[Footnote 31: Plutarch, Sylla, c. xxvi. Spengel ("Ueber die Reihenfolge der naturwissenschaftlichen Schriften des Aristoteles," München. philol. Abhandl. 1848,) remarks justly that the critical arrangement of Aristotle's writings, for collective publication, begins from the library of Apellikon at Rome, not from that of Alexandria. See p. 146: "Mehr als zweihundert Jahre lang fehlt uns alle nähere Kunde über die peripatetische Schule. Erst mit der viel besprochenen Auffindung der Bibliothek des Aristoteles in Athen und deren Wegführung nach Rom durch Sulla wird ein regeres Studium für die Schriften des Philosophen bemerkbar--_und zwar jetzt eigentlich der Schriften, weniger der Lehre und Philosophie im Allgemeinen, welche früher allein beachtet worden ist_. Wir möchten sagen, von jetzt an beginne das philologische Studium mit den Werken des Aristoteles, die kritische und exegetische Behandlung dieser durch Tyrannion, Andronikus, Adrastus und viele andre nachlfolgende," &c.] The explanation just given, coinciding on many points with Brandis and Heitz, affords the most probable elucidation of that obscurity which arises about the Aristotelian Canon, when we compare _our_ Aristotle with the Catalogue of Diogenes--the partial likeness, but still greater discrepancy, between the two. It is certain that neither Cicero[32] nor the great Alexandrine _literati_, anterior to and contemporary with him, knew Aristotle from most of the works which we now possess. They knew him chiefly from the dialogues, the matters of history and legend, some zoological books, and the problems; the dialogues, and the historical collections respecting the constitutions of Hellenic cities,[33] being more popular and better known than any other works. While the Republic of Plato is familiar to them, they exhibit no knowledge of our Aristotelian Politica, in which treatise the criticism upon the Platonic Republic is among the most interesting parts. When we look through the contents of our editions of Aristotle the style and manner of handling is indeed pretty much the same throughout, but the subjects will appear extremely diverse and multifarious; and the encyclopedical character of the author, as to science and its applications, will strike us forcibly. The entire and real Aristotle, however, was not only more encyclopedical as to subjects handled, but also more variable as to style and manner of handling; passing from the smooth, sweet, and flowing style--which Cicero extols as characterizing the Aristotelian dialogues--to the elliptical brevity and obscurity which we now find so puzzling in the De Animâ and the Metaphysica.[34]