre fa¬ 
ble, and ill-connedted incident, feem to be the prevailing- 
features of thefe crude compofitions. We wifli, therefore 5 
to recall their attention to this golden rule of the Stagyrite^ 
that it may operate to the reform of this vicious tafte, and, 
together with his other genuine precepts, may bring back 
our 
