Page:Aristotle (Grant).djvu/29

 year, was enabled, under the most favourable auspices, to commence building up the great fabric of philosophy and science for which he had been, all his life long, making the plans and gathering the materials.

Aristotle, on his return, found Speusippus dead, and Xenocrates installed as leader of the Platonic school of Philosophy, which was held, as we have said, in the groves of Academe, on the west of the city of Athens. He immediately opened a rival school on the eastern side, in the grounds attached to the Temple of the Lyceian Apollo. From his using the covered walks (peripatoi) in these grounds for lecturing to, and intercourse with, his pupils, the name of “Peripatetics” came to be given to his scholars, and to the Aristotelian sect in general. His object being research, and the bringing into methodised form the results of investigations, — it may be asked why he should have opened a school? Partly, this was necessitated by a regard for his own reputation and fame, — it was a method of publication suitable before the days of printing. And also in many ways it could be made to further his views. Teaching a philosophical school was a very different thing from teaching the rudiments. It was more like the work of a German professor, who often does not condescend to impart anything to his class, except his own latest discoveries. The very practice of imparting to an auditory reasoned-out conclusions is a stimulus to their production, and at the same time a test of their correctness. Thus, Aristotle, in his writings, frequently uses the term “teaching” merely to indicate “demonstration;” and as there is reason to