ARISTOTLE AND THE EARLIER PERIPATETICS vol.I by Eduard Zeller, B.F.C.Costelloe 1897

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THE LIFE »F ARISTOTLE 17
If, then, Aristotle was connected with Plato, as one of
his school, from his eighteenth to his thirty-seventh year,
it follows that we cannot well over-estimate the influence
of such a relation upon his course of thought.
of that education on Aristotle's
The effect
philosophic system discloses
itself at every point. The grateful scholar has
himself 1 commemorated the moral greatness and lofty
principles of the man whom the base have not even the
'
right to praise.' But the reverence for the master would
obviously not prevent Aristotle from turning his attention
at the same time to all other sources which might
carrry him onward and help to satisfy his insatiable
thirst for knowledge. We may safely assume that he
did in fact employ his long years of preparation at
Athens in busy acquirement of his marvellous learning,
and also that he took a keen interest in researches
in natural philosophy, though Plato always treated
it as of secondary importance. It is also possible
that even while he was still a member of Plato's
circle he may himself have lectured, 2 without thereby
breaking off his relations with Plato or setting himself
up against him as the leader of a competing school.
We hear, for instance, that Aristotle taught Ehetpric
in opposition to Isocrates
3
but we know that the great
1
See the lines on p. 12 supra. Cicero seems to be without exact
2
Steabo (xiii. 1, 57, p. 610) information] versumque quendamsays
of Hermias that he heard at Philoetetce paullo secus disoit.IUe
Athens both Plato and Aristotle, enim turpe sibi ait esse taeere,
3
ClC. Be Orat. iii. 35, 141 cum barbaros: He autem, cum
Aristoteles, cumflorere Isoeratem Isoeratem pateretwr dicere. Ita
nobiUtate discipulorum videret, ornavit et illustravit doctrmam
. . . mutavit repente totamformam illam omiiem, rerwmque cogniprope
discipl&nee sum [which tionem cum orationis exercitasounds
as if Aristotle had even tione conjunxit. Neque vera hoc
then a school of his own, though fugit sapientissimum regem PMl-
VOL. I.
C
18 ARISTOTLE
orator's relations with Plato were no longer good and
that he attacked the philosophers. 1 We have distinct
indications also which lead us to assign to this same
period the commencement of Aristotle's activity as a
writer ; and the fact that in the writings of this time
he imitated his master, both in matter and form, 2 shows
clearly how completely he took on the impress of Plato's
spirit and made the Platonic methods his own.
In time,
of course, a ad no doubt even before he left Athens, Aristotle
acquired as a writer a more independent position
and it
is manifest that he had in reality outgrown the
position of one of Plato's pupils, long before
that relation
came visibly to an end by the death of the master.
lippwm, qui Tiwnc Alescwndro filio makes a covert attack on Aristotle,
life (de Arist. et Isocrate . . z
. See for proof infra. Of the
quorum uterque suo studio deleetatus
contemsit alterum), and Iso-
us the greater part of the Dia-
Aristotelian writings known to
crates himself, Ep. v. ad Alex. 3, logues and some of the rhetorical
doctorem accierit. AgaiD, ibid.
which confirms the story
19, 62, ArUst. Isocratem ipsum Panath. 17 can hardly refer to
lacessivit, and ibid. 51, 172, quis Aristotle, because of the dates : cf.
Spbngbl, Abh. d. Bayer. Altad.
. . . aerior Arist. fuit ? quis
porro Isocrati est adversatns impensius
vi. 470 sq. Cephisodorus, a pupil
? In Tuso. i. 4, 7, Cicero of Isocrates, wrote a defence of
assumes that Aristotle attacked his master against Aristotle, full
Isocrates in his lifetime, which of bitter abuse ; v. Dionts. Be
would be possible only in his first Isocr. c. 18, p. 577; Athen. ii.
residence at Athens, for when he 60, d, cf. iii. 122, b ; Aeistocl.
returned in 335-4 B.C. Isocrates ap. Eus. Pr. Ev. xv. 24, Nitmen,
ibid. xiv. 6, 8, Themist. Or.
was many years dead. Cf. QtriNtil.
iii. 1, 14 : Eoque {Isocrate'] xxiii. 285, c. This friction did
jam seniore . . . pomeridianis not prevent Aristotle from doing
schoiis Arist. prcecipere artem justice to his opponents : in the
oratoriam ccejrit, noto qnidem illo, Ehetoric he quotes examples from
ut traditwr, versa ex Philocteta no one so readily as Isocrates,
frequenter urns: altrxpbv aiair^v and twice quotes Cephisodorus
'\aaKfi.Ti\v [!C] 4av\4yeiv. Diog. (3) (Mhet. iii. 10, 1411, a, 5, 23). Cf.
with less probability, reads aevo- as to the whole subject Stahe,
Kpdrriv, so misplacing the story i. 68 sq., ii. 285 sq.
as of the
1
time of the founding of Spergel, 'Isokr. und Platon,'
Abh. d. Munch. Altad. vii.
the Lyceum. Cicero (Qffic. i. 1, 4)
speaks clearly of contests between 731, and Zelleb, PA.