3. This tendency, however, is not limited to the use of philosophical terms. Aristotle states the general position of earlier thinkers from the standpoint of his own developed system. The arguments of Zeno and Melissos are thrown into logical form that he may the better criticise them. Herakleitean teachings also are stated in Aristotelian logic, and thereby lose the truth they might have had. Aristotle finds his own theory of indeterminate potential matter in Anaximandros, and it is no easy task to discern what is due to Aristotle and what to Anaximandros in the Aristotelian account. Again in the case of Parmenides we may well question the statement[111] that his two principles were heat = fire = _being_, and cold = earth = _not-being_. 4. Finally Aristotle may be said to give a false impression of his predecessors when he assigns the probable causes for their opinions. Cf. _Meta._ 983 b 18, supra p. 2; _Phys._ 204 b 26, supra p. 10 ‘in order that other things may not be blotted out by the infinite;’ _de anima_ 405 a 25, supra p. 58. The mere statement of these lines, along which Aristotle may be said slightly to distort the views of his predecessors, is sufficient to put the reader on his guard; and it is comparatively easy to make allowance for them. § 5. The fragments of Theophrastos that remain are sufficient only to show that he studied the work of the pre-Sokratic thinkers even more carefully than Aristotle; to make any exact inferences as to his method of making quotations, however, is impossible on the basis of these fragments. Four of his quotations are also cited by Aristotle,[112] and it is interesting to notice that in the second and the fourth of this list Theophrastos gives a text that is probably more correct than that found in our MSS. of Aristotle. The remaining quotations found in Theophrastos[113] show a familiarity only with Empedokles. Only one of these scans correctly, and that by the change of one word, which probably was erroneously copied. Ll. 191-192 have lost some words, and ll. 423-424 are quite rewritten in prose. Apparently Theophrastos was even more careless of the form of his quotations than Aristotle, though he knows the early thinkers at first hand and can correct Aristotle’s quotations. The statement of the _opinions_ of these thinkers by Theophrastos will be considered later in connection with the doxographic tradition.