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

.
ARISTOTLE'S WRITINGS 107
by Mm for publication. It is not applicable to any of
those which are now extant ; and of these, indeed, the
two Latin writers probably knew but a small part. 1
We are driven to suppose, therefore, that it was to other
works, lost to us, that they ascribed this kind of excellence.
The critic who judges of literary form by purely
scientific criteria will find, it is true, much to praise in
our extant Aristotle. He will acknowledge the apt discrimination
of all his ideas, the inimitable precision
and compactness of his diction, and his masterly
handling of an established terminology. But of the
qualities which Cicero emphasises, or any graceful movement
of a rich and rolling eloquence, he will find even
108 ARISTOTLE
ornate, and approached far
more closely to the literary
graces of the Platonic Dialogues, than any of the
scientific treatises now contained in our Corpus. 1
This difference is to be explained, not merely by the
earlier date of the writings in question, but also by the
fact that they were not intended to serve the same
purpose as the others, nor designed for the same
audiences. 2
Aristotle himself occasionally refers to certain statements
of his doctrine, published by him, or then in
common use, in terms which seem to imply that a
portion of his writings (including these writings in
which the references in question occur) were not in
the same sense given to the public. 3 And from his
in the most popular of the extant books but little trace ;
while in other parts the dry methods of treatment, the
rough brevity of statement, the involved construction
of long sentences, often broken by anacolutha and
parentheses, stand in plain contradiction to Cicero's
description. We can, however, gather for ourselves,
even from the scanty fragments of -the lost books, that
some of these were written in a style far more rich and
scientia rervm an scriptorum books. Of the others, however,
copia an eloquendi suavitate . . . Cicero used several of the writclariorem
putem. Dionts. Be ings mentioned on p. 55 sqq., the
Verb. Cop, 24 : of the philoso- books on Philosophy, the Ihidephers,
Democritus, Plato, and mus, the Protreptieus, perhaps
Aristotle are the best as to style, also the noAmitSs, n. fiacri\elas
Be Cent. Vet. Script, 4: irapa.- and IT. irKoirov; cf. Fin. ii. 13,
\riwr4ov Se /col 'Apia-Tor&ri eis 40 Acad. ; ii. 38, 119 ; iV". B. ii.
Himaiv ttjs te irepl tV kppiivtiav 15, 42, 16, 44, 37, 95, 49, 125 ;
Seii«(T7)Toj Kal ttjs iriupiivelas Kal Bixin. i. 26, 53 ; Fragm. Hort.
tov 7)$4os zeal iro\vna6ovs. apud Augustine c. Jul. iv. 78 ;
1
Except the Topics and Rlie- Fin. v. 4, 11 ; Ad Quint. Fr. iii.
toric, we have no reason for sup- 5 ; Ad Att. xii. 40, 2, xiii. 28, 2 ;
posing that any of them knew Off. ii. 16, 56 : and above, p. 60,
by personal reading the extant n. 1.
1
On this point see what is preserved
in Nos. 12-14, 17 sq.,
32, 36, 40, 48, 49, 71, 72 of the
Fragments (Academy edition)
from the Eudemus, ProtrepUeus,
n. $i\oao