[b] Cicero has left a book, entitled TOPICA, in which he treats at large of the method of finding proper arguments. This, he observes, was executed by Aristotle, whom he pronounces the great master both of invention and judgement. _Cum omnis ratio diligens disserendi duas habeat partes; unam INVENIENDI, alteram JUDICANDI; utriusque princeps, ut mihi quidem videtur, Aristoteles fuit._ Ciceronis _Topica_, s. vi. The sources from which arguments may be drawn, are called LOCI COMMUNES, COMMON PLACES. To supply the orator with ample materials, and to render him copious on every subject, was the design of the Greek preceptor, and for that purpose he gave his TOPICA. _Aristoteles adolescentes, non ad philosophorum morem tenuiter disserendi, sed ad copiam rhetorum in utramque partem, ut ornatius et uberius dici posset, exercuit; idemque locos (sic enim appellat) quasi argumentorum notas tradidit, unde omnis in utramque partem traheretur oratio._ Cicero, _De Oratore_. Aristotle was the most eminent of Plato's scholars: he retired to a _gymnasium_, or place of exercise, in the neighbourhood of Athens, called the _Lyceum_, where, from a custom, which he and his followers observed, of discussing points of philosophy, as they walked in the _porticos_ of the place, they obtained the name of Peripatetics, or the walking philosophers. See Middleton's _Life of Cicero_, vol. ii. p. 537, 4to edit. [c] The academic sect derived its origin from Socrates, and its name from a celebrated _gymnasium_, or place of exercise, in the suburbs of Athens, called the _Academy_, after _Ecademus_, who possessed it in the time of the _Tyndaridæ_. It was afterwards purchased, and dedicated to the public, for the convenience of walks and exercises for the citizens of Athens. It was gradually improved with plantations, groves and porticos for the particular use of the professors or masters of the academic school; where several of them are said to have spent their lives, and to have resided so strictly, as scarce ever to have come within the city. See Middleton's _Life of Cicero_, 4to edit. vol. ii. p. 536. Plato, and his followers, continued to reside in the porticos of the academy. They chose ----The green retreats Of Academus, and the thymy vale, Where, oft inchanted with Socratic sounds, Ilyssus pure devolv'd his tuneful stream In gentle murmurs. AKENSIDE, PLEAS. OF IMAG.