Lives of Eminent Zoologists, from Aristotle to Linnæus: with Introductory remarks on the Study of Natural History — Aristotle — John Shaqi
Lives of Eminent Zoologists, from Aristotle to Linnæus: with Introductory remarks on the Study of Natural History
Aristotle · en
Notwithstanding the coolness which thus existed between "Macedonia's
madman" and "the Stagirite," the latter continued to enjoy at least an
appearance of protection, which prevented his enemies from seriously
molesting him. But as the splendour of his talents, his success in
teaching, and the celebrity which he had acquired in all parts of
Greece, had excited the animosity of those who found themselves eclipsed
by the brightness of his genius, no sooner was Alexander dead, than they
stirred up a priest, named Eurymedon, with whom was associated
Demophilus, a powerful citizen, to prefer a charge of impiety against
him before the court of Areopagus, on the ground that he had
commemorated the virtues of his wife and of his friend Hermeias with
such honours as were exclusively bestowed on the gods. Warned by the
fate of Socrates under similar circumstances, he judged it prudent to
retire; remarking, that he wished to spare the Athenians the disgrace of
committing another act of injustice against philosophy.
He effected his escape, with a few friends, to Chalcis in Euboea,
where he died soon after, in the year 322 B.C., and the 63d of his age;
having, on his deathbed, appointed Theophrastus of Lesbos, one of his
favourite pupils, his successor at the Lyceum. Various accounts are
given of his demise; but it is probable that an overexcited mind, and a
body worn out by disease, were the real causes of his dissolution.
According to Procopius and others, Aristotle drowned himself in the
Euboean Euripus, because he could not discover the cause of its ebbing
and flowing, which are said to take place seven times a-day. Sir Thomas
Browne, in his Enquiries into Vulgar and Common Errors, refutes this
assertion on the following grounds:--In the first place, his death is
related to have taken place in two ways by Diogenes Laertius; the one,
from Eumolus and Phavorinus, that being accused of impiety for composing
a hymn to his friend Hermeias, he withdrew to Chalcis, where he drank
poison; the other, by Apollodorus, that he died of a disease in his
stomach, in his sixty-third year. Again, the thing is in itself
unreasonable, and therefore improbable; for Aristotle was not so apt to
be vexed by the difficulty of accounting for natural phenomena, nor is
there any evidence that he endeavoured to discover the ebb and flow of
the Euripus, for he has made no mention of it in his works. Lastly, the
phenomenon itself is disputable; and it appears from a comparison of
testimonies on the subject, that the stream in question flows and ebbs
only four times a-day, as is the case with other parts of the sea,
though it is subject to irregularities dependent upon the winds and
other causes. "However, therefore, Aristotle died," concludes our
author, "what was his end, or upon what occasion, although it be not
altogether assured, yet that his memory and worthy name shall live, no
man will deny, nor gratefull schollar doubt: and if, according to the