are found among Aristotle's works, were by some attributed to him, must have profited much by his master's instructions. It seems however more likely that Aristocles's account of him is the correct one, who relates that he was killed in battle at a very early age'.

1 Aristocles ap. Euseb. 1. c. Cicero, De Finibus v. 5.

CHAPTER VII.

REPUTED BURIAL OF ARISTOTLE'S WRITINGS.

THE works of Aristotle are said to have met with a most singular mischance. They are related to have been buried some time after his death, and not to have been recovered till two hundred years afterwards. This story is so curious in itself, and of such vital importance in the History of Philosophy, that we shall make no apology for investigating it thoroughly, in spite of the tediousness which a minute examination of details necessarily brings with it.

The main authority for the opinion is Strabo in a passage of his Geographical Work, where having occasion to speak of Scepsis, a town in the Troad, he mentions two or three persons of eminence who were born there. One of these is Neleus, the son of Coriscus, a person who was a scholar both of Aristotle and Theophrastus, and who succeeded to the library of the latter in which was contained that of the former also. "For Aristotle," Strabo goes on to say, "made

2

Geogr. xiii. p. 124. We have translated the whole of this celebrated passage as it stands in the text of all the printed editions. But besides the words Tá TE Αριστοτέλους καὶ τὰ Θεοφράστου βιβλία, which we look upon as a marginal note that has crept into the text, there appears to us to be unquestionably a corruption in the latter part. In default of the authority of MSS. a conjecture can only be received with great caution: but still we should be inclined to think that immediately after the word "poσελάβετο should come καὶ βιβλιοπωλαί τινες..... Αλεξανδρείᾳ, and that after βιβλιοθήκης probably followed something like καὶ παρ' αὐτοῦ ὁ Ρόδιος ̓Ανδρόνικος εὐπορήσας τῶν ἀντιγράφων εἰς μέσον ἔθηκε,

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STRABO'S ACCOUNT.

"over his own library to Theophrastus, (to whom he "also left his school), and was the first that I know "of, who collected books and taught the kings in Egypt "to form a library. Theophrastus made them over to "Neleus; he took them over to Scepsis and made "them over to his heirs (Tois MET' autóv),—uneducated 'men, who let the books remain locked up without 66 any care. When however they observed the pains "which the kings of the Attalic dynasty, (in whose

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dominions the town was) were at in getting books to "furnish the library at Pergamus, they buried them "under ground in a sort of cellar. A long time after, "when they had received much injury from damp and worms, the representatives of the family sold them to "Apellicon of Teos,-the books both of Aristotle and "of Theophrastus,-for a very large sum. Apellicon "was more of a book-collector than a philosopher; and "the result was that in an attempt to supply the gaps "when he transcribed the text into new copies, he filled "them up the reverse of well, and sent the books a"broad full of mistakes. And of the Peripatetic phi

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losophers, the more ancient who immediately succeeded "Theophrastus, as in fact they had no books at all, except a very few, and those chiefly of the exoteric class, were unable to philosophize systematically, but

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καὶ ἀνέγραψε τοὺς νῦν φερομένους πίνακας. Plutarch, (Vit. Syll. c. 26.) from whom we have taken these words, unquestionably follows Strabo in the account of which he gives of this affair. He cites him by name almost immediately afterwards, as is remarked by Schneider (Præf. ad Aristot. H. A. p. LXXX.) It was however scarcely the Geography, but the Historical Memoirs of Strabo, which was his authority through the Life of Sylla. Hence the slight divarication of the two narratives; in the topographical work the circumstances of the story which are most connected with Scepsis are principally dwelt upon; in the other those connected with Sylla.

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PLUTARCH'S ACCOUNT.

105

were obliged to elaborate rhetorical disquisitions (undèv ἔχειν φιλοσοφεῖν πραγματικῶς ἀλλὰ θέσεις ληκυθίζειν) "while their successors after the time when these books

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came out, speculated better and more in Aristotle's spirit than they, although they too were forced to "explain most of his views by guess work (Tȧ Toλa "Eikóta λéyew) from the multitude of errors. And to "this inconvenience Rome contributed a large share. "For immediately after the death of Apellicon, Sylla "having taken Athens, seized upon the library of Apel"licon and after it had been brought here, Tyrannio "the grammarian, who was an admirer of Aristotle, had "the handling of it (diexeipioaro) by the favour of the "superintendant of the library; and [so had] some booksellers, who employed wretched transcribers, and neglected to verify the correctness of the copies,—an "evil which occurs in the case of all other authors too "when copied for sale, both here and in Alexandria.”

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1

Plutarch in his Biography of Sylla, confirms a part of this account, and adds a feature or two which is wanting here. His authority is obviously Strabo himself in another work now lost, and he is therefore not to be reckoned as an additional witness, but as the representative of the one last summoned, again recalled to explain some parts of his own testimony. From him we learn that Sylla carried the library of Apellicon containing the greater part of the books of Aristotle and Theophrastus, with which up to that time most people had no accurate acquaintance, to Rome. "There," he continues, "it is said, Tyrannio the gram

1 In the parallel narrative of Plutarch, the term évσkeváσaodai is used.

2 Vit. Syll. § 26.

3 οὔπω τότε σαφῶς γνωριζόμενα τοῖς πολλοῖς.

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GENERAL BELIEF OF THE STORY.

"marian arranged (évoкeváσarea) the principal part of them, and Andronicus the Rhodian, obtaining copies "from him, published them and drew up the syllabuses "(πivakas) which are now current." He confirms the account of Strabo that the early Peripatetics had neither a wide nor an accurate acquaintance with the works of Aristotle and Theophrastus, from the circumstance of the property of Neleus, to whom Theophrastus bequeathed his books, falling into the hands of illiterate and indifferent persons; but of the story of burying the books he says nothing, nor yet of the endeavours of Apellicon to repair the damaged manuscripts.

Our readers have here the whole authority' which is to be found in the writers of antiquity for this celebrated story, which has been transmitted from one mouth to another in modern times without the least question of its truth until very lately. And not only has it been accepted as a satisfactory reason for an extraordinary and most important fact, the decay of philosophy for the two centuries preceding the time of Cicero, but editors and commentators of the works of Aristotle have resorted to it without scruple for a solution of all the difficulties which they might encounter. They have allowed themselves the most arbitrary transpositions of the several parts of the same work, and acknowledged no limit to the number or magnitude of gaps which might be assumed as due to the damp and worms of the cellar at Scepsis. Of late years however, as the critical study of the Greek language

The account of Suidas (V. Zúλas) is obviously extracted from the passage in Plutarch.

2 Thus Antonius Scainus interpolated the seventh and eighth books of the Politics between the third and fourth. Conringe, who followed him, made up for a scrupulous abstinence from this course by indulging himself freely in hypothesized lacuna,-to