the enemies of philosophy many an occasion to blaspheme, while in certain respects he was even pompous and able to indulge in arrogance. He left very many memoirs, and also sayings of useful application. For example, when he was reproached for not paying court to a youth, his excuse was, "You can't get hold of a soft cheese with a hook."
Being once asked who suffers most from anxiety, he replied, "He who is ambitious of the greatest prosperity." Being consulted by some one as to whether he should marry--for this story is also told of Bion-- he made answer, "If the wife you marry be ugly, she will be your bane; if beautiful, you will not keep her to yourself." Cf. infra, vi.
3. He called old age the harbour of all ills; at least they all take refuge there. Renown he called the mother of virtues; beauty another's good; wealth the sinews of success.
To some one who had devoured his patrimony he said, "The earth swallowed Amphiaraus, but you have swallowed your land." To be unable to bear an ill is itself a great ill. He used to condemn those who burnt men alive as if they could not feel, and yet cauterized them as if they could.
He used repeatedly to say that to grant favours to another was preferable to enjoying the favours of others.
For the latter means ruin to both body and soul.
He even abused Socrates, declaring that, if he felt desire for Alcibiades and abstained, he was a fool; if he did not, his conduct was in no way remarkable. The road to Hades, he used to say, was easy to travel; at any rate men passed away with their eyes shut.
He said in censure of Alcibiades that in his boyhood he drew away the husbands from their wives, and as a young man the wives from their husbands. When the Athenians were absorbed in the practice of rhetoric, he taught philosophy at Rhodes. To some one who found fault with him for this he replied, "How can I sell barley when what I brought to market is wheat?"
He used to say that those in Hades would be more severely punished if the vessels in which they drew water were whole instead of being pierced with holes. To an importunate talker who wanted his help he said, "I will satisfy your demand, if you will only get others to plead your cause and stay away yourself." On a voyage in bad company he fell in with pirates. When his companions said, "We are lost if we are discovered," "And I too," he replied, "unless I am discovered." Conceit he styled a hindrance to progress. Referring to a wealthy miser he said, "He has not acquired a fortune; the fortune has acquired him." Misers, he said, took care of property as if it belonged to them, but derived no more benefit from it than if it belonged to others.
"When we are young," said he, "we are courageous, but it is only in old age that prudence is at its height."
Prudence, he said, excels the other virtues as much as sight excels the other senses. He used to say that we ought not to heap reproaches on old age, seeing that, as he said, we all hope to reach it. To a slanderer who showed a grave face his words were, "I don't know whether you have met with ill luck, or your neighbour with good." He used to say that low birth made a bad partner for free speech, for-- It cows a man, however bold his heart. Eur.
Hipp. 424.
We ought, he remarked, to watch our friends and see what manner of men they are, in order that we may not be thought to associate with the bad or to decline the friendship of the good.
Bion at the outset used to deprecate the Academic doctrines, i.e. he had his doubts.
Reiske, however, by his conjecture proh/|rhto gives the statement a totally different turn, viz. that Bion had at the outset preferred the Academy. even at the time when he was a pupil of Crates. Then he adopted the Cynic discipline, donning cloak and wallet.
For little else was needed to convert him to the doctrine of entire insensibility.
Next he went over to Theodorean views, after he had heard the lectures of Theodorus the Atheist, who used every kind of sophistical argument. And after Theodorus he attended the lectures of Theophrastus the Peripatetic. He was fond of display and great at cutting up anything with a jest, using vulgar names for things. Because he employed every style of speech in combination, Eratosthenes, we hear, said of him that he was the first to deck philosophy with bright-flowered robes. He was clever also at parody. Here is a specimen of his style: O gentle Archytas, musician-born, blessed in thine own conceit, most skilled of men to stir the bass of strife. Cf. Hom.
Il. iii. 182 o)lbio/daimon. The address pa/ntwn in Il. i. 146 and xviii. 170.
And in general he made sport of music and geometry.
He lived extravagantly, and for this reason he would move from one city to another, sometimes contriving to make a great show. Thus at Rhodes he persuaded the sailors to put on students' garb and follow in his train. And when, attended by them, he made his way into the gymnasium, all eyes were fixed on him. It was his custom also to adopt certain young men for the gratification of his appetite and in order that he might be protected by their goodwill. See, however, supra, 49. He was extremely selfish and insisted strongly on the maxim that "friends share in common." And hence it came about that he is not credited with a single disciple, out of all the crowds who attended his lectures. And yet there were some who followed his lead in shamelessness.
For instance, Betion, one of his intimates, is said once to have addressed Menedemus in these words: "For my part, Menedemus, I pass the night with Bion, and I don't think I am any the worse for it." In his familiar talk he would often vehemently assail belief in the gods, a taste which he had derived from Theodorus. Afterwards, when he fell ill (so it was said by the people of Chalcis where he died), he was persuaded to wear an amulet and to repent of his offences against religion. And even for want of nurses he was in a sad plight, until Antigonus sent him two servants. And it is stated by Favorinus in his Miscellaneous History that the king himself followed in a litter.
Even so he died, and in these lines Anth.
Plan. v. 37. I have taken him to task: We hear that Bion, to whom the Scythian land of Borysthenes gave birth, denied that the gods really exist. Had he persisted in holding this opinion, it would have been right to say, "He thinks as he pleases: wrongly, to be sure, but still he does think so." But in fact, when he fell ill of a lingering disease and feared death, he who denied the existence of the gods, and would not even look at a temple, who often mocked at mortals for sacrificing to deities, not only over hearth and high altars and table, with sweet savour and fat and incense did he gladden the nostrils of the gods; nor was he content to say "I have sinned, forgive the past," but he cheerfully allowed an old woman to put a charm round his neck, and in full faith bound his arms with leather and placed the rhamnus and the laurel-branch over the door, being ready to submit to anything sooner than die.
Fool for wishing that the divine favour might be purchased at a certain price, as if the gods existed just when Bion chose to recognize them! It was then with vain wisdom that, when the driveller was all ashes, he stretched out his hand and said "Hail, Pluto, hail!"
Ten men have borne the name of Bion: (1) the contemporary of Pherecydes of Syria, to whom are assigned two books in the Ionic dialect; he was of Proconnesus; (2) a Syracusan, who wrote rhetorical handbooks; (3) our philosopher; (4) a follower of Democritus and mathematician of Abdera, who wrote both in Attic and in Ionic: he was the first to affirm that there are places where the night lasts for six months and the day for six months Possibly Pytheas of Massilia in his "Northern Voyage" had had experience of Arctic winters and summers.; (5) a native of Soli, who wrote a work on Aethiopia; (6) a rhetorician, the author of nine books called after the Muses; (7) a lyric poet; (8) a Milesian sculptor, mentioned by Polemo; (9) a tragic poet, one of the poets of Tarsus, as they are called; (10) a sculptor of Clazomenae or Chios, mentioned by Hipponax.
Chapter 8. LACYDES (Head of the Academy c. 242-216 B.C.)
Lacydes, son of Alexander, was a native of Cyrene He was the founder of the New Academy and the successor of Arcesilaus: a man of very serious character who found numerous admirers; industrious from his youth up and, though poor, of pleasant manners and pleasant conversation. A most amusing story is told of his housekeeping. Whenever he brought anything out of the store-room, he would seal the door up again and throw his signet-ring inside through the opening, to ensure that nothing laid up there should be stolen or carried off. So soon, then, as his rogues of servants got to know this, they broke the seal and carried off what they pleased, afterwards throwing the ring in the same way through the opening into the store-room. Nor were they ever detected in this.
Lacydes used to lecture in the Academy, in the garden which had been laid out by King Attalus, and from him it derived its name of Lacydeum. He did what none of his predecessors had ever done; in his lifetime he handed over the school to Telecles and Evander, both of Phocaea. Evander was succeeded by Hegesinus of Pergamum, and he again by Carneades. A good saying is attributed to Lacydes.
When Attalus sent for him, he is said to have remarked that statues are best seen from a distance.
He stadied geometry late, and some one said to him, "Is this a proper time?" To which he replied, "Nay, is it not even yet the proper time?"
He assumed the headship of the school in the fourth year of the 134th Olympiad, July 241-June 240 b.c. and at his death he had been head for twenty-six years. His end was a palsy brought on by drinking too freely. And here is a quip of my own upon the fact Anth.
Pal. vii. 105.: Of thee too, O Lacydes, I have heard a tale, that Bacchus seized thee and dragged thee on tip-toe Or "with trailing toes." The vases show bodies carried in the arms or flung over the shoulders with the toes just touching the ground. to the underworld.
Nay, was it not clear that when the wine-god comes in force into the frame, he loosens our limbs? Perhaps this is why he gets his name of the Loosener.
Carneades, the son of Epicomus or (according to Alexander in his Successions of Philosophers ） of Philocomus, was a native of Cyrene. He studied carefully the writings of the Stoics and particularly those of Chrysippus, and by combating these successfully he became so famous that he would often say: Without Chrysippus where should I have been?
The man's industry was unparalleled, although in physics he was not so strong as in ethics. Hence he would let his hair and nails grow long from intense devotion to study. Such was his predominance in philosophy that even the rhetoricians would dismiss their classes and repair to him to hear him lecture.
His voice was extremely powerful, so that the keeper of the gymnasium sent to him and requested him not to shout so loud. To which he replied, "Then give me something by which to regulate my voice." Thereupon by a happy hit the man replied in the words, "You have a regulator in your audience." His talent for criticizing opponents was remarkable, and he was a formidable controversialist.
And for the reasons already given he further declined invitations to dine out. One of his pupils was Mentor the Bithynian, who tried to ingratiate himself with a concubine of Carneades; so on one occasion (according to Favorinus in his Miscellaneous History ), when Mentor came to lecture, Carneades in the course of his remarks let fall these lines by way of parody at his expense: Hither comes an old man of the sea, infallible, like to Mentor in person and in voice. Carneades applies two lines from the Odyssey, namely iv. 384 and (with a change to the masculine participle) ii. 268 or 401. Him I proclaim to have been banished from this school.
Thereupon the other got up and replied: Those on their part made proclamation, and these speedily assembled. Hom.
Il. ii. 52.
He seems to have shown some want of courage in the face of death, repeating often the words, "Nature which framed this whole will also destroy it." When he learnt that Antipater committed suicide by drinking a potion, he was greatly moved by the constancy with which he met his end, and exclaimed, "Give it then to me also." And when those about him asked "What?" "A honeyed draught," said he. At the time he died the moon is said to have been eclipsed, and one might well say that the brightest luminary in heaven next to the sun thereby gave token of her sympathy.
According to Apollodorus in his Chronology, he departed this life in the fourth year of the 162nd Olympiad 129-128 b.c. at the age of eighty-five years. Letters of his to Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia, are extant.
Everything else was compiled by his pupils; he himself left nothing in writing. I have written upon him in logaoedic metre as follows Anth.
Plan. v. 39.: Why, Muse, oh why wouldst thou have me censure Carneades? For he is ignorant who knoweth not how he feared death. When wasting away with the worst of diseases, he would not find release. But when he heard that Antipater's life was quenched by drinking a potion, "Give me too," he cried, "a draught to drink." "What?
pray what?" "Give me a draught of honeyed wine."
He had often on his lips the words, "Nature which holds this frame together will surely dissolve it." None the less he too went down to the grave, and he might have got there sooner by cutting short his tale of woes.
It is said that his eyes went blind at night without his knowing it, and he ordered the slave to light the lamp. The latter brought it and said, "Here it is."
"Then," said Carneades, "read."
He had many other disciples, but the most illustrious of them all was Clitomachus, of whom we have next to speak.
There was another Carneades, a frigid elegiac poet.
Chapter 10. CLITOMACHUS (Head of the Academy from 129 B.C.)
Clitomachus was a Carthaginian, his real name being Hasdrubal, and he taught philosophy at Carthage in his native tongue. He had reached his fortieth year when he went to Athens and became a pupil of Carneades. And Carneades, recognizing his industry, caused him to be educated and took part in training him. And to such lengths did his diligence go that he composed more than four hundred treatises. He succeeded Carneades in the headship of the school, and by his writings did much to elucidate his opinions. He was eminently well acquainted with the three sects--the Academy, the Peripatetics, and the Stoics.
The Academics in general are assailed by Timon in the line: The prolixity of the Academics unseasoned by salt.
Having thus reviewed the Academics who derived from Plato, we will now pass on to the Peripatetics, who also derived from Plato. They begin with Aristotle.
BOOK V Aristotle, son of Nicomachus and Phaestis, was a native of Stagira. His father, Nicomachus, as Hermippus relates in his book On Aristotle, traced his descent from Nicomachus who was the son of Machaon and grandson of Asclepius; and he resided with Amyntas, the king of Macedon, in the capacity of physician and friend. Aristotle was Plato's most genuine disciple; he spoke with a lisp, as we learn from Timotheus the Athenian in his book On Lives; further, his calves were slender (so they say), his eyes small, and he was conspicuous by his attire, his rings, and the cut of his hair. According to Timaeus, he had a son by Herpyllis, his concubine, who was also called Nicomachus.
He seceded from the Academy while Plato was still alive. Hence the remark attributed to the latter: "Aristotle spurns me, as colts kick out at the mother who bore them." Cf. Aelian, V.H. iv. 9. Hermippus in his Lives mentions that he was absent as Athenian envoy at the court of Philip when Xenocrates became head of the Academy, and that on his return, when he saw the school under a new head, he made choice of a public walk in the Lyceum where he would walk up and down discussing philosophy with his pupils until it was time to rub themselves with oil. Hence the name "Peripatetic." But others say that it was given to him because, when Alexander was recovering from an illness and taking daily walks, Aristotle joined him and talked with him on certain matters.
In time the circle about him grew larger; he then sat down to lecture, remarking Eur.
Philoct. Frag. 785 Dind., 796 Nauck 2.: It were base to keep silence and let Xenocrates Most authorities put Isocrates here in place of Xenocrates. speak.
He also taught his pupils to discourse upon a set theme, besides practising them in oratory. Afterwards, however, he departed to Hermias the eunuch, who was tyrant of Atarneus, and there is one story that he was on very affectionate terms with Hermias; according to another, Hermias bound him by ties of kinship, giving him his daughter or his niece in marriage, and so Demetrius of Magnesia narrates in his work on Poets and Writers of the Same Name.
The same author tells us that Hermias had been the slave of Eubulus, and that he was of Bithynian origin and had murdered his master. Aristippus in his first book On the Luxury of the Ancients says that Aristotle fell in love with a concubine of Hermias, and married her with his consent, and in an excess of delight sacrificed to a weak woman as the Athenians did to Demeter of Eleusis This story comes ultimately from Lyco the Pythagorean; cf. Aristocles.
Cf. Euseb.
Praep. Ev. xv. 2 § 5 fhsi\ ga\r This version is irreconcilable with ; and that he composed a paean in honour of Hermias, which is given below; next that he stayed in Macedonia at Philip's court and received from him his son Alexander as his pupil; that he petitioned Alexander to restore his native city which had been destroyed by Philip and obtained his request; and that he also drew up a code of laws for the inhabitants. We learn further that, following the example of Xenocrates, he made it a rule in his school that every ten days a new president should be appointed. When he thought that he had stayed long enough with Alexander, he departed to Athens, having first presented to Alexander his kinsman Callisthenes of Olynthus.
But when Callisthenes talked with too much freedom to the king and disregarded his own advice, Aristotle is said to have rebuked him by citing the line Hom.
Il.
xviii. 95.: Short-lived, I ween, wilt thou be, my child, by what thou sayest.
And so indeed it fell out. For he, being suspected of complicity in the plot of Hermolaus against the life of Alexander, was confined in an iron cage and carried about until he became infested with vermin through lack of proper attention; and finally he was thrown to a lion and so met his end.
To return to Aristotle: he came to Athens, was head of his school for thirteen years, and then withdrew to Chalcis because he was indicted for impiety by Eurymedon the hierophant, or, according to Favorinus As in ii. 78, iii. 19 and v. 77, Favorinus is curious to state the names of the accusers of philosophers put upon trial.
in his Miscellaneous History, by Demophilus, the ground of the charge being the hymn he composed to the aforesaid Hermias, as well as the following inscription for his statue at Delphi Anth. Plan. iii. 48.: This man in violation of the hallowed law of the immortals was unrighteously slain by the king of the bow-bearing Persians, who overcame him, not openly with a spear in murderous combat, but by treachery with the aid of one in whom he trusted.
At Chalcis he died, according to Eumelus in the fifth book of his Histories, by drinking aconite, at the age of seventy. The same authority makes him thirty years old when he came to Plato; but here he is mistaken. For Aristotle lived to be sixty-three, and he was seventeen when he became Plato's pupil.
The hymn in question runs as follows: O virtue, toilsome for the generation of mortals to achieve, the fairest prize that life can win, for thy beauty, O virgin, it were a doom glorious in Hellas even to die and to endure fierce, untiring labours. Such courage dost thou implant in the mind, imperishable, better than gold, dearer than parents or soft-eyed sleep. For thy sake Heracles, son of Zeus, and the sons of Leda endured much in the tasks whereby they pursued thy might.
And yearning after thee came Achilles and Ajax to the house of Hades, and for the sake of thy dear form the nursling of Atarneus too was bereft of the light of the sun. Therefore shall his deeds be sung, and the Muses, the daughters of Memory, shall make him immortal, exalting the majesty of Zeus, guardian of strangers, and the grace of lasting friendship.
There is, too, something of my own upon the philosopher which I will quote Anth.
Pal. vii. 107.: Eurymedon, the priest of Deo's mysteries, was once about to indict Aristotle for impiety, but he, by a draught of poison, escaped prosecution. This then was an easy way of vanquishing unjust calumnies.
Favorinus in his Miscellaneous History affirms that Aristotle was the first to compose a forensic speech in his own defence written for this very suit; and he cites him as saying that at Athens Hom.
Od. vii. 120.
Pear upon pear grows old and fig upon fig. There must have been a chapter in Favorinus dealing with "inventions."
According to Apollodorus in his Chronology he was born in the first year of the 99th Olympiad. 384-383 b.c.
He attached himself to Plato and resided with him twenty years, having become his pupil at the age of seventeen. He went to Mitylene in the archonship of Eubulus in the fourth year of the 108th Olympiad. 345-344 b.c.
When Plato died in the first year of that Olympiad, 347-346 b.c.
during the archonship of Theophilus, he went to Hermias and stayed with him three years.
In the archonship of Pythodotus, in the second year of the 109th Olympiad, 342-341 b.c. he went to the court of Philip, Alexander being then in his fifteenth year. His arrival at Athens was in the second year of the 111th Olympiad, 335-334 b.c. and he lectured in the Lyceum for thirteen years; then he retired to Chalcis in the third year of the 114th Olympiad 322-321 b.c. and died a natural death, at the age of about sixty-three, in the archonship of Philocles, in the same year in which Demosthenes died at Calauria. It is said that he incurred the king's displeasure because he had introduced Callisthenes to him, and that Alexander, in order to cause him annoyance, honoured Anaximenes No doubt Anaximenes of Lampsacus ( cf.
supra, ii. § 3), to whom is attributed the Rhetorica ad Alexandrum, which has come down to us in the Aristotelian Corpus. and sent presents to Xenocrates.
Theocritus of Chios, according to Ambryon in his book On Theocritus, ridiculed him in an epigram which runs as follows Anth. Plan. ii.
46.: To Hermias the eunuch, the slave withal of Eubulus, an empty monument was raised by empty-witted Aristotle, who by constraint of a lawless appetite chose to dwell at the mouth of the Borborus [muddy stream] rather than in the Academy.
Timon again attacked him in the line Frag. 36 D.: No, nor yet Aristotle's painful futility. Cf. Hom.
Il. xxiii.
701.
Such then was the life of the philosopher. I have also come across his will, which is worded thus: "All will be well; but, in case anything should happen, Aristotle has made these dispositions.
Antipater is to be executor in all matters and in general; but, until Nicanor shall arrive, Aristomenes, Timarchus, Hipparchus, Dioteles and (if he consent and if circumstances permit him) Theophrastus shall take charge as well of Herpyllis and the children as of the property. And when the girl shall be grown up she shall be given in marriage to Nicanor; but if anything happen to the girl (which heaven forbid and no such thing will happen) before her marriage, or when she is married but before there are children, Nicanor shall have full powers, both with regard to the child and with regard to everything else, to administer in a manner worthy both of himself and of us. Nicanor shall take charge of the girl and of the boy Nicomachus as he shall think fit in all that concerns them as if he were father and brother.
And if anything should happen to Nicanor (which heaven forbid!) either before he marries the girl, or when he has married her but before there are children, any arrangements that he may make shall be valid.
And if Theophrastus is willing to live with her, he shall have the same rights as Nicanor. Otherwise the executors in consultation with Antipater shall administer as regards the daughter and the boy as seems to them to be best. The executors and Nicanor, in memory of me and of the steady affection which Herpyllis has borne towards me, shall take care of her in every other respect and, if she desires to be married, shall see that she be given to one not unworthy; and besides what she has already received they shall give her a talent of silver out of the estate and three handmaids whomsoever she shall choose besides the maid she has at present and the man-servant Pyrrhaeus; and if she chooses to remain at Chalcis, the lodge by the garden, if in Stagira, my father's house. Whichever of these two houses she chooses, the executors shall furnish with such furniture as they think proper and as Herpyllis herself may approve. Nicanor shall take charge of the boy Myrmex, that he be taken to his own friends in a manner worthy of me with the property of his which we received. Ambracis shall be given her freedom, and on my daughter's marriage shall receive 500 drachmas and the maid whom she now has. And to Thale shall be given, in addition to the maid whom she has and who was bought, a thousand drachmas and a maid.
And Simon, in addition to the money before paid to him towards another servant, shall either have a servant purchased for him or receive a further sum of money. And Tycho, Philo, Olympius and his child shall have their freedom when my daughter is married. None of the servants who waited upon me shall be sold but they shall continue to be employed; and when they arrive at the proper age they shall have their freedom if they deserve it. My executors shall see to it, when the images which Gryllion has been commissioned to execute are finished, that they be set up, namely that of Nicanor, that of Proxenus, which it was my intention to have executed, and that of Nicanor's mother; also they shall set up the bust which has been executed of Arimnestus, to be a memorial of him seeing that he died childless, and shall dedicate my mother's statue to Demeter at Nemea or wherever they think best. And wherever they bury me, there the bones of Pythias shall be laid, in accordance with her own instructions. And to commemorate Nicanor's safe return, as I vowed on his behalf, they shall set up in Stagira stone statues of life size to Zeus and Athena the Saviours." The last clause was curiously misunderstood by three eminent authorities on Aristotle, namely Grant, Grote and Zeller, who took zw=|a tetraph/xh to mean "four animal figures," instead of "figures four cubits high"; see Journ.
of Phil. vol. xxxii. 303. The article "Verify your quotations," although modestly followed by two asterisks, was written, I believe, by the late Ingram Bywater, then one of the editors of the journal. This concession by Aristotle to the popular faith (for the statues from their size seem those of deities) some critics regard with suspicion, because they see in it a resemblance to the last words of Socrates (Plato, Phaedo, 118). Accordingly they are disposed to doubt the genuineness of the will. But see C. G. Bruns, Kl.
Schrift.
ii. 192 sqq.; H. Diels, Philos.
Aufsätze, 231 sqq.; B. Laum, Stiftungen in der griech. u. röm.
Antike.
Such is the tenor of Aristotle's will. It is said that a very large number of dishes belonging to him were found, and that Lyco mentioned his bathing in a bath of warm oil and then selling the oil. Some relate that he placed a skin of warm oil on his stomach, and that, when he went to sleep, a bronze ball was placed in his hand with a vessel under it, in order that, when the ball dropped from his hand into the vessel, he might be waked up by the sound. Next come ( b ） the catalogue of his writings (§§ 21-27); Some exceedingly happy sayings are attributed to him, which I proceed to quote. To the question, "What do people gain by telling lies?" his answer was, "Just this, that when they speak the truth they are not believed." Being once reproached for giving alms to a bad man, he rejoined, "It was the man and not his character that I pitied."
Cf. infra, § 21.
He used constantly to say to his friends and pupils, whenever or wherever he happened to be lecturing, "As sight takes in light from the surrounding air, so does the soul from mathematics." Frequently and at some length he would say that the Athenians were the discoverers of wheat and of laws; but, though they used wheat, they had no use for laws.
"The roots of education," he said, "are bitter, but the fruit is sweet." Being asked, "What is it that soon grows old?" he answered, "Gratitude."
He was asked to define hope, and he replied, "It is a waking dream." When Diogenes offered him dried figs, he saw that he had prepared something caustic to say if he did not take them; so he took them and said Diogenes had lost his figs and his jest into the bargain. And on another occasion he took them when they were offered, lifted them up aloft, as you do babies, and returned them with the exclamation, "Great is Diogenes." Three things he declared to be indispensable for education: natural endowment, study, and constant practice. On hearing that some one abused him, he rejoined, "He may even scourge me so it be in my absence." Beauty he declared to be a greater recommendation than any letter of introduction.
Others attribute this definition to Diogenes; Aristotle, they say, defined good looks as the gift of god, Socrates as a short-lived reign, Plato as natural superiority, Theophrastus as a mute deception, Theocritus as an evil in an ivory setting, Carneades as a monarchy that needs no bodyguard.
Being asked how the educated differ from the uneducated, "As much," he said, "as the living from the dead." Cf. supra, i. § 69, ii.
§ 69.
He used to declare education to be an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
Teachers who educated children deserved, he said, more honour than parents who merely gave them birth; for bare life is furnished by the one, the other ensures a good life. To one who boasted that he belonged to a great city his reply was, "That is not the point to consider, but who it is that is worthy of a great country."
To the query, "What is a friend?" his reply was, "A single soul dwelling in two bodies." Mankind, he used to say, were divided into those who were as thrifty as if they would live for ever, and those who were as extravagant as if they were going to die the next day. When some one inquired why we spend much time with the beautiful, "That," he said, "is a blind man's question." When asked what advantage he had ever gained from philosophy, he replied, "This, that I do without being ordered what some are constrained to do by their fear of the law." Cicero ascribed a similar reply to Xenocrates: "ut id sua sponte facerent, quod cogerentur facere legibus" (Cic.
De rep.
i. § 3). The question being put, how can students make progress, he replied, "By pressing hard on those in front and not waiting for those behind." To the chatterbox who poured out a flood of talk upon him and then inquired, "Have I bored you to death with my chatter?" he replied, "No, indeed; for I was not attending to you."
When some one accused him of having given a subscription to a dishonest man--for the story is also told in this form Cf. supra, § 17. --"It was not the man," said he, "that I assisted, but humanity." To the question how we should behave to friends, he answered, "As we should wish them to behave to us." Justice he defined as a virtue of soul which distributes according to merit. Education he declared to be the best provision for old age. Favorinus in the second book of his Memorabilia mentions as one of his habitual sayings that "He who has friends can have no true friend." Further, this is found in the seventh book of the N.E. ix.
10. 6, 1171 a 15-17. These then are the sayings attributed to him.
His writings are very numerous and, considering the man's all-round excellence, I deemed it incumbent on me to catalogue them This is one of three catalogues which we have of the Aristotelian writings. Hesychius furnishes one, appended to his Life of Aristotle; see V. Rose's edition of the Fragments, p. 9 seq. Another by Ptolemy the philosopher, of which the Greek original has perished, is preserved in Arabic; see V. Rose, Frag. p. 18 seq.: Of Justice, four books.
On Poets, three books.
On Philosophy, three books.
Of the Statesman, two books.
On Rhetoric, or Grylus, one book.
Nerinthus, one book.
The Sophist, one book.
Menexenus, one book.
Concerning Love, one book.
Symposium, one book.
Of Wealth, one book.
Exhortation to Philosophy, one book.
Of the Soul, one book.
Of Prayer, one book.
On Noble Birth, one book.
On Pleasure, one book.
Alexander, or a Plea for Colonies, one book.
On Kingship, one book.
On Education, one book.
Of the Good, three books.
Extracts from Plato's Laws, three books.
Extracts from the Republic, two books.
Of Household Management, one book.
Of Friendship, one book.
On being or having been affected, one book.
Of Sciences, one book.
On Controversial Questions, two books.
Solutions of Controversial Questions, four books.
Sophistical Divisions, four books.
On Contraries, one book.
On Genera and Species, one book.
On Essential Attributes, one book.
Three note - books on Arguments for Purposes of Refutation.
Propositions concerning Virtue, two books.
Objections, one book.
On the Various Meanings of Terms or Expressions where a Determinant is added, one book.
Of Passions or of Anger, one book.
Five books of Ethics.