Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1101

 on the Soul and Sensuous Perception (ib. 46), not without regard to the corresponding works of Aristotle, as may at least in part be demonstrated. In like manner we find mention of monographies of Theophrastus on the older Greek physiologians Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Archelaus (Diog. Laert. v. 42, 43), Diogenes of ApoUonia, De- mocritus (ib. 43), which were not unfrequently made use of by Simplicius ; and also on Xenocrates (ib. 47), against the Academics (49), and a sketch of the political doctrine of Plato (ib. 43), which shows that the Eresian followed his master likewise in the critico-historical department of inquiry. That he also included general history within the circle of his scientific investigation, we see from the quo- tations in Plutarch's lives of Lycurgus, Solon, Aristides, Pericles, Nicias, Alcibiades, Lysander, Agesilaus, and Demosthenes, which were probably borrowed from the work on Lives {irepl fiiwv 7', Diog. Laert. v. 42), But his principal endeavours were directed to the supplementation and continua- tion of the labours of Aristotle in the domain of natural history. This is testified not only by a number of treatises on individual subjects of zoo- logy, of which, besides the titles, but few fragments remain, but also by his books on Stones and Metals, and his works on the History, and on the Parts of Plants, which have come down to us en- tire. In politics, also, he seems to have trodden in the footsteps of Aristotle. Besides his books on the State, we find quoted various treatises on Education (ib. 42, 50), on Royalty (ib. 47, 45), on the Best State, on Political Morals, and particularly his works on the Laws, one of which, containing a re- capitulation of the laws of various barbaric as well as Grecian states (Noficov Karb. (Ttoix^'iov k8 Diog. Laert. v. 44, ib. Menag.), was intended to form a •pendant to Aristotle's delineation of Politics, and must have stood in close relation to it. (Cic. de Fin. V. 4.) Of the books of Theophrastus on oratory and poetry, almost all that we know is, that in them also Aristotle Avas not passed by without reference. (Cic. de Invent, i. 35.) Theophrastus, without doubt, departed farther from his master in his ethical writings {ih. 42, 43, 44, 45, 47, 49, 50), as also in his metaphysical investigations respecting motion, the soul, and the Deity, {lb. 47, 48.) Besides the writings belonging to the above- mentioned branches of science, Theophrastus was the author of others, partly of a miscellaneous kind, as, for instance, several collections of problems., out of which some things at least have passed into the Problems which have come down to us under the name of Aristotle (Diog. Laert. v. 45, 47, 48; comp. I Plin. //. N. xxviii. 6 ; Arist. Probl. xxxiii. 12), I and commentaries (Diog. Laert. v. 48, 49 ; comp. I 43), partly dialogues (Basil. Magn. Epist. 167), to I which probably belonged the 'EpiariKos (Diog. Laert. I V.43; Athen. xii. 2, xiii. 2), Megacles (Diog. Laert. ! 47), Callisthenes iji Trepl ir4vdovs^ Diog. Laert. v. 44; Cic. Tusc. iii. 10; Alex. Aphrod. de Anima ii. extr.), and MeyapiKSs (Diog. Laert. v. 44), and letters (Diog. Laert. v. 46, 50), partly books on ma- thematical sciences and their history (Jb. 42, 46, 48,60). Besides the two great works on botany {vepi fvTuu {(TTopia, in ten books, written about 01. 118; see Schneider, TheopL 0pp. iv. p. 586 ; and airia (puaiKd, in six books), we only possess some VOL. III. THEOPHRASTUS. 1089 more or less ample fragments of works by Theo- phrastus, or extracts from them, among which the ethical characters, that is, delineations of charac- ter, and the treatise on sensuous perception and its objects (irepl alaQ-fja-ews [koI alaOrjTwv]) are the most considerable, the first important as a con- tribution to the ethical history of that time, tht latter for a knowledge of the doctrines of the more ancient Greek philosophers respecting the subject indicated. With the latter class of works we may connect the fragments on smells (ir^pl baixcov), on fatigue (Trepi Koirwv)., on giddiness {irepX iKiyyuv)^ on sweat (irepl iSpcoroi/), on swooning (Trepl AeiTro- i/zyXias), on palsy (Trepl 7rapaA.yo-ews), and on honey (irepl fxeAiTos). To physics, in the narrower sense of the word, belong the still extant sections on fire {irepl irvDos), on the winds (vrepl avijuuv), on the signs of waters, winds, and storms (irepl <Tr]iJ.elwv iSdrcav Kal Trpev/j.a.Twv /col x^'M'^^'w "^al cvSiwy^ probably out of the fourth book of the Meteorology of Theophrastus : Trepi fxerapaiwy : see Plut. Quacst. Gr. vii. ; comp. Schneider, iv. p. 719, &c.) To the zoology belong six other sections. Also the trea- tise on stones (irepl Aiduiv, written 01. 116. 2, see Schneider, /. c. iv. p. 585), and on metaphysics {twv fxerh ra (pvcriKa), are only fragments, and there is no reason for assigning the latter to some other author because it is not noticed in Hermippus and Andronicus, especially as Nicolaus (Daiiias- cenus) had already mentioned it (see the scholia at the end of the book). But throughout the text of these fragments and extracts is so corrupt that the well-known story of the fate of the books of Aristotle and Theophrastus [Aristoteles] might very well admit of application to them. The same is the case with the books on colours, on indivisible lines, and on Xenophanes, Gorgias, and Melissus, which may with greater right be assigned to Theo- phrastus than to his master, among whose works we now find them. (Respecting the first of these books — Trepl xpcw/iaTwj/ — see Schneider, ^. c. iv p. 864 ; respecting the second, Diog. Laert. v. 42, ib. Menag.) Much superior to the older editions of Theophrastus {Aldina, 1498, Basileensis, 1541, Camotiana, Venet. 1552, that of Daniel Heinsius, 1613, &c.) is that by J. G. Schneider {Theophrasti Eresii quae supersunt opera., Lips. 1 8 1 8-2 1 . 5 vols.), which, however, still needs a careful revision, as the piecemeal manner in which the critical appa- ratus came to his hands, and his own ill health compelled the editor to append supplements and corrections, twice or thrice, to the text and com- mentary. Fried. Wimmer has published a new and much improved edition of the history erf plants, as the first volume of the entire works of Theophrastus. {Theophrasti opera quae supersunt omnia cmcndata edidit cum apparaiu critico Fr. Wimmer., Tomus primus historiam plantarum con- tinens, Vratislaviae, 1842. 8vo.) For the explanation of the history of plants con- siderable contributions were made before Schneider by Bodaeus a Stapel (Amstelod. 1644, fol.) and J. Stackhouse. {Tkeophr. Eres. de historia planta- rum libriX.graece cum syllabo generum et spederum glossario et notis, curante Job. Stackhouse, Oxon. 1813. 2 vols. 8vo.) III. How far Theophrastus attached himself to the Aristotelic doctrines, how he defined them more closely, or conceived them in a diflferent form, and what additional structures of doctrine he formed upon them, can be determined but very partially a