Page:The Harveian oration delivered at the Royal College of Physicians June 26, 1889 (IA b22361285).pdf/16

 method which next attracted general attention, for we find that Plato and Aristotle were permitted to establish systems utterly opposed to the method of Hippocrates.

It is impossible to reflect on the general character of Aristotle’s works without feeling deep regret that a man, who evidently possessed much originality of thought, great industry, and who moreover had an extensive acquaintance with natural objects, should have done so much mischief by what has been well termed ‘ a daring spirit of contradiction and innovation.’

The superstitious reverence felt for the memory of those who have led mankind captive by the force of individual character bids me be careful in speaking of the career of this remarkable man; but it may be fairly doubted whether all we find in the wondrous mass of composition he has left us, treating as it does of almost every imaginable topic, had not better have been lost to us than that men should have been led astray by what is called the Aristotelian philosophy.

For my own part, I am content to believe with Bolingbroke, that Plato and Aristotle ‘ invented systems more baneful to truth and real learning