Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/347

Rh ARISTOTELES. der.) In the latter the most important tiling is the investigation of the purpose (to o5 eve/co, eauia fnalis), by moans of which one arrives at the idea of the thing {yos^ or r6 tI ^v dvai). Aristotle reproaches the older investigators with having neglected to penetrate into the purpose and idoa {t4os and yos) of the individual sides and parts of nature, and with having always sought merely for the material cause of things. {De Gcnerationey v. 1, ii. 6.) In this investigation of the purpose, the leading idea is always to shew, that the natural object, which fonns the subject of investigation, corresponds most completely in the way in which it exists to the idea intended to be rvali/.ed, and accordingly best fulfils its purpose. {Be Partib. Anim. L 5 ; Phys. i. 8 ; De Incessu Aniin. 2.) According to this mode of considering the writ- ings of this pragmaty, they will be arranged in the following manner : — 1 . The eight books of Physics {s by Sim- plicius, Prooem. ad Phys. and ad vi. pp. 404-5, ed. Berol.) In these Aristotle develops the general principles of natural science. (Cosmology.) The investigation of the principles of the uni- verse is naturally succeeded by the consideration of the principal parts of it, the heaven, the heavenly bodies, and the elements. There follows accord- ingly* 2. The work concerning the Heaven (vepl oipa- voG), in four books, which is entitled irepl koVjuou by Alexander of Aphrodisias. (Fabric. Bibl. Gr. iii. p. 230, Harl.) According to an astronomical notice in i. 12, the work was composed after the year b. c. 357. See Keppler, Astron. opt. p. 357 ; Bailly, Hisloire de V Astronomic., p. 244. 3. The two books on Production and Destruction (irepi yiViCius Koi (pdopas, de Generatione et Cor- ruptione)., develop the general laws of production and destruction, which are indicated more definitely in the process of formation which goes on in inorganic nature, or in meteorological phaenomena. The consideration of this forms the contents of the 4. Four books on Meteorology (fieTewpoKoyiKa, de Meteoris). This work, which is distinguished by the clearness and ease of its style, was com- posed after b. c. 341, and before the time when an acquaintance with India was obtained by Alex- ander's expedition. (St. Croix, Eaamen critique des Hist d'Alex. p. 703 ; Ideler, Meteorologia vet. Graecor. et Bom., Berol. 1832.) It contains the groundwork of a physical geography. It has been edited by Ideler, Lips. 1834, 2 vols., with a pro- fuse commentary. This work is commonly fol- lowed in the editions by the treatise 5. On tfie Universe (Trcpl K6afJiOv, de Mundo), a letter to Alexander, which treats the subject of the last two works in a popular tone and a rhetorical style altogether foreign to Aristotle. The whole is probably a translation of a work with the same title by Appuleius, as Stahr {Arist. bei den jRomem, p. 165, &c.) has endeavoured to prove. Osann ascribes it to the Stoic Chrysippus {Beitr'dge zur Gi-ieck u. Bom. Litt. GescL, Dannstadt, 1 835, vol. i. pp. 141 — 283.) The latest editor of Appuleius (Hildebrand, Prolegg. ad Appul. vol. i. p. xli., &c.), on the contrary, looks upon the Latin work as the translation. To the same division of this pnigraaty belongs ARISTOTELES. 329 the small fragment on the local names of several winds {avffXMV ^kmis Kal irpocnryoplai, out of the larger work Trtpt arr}ij.eluv x*'/***"'^"? I^iog- L« v« 26 ; printed in Arist. OpP'^ ed. Du Val. vol. ii. p. 848), and a fragment extant only in a Latin form, De f^ili IncremcTiio. The close of the fourth book of the Meteorologies conducts us to the consideration of earthly natural bodies composed of homogeneous parts (dyu.ojo/x€p-^). Separate treatises on the inorganic bodies of the same class, e. g. irepl ucToiWwv (Olympiod. ad Arist. Meteorol. i. 5, vol. i. p. 133, Ideler), and irepi T^s A/001; (Diog. L. v. 26), have perished. Among the works on organic natural bodies, Aris- totle himself {Meteor, i. 1) places first those on the animal kingdom, to the scientific consideration of which he devoted, according to Pliny {H. N. viii. 17), fifty, according to Antigonus Carystius (c. QQ), seventy treatises. Respecting the scien- tific arrangement of the extant works of this pragmaty see Trendelenburg, ad Arist. de Anima Prooem. p. 114, &c. The work which we must place first is 6. The History of Animals (irepl f'wcoi' fcTTopia, called by Aristotle himself al irepl to ^wa iffro- piai and fauK?) ta-Topla, De Partibus, iii. 14. § 5) in nine books. In this work Aristotle treats, chiefly in the way of description, of all the peculi- arities of this division of the natural kingdom, according to genera, classes, and species ; making it his chief endeavour to give all the characteristics of each animal according to its external and in- ternal vital functions ; according to the manner of its copulation, its mode of life, and its character. This enormous work, partly the fruit of the kingly liberality of Alexander, has not reached us quite complete. On the other hand, respecting a tenth book appended in the MSS., which treats of the conditions of the productive power, scholars are not agreed. Scaliger wants to introduce it between the 7th and 8th books ; Camus regards it as the treatise spoken of by Diogenes Laertius: uTrep Tou prj yeyudv ; Schneider doubts its authenticity. According to a notice in several MSS. (p. 633, ed. Berolin.), it originates in the Latin recension of the writings of Aristotle. Respecting the plan, contents, history, and editions of the work, Schnei- der treats at length in the Epimetra in the first vol. of his edition. The best edition is by Schnei- der, in four vols. 8vo., Lips. 1811. This work, the observations in which are the triumph of ancient sagacity, and have been con- firmed by the results o^ the most recent investiga- tions (Cuvier), is followed by 7. The four books on the Parts of Animals (irfpl ^axuiv fxopiwv in which Aristotle, after describing the phaenomena in each species develops the causes of these phaenomena by means of the idea to be formed of the purpose which is manifested in the formation of the animal. According to Titze {de Arist. Opp.Sene., pp.55 — 58), the first book of this work forms the introduction to the entire preceding work on animals, and was edited by him under the title A070S irepl (pvaews ixaKiara fxeOoSiKSs, Prag. 1819, and Leipzig, 1823, 8vo., with a Ger- man translation and remarks. This work, too, as regards its form, belongs to the most complete and attmctive of the works of Aristotle. There is a separate work in five books 8. On the Generation of Animals (irep2 foJwp 7ci'e(T£ws), which treats of the generation of ani-