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general heads of Logic, Phyfics, Metaphyfics, Ethics, Politics, Rhetoric and Poetry. His greatest excellence is energy of thought, his greatest defect is obfcurity, and this may be fometimes occafioned by the abftrufe nature of his fubjects, for he pursues his researches to the utmoft extent of Metaphyfical difquifition on fuch topics as exiftence, deity, mind, and matter. Some of his general propofitions are difficult to be understood, for want of illuftration; and fome of his examples do not feem applicable to the observations which they follow. Many of his terms are peculiar to his philofophy, and this circumftance renders his frequent recourfe to definitions the more neceffary. His works may be compared to a deep, obfcure, and rich mine. As you explore it, you must truft more to your own light, than to that held out by others, which is not strong or steady enough to prevent your lofing your way, amid its various labyrinths and windings. If you perfevere, you will find intermixed with fome drofs, and covered with thick incruftations, gold, filver, and diamonds, to recompenfe the labour of your fearch.

On his works, included under the title of Orga non which relate to Logic, remarks will be made when we fhall treat on that fubject. They difplay his admirable fubtlety in reducing all ideas to claffes, and combining propofitions in various manners to form fyllogifins, with a view to the fuppofed discovery of truth.

His work on Phyfics is clothed in a veil of deepobfcurity. Where his meaning can be understood, he feems to reafon very abfurdly; he maintains that the world is eternal, without beginning or end, and that there can be but one world. Upon fubjects which fall under his confideration in his Metaphyfics likewife, fo called because they were written after his Phyfics, he deferted many of the fublime doctrines of Socrates and Plato,-and what does he fubftitute for them? Opinions which unfettle the mind upon fome very important points which thofe Philofophers had endeavoured to establifh with the moft weighty arguments, from a juft perfuafion that they involved the complete happinefs of man,

His Books on natural hiftory are curious and interefting for the time when they were written, and have truth and nature for their foundations. They contain a series of accurate obfervations and inquiries. Ariftotle appears to have diffected, or been present at the diffection of feveral animals, particularly of fifhes; and he refers to his treatifes on comparative anatomy, which have not efcaped the ravages of time.

His Ethics contained in ten books, addreffed to his fon Nichomachus, compofe a work, which for precife language, acute obfervation, and accurate analyfis, is one of the nobleft human compofitions. It shows the nature of virtue, whether practical or fpeculative. The former confifts in the habit of

what

what is good, and the latter in the due exercife of the understanding. Every virtue, whether temperance, fortitude, liberality, magnanimity, or juftice, is the middle point between two extremes; one of which is vicious through excefs, and the other through defect. Friendship is the ally of virtue; it confifts in perfect affection between perfons of the fame rank;-"he beft can paint it, who can feel it moft." Ariftotle could never have written with fo much fenfibility upon the fubject of friendship, had he not experienced its delightful influence. Pleafures are effentially dif ferent in their kinds, and those which bring dif grace are unworthy of the name. The pureft and moft exalted pleafure is that which a good man derives from the performance of virtuous actions. Happiness confifts either in contemplation, or action; the former arifes from the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom, and is fuperior to the latter, becaufe the understanding is the nobleft part of our nature, and the fubjects upon which it is employed, are of the moft fublime kind.

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Ariftotle, as a teacher of morality, may fatisfy your judgment, but he never warms your heart. As you read his work, you affent to the truth of his propofitions, but he does not roufe you to action. He thows you indeed the beauty of virtue; but it is in the abstract, not the concrete. How fuperior to fuch cold and formal morality is the ardour which the Chriftian revelation infpires! There is more excitement to virtuous conduct in the fingle parable of the

Good Samaritan, than in all the Nicomachean, of the Great Morals of Ariftocle.

His treatife on ethics is introductory to his politics. In his politics, he ftates the general theory of government, the duties of governors, and the various conftitutions at that time established, particularly in Lacedemon and Carthage. He expofes the defects of Plato's plan of a republic, and propofes another equally chimerical. His political opinions are not without ufe in the prefent times, as he was fully convinced of the evils refulting from democratical governments, and was a friend to monarchy, the different kinds of which he explains.

His Rhetoric contains an application of his logic to the art of perfuafion. He founds his treatife on this juft principle, that to be eloquent, à man must be a found reafoner. In all his obfervations on the three kinds of eloquence, the demonftrative, the deliberative, and the judicial, the paffions, the manners, and on the various kinds of ftyle, it is difficult to decide whether he excels more in profound knowledge of his fubject, or a clofe infight into human nature.

His treatife on Poetry, very imperfect as the work has come down to us, gives ample proof of his judgment and tafte. His principles of criticifm are founded upon the beft examples of Grecian genius, as difplayed in Epic poetry, tragedy,

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and comedy. He traces the hiftory of each from its birth to its maturity, analyfes them into their component parts, and fixes their comparative merits. He gives the palm of preference to the tragic mufe for her power in moving the paffions of fear and pity, and her fudden effect upon the mind.

The rhetoric and the poetic of Ariftotle are the original codes of criticism. Additional Epic poems, orations, and plays, have indeed fince been written, and the works of Virgil, Shakespeare, and Milton, have increafed the fubjects of judgment; but its leading principles, founded in nature and truth, and ftated by Ariftotle, are still the fame. He muft ever be regarded as the copious fource of the art from which Cicero, Horace, Quintilian, Boileau, and Pope, have derived much of their streams.

The liberty of Greece gave full fcope to the efforts of public fpeakers. The Athenians were gratified with listening to the orations of the artful Lyfias, the bold Demades, the empaffioned Hyperides, the fevere Lycurgus, and the learned Æfchines. But the palm of eloquence, thus contended for by his countrymen, is juftly affigned to DEMOSTHENES'. Severe and majestic energy is the characteristic of his fentiments and language. While he roufed his flothful and dilatory country

s Demofthenes, B. C. 339.

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