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

have show no great gift. On the tells us of him in his youth, is
tion of astronomical observations
other hand his wit was noted possible, though not proved by
(Dbmbtr. De Moo. 128), and the existing testimony,
the apophthegms (op. Diog. 2
De quo infra.
46 ARISTOTLE
THE LIFE OF AMSipTLE 45
appreciation of things which despises nothing that has
its roots in human nature, but attributes an absolute
value only to the spiritual and moral factors of life.
And if his character, so far as we know it, and in spite
of any little weaknesses which may have attached to
of our hearts, weld in one the
it, seems to us lofty and honourable, still more are
his powers and intellectual achievements altogether
work is
astounding. Never have so great a wealth of knowledge,
so careful powers of observation, and so untiring
a zeal for acquisition, been found in combination with
such keenness and power of scientific thinking, with a
philosophic insight so capable of- piercing into the
the age of learning.
essence of things, with a width of view so fully capable
of at once seeing the unity and coherence of all knowledge,
vestigations,
and embracing and subordinating all its branches.
Even if we put at their
In poetic swing, in richness of fancy, in the insight of
genius, he cannot compete with Plato. His powers lay
wholly on the side of knowledge, not of art. 1 That
fascinating witchery of speech with which Plato holds
still
us is hardly ever to be found in the extant works of the
Stagirite, though many of those that are lost are praised,
doubtless with justice, for their literary grace. 2 But
he outstrips his master in all those qualities which
mark the full manhood of science—in width and solidity
oliras %x a "s firire fnoi 17 sq) and the fragments
i
of
aip6Spa fieAeiy xmep av-rmv ufa* M- 01 letters {op. Demete. 29, 233)
p.ri$ev /teKeiv ; in the latter, as to give proof of it. That it went
he was as
one who had reviled him behind with a tendency to banter and
hish&ck.'.airdvTa^.eKalfiao'TtyoiTu. sauciness of speech C&tcaipos