Aristotle : a chapter from the history of science, including analyses of Aristotle's scientific writings / by George Henry Lewes.
- Lewes George Henry, 1817-1878.
- Date:
- 1864
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Aristotle : a chapter from the history of science, including analyses of Aristotle's scientific writings / by George Henry Lewes. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![eight centuries after his hero, in a.d. 460; and that these eight centuries have not heen profitably employed in sifting tradition, and bringing it nearer to accuracy, may be gathered from a single detail noticed by Buhle,* that Aristotle is made a pupil of Socrates, who died just fifteen years before the Stagirite was born. The nearest biographer, in point of time, is DioNYSius of Halicarnassus (b.c. 50), and this gives a gap of three centuries; moreover, one meagre page comprises all he has to say. Hesychius was born a.d. 500—nearly nine centuries too late; the date of Suidas is uncertain, but pro- bably not earlier than the eleventh century of our era. These writers contradict each other on separate points. What means have we for deciding between them ? They may have had contemporary documents as their authorities; but what guarantee have we for the accuracy of these docu- ments ? It is but just three hundred years since Shakspeare was born ; throughout this period he has been prized, and written about; compilers have done their worst upon this subject; yet what do we authentically know of his life ? above all, what value do we attach to the earliest biography, that by EowE ? If, therefore, modern scholars have pieced together the various details traditionally preserved about Aristotle, we Quis enim Ammonium credat tarn absurdum, ut Aristotelem per tres annos Socratis, qui diu ante mortuus esset, discipulum, eundemque Alexandri in itinere per Asiam usque ad Indos comitem fuisse, temere asseruerit ? Buhle : Arist. Opera, I., 51. It has been suggested that instead of Socrates we should read the school of Socrates; but there was no such school. Mr. Blakesley, by a plausible emendation, suggests Xenockates as the name which by corruption has become Socrates. This, however, ill accords with the statement of Ammonius ; nor have we any evidence that Xenocrates taught till many years afterwards. During the revision of this chapter there has fallen in my way a copy of the Greek text of Ammonius, from the Library of St. Mark's at Venice, now first published by Dr. Robbe: Vita Arislotelis ex codice Marciano Greece nunc primum edita, Lugd.-Batav., 1861, which gives the same reading as the old Latin translation, previously our only guide. Here is the passage: iruiv ytvoj-ievog tTvrd Kal d&Ku, rov ITf^ot Oeoit xp^davTOQ avT^i (pi\o(TO(peiv Trap' 'AOrjvaioig, foirg. Sw/cparfi, Kal avvijv rov, f^ixP'- TtKiVTr]g avTOv xpovov oXiyov ovra.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21690613_0021.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
