A DISSERTATION ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF ARISTOTLE, IN FOUR BOOKS. IN WHICH HIS PRINCIPAL PHYSICAL AND METAPHYSICAL DOGMAS ARE UNFOLDED; BEEN ACCURATELY KNOWN SINCE THE DESTRUCTION OF THE GREEKS. THE INSUFFICIENCY ALSO OF THE PHILOSOPHY THAT HAS BEEN SUBSTITUTED BY THE MODERNS FOR THAT OF ARISTOTLE, is demONSTRATED. BY THOMAS TAYLOR. JOVE HONOURS ME AND FAVOURS MY DESIGNS. POPE'S HOM. IL. Book 9, v. 717. Τουτον εγω φαίην αν φιλοσοφίας τυπον εις ανθρώπους ελθειν, επ' ευεργεσία των τηδε Ψύχων, PROCL. MS. COMMENT, IN PARMENIDEM. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, MANOR-PLACE, WALWORTH, BY ROBERT WILKS, S9, CHANCERY-LANE, FLEET-STREET, LONDON. SOLD BY WHITE, COCHRANE, AND CO. FLEET-STREET; AND BLACK, PARRY, AND CO. 1812. PREFACE. As the first and second books of this Dissertation are scarcely any thing else than a Collection from the volumes of my translation of Aristotle's Works, it is necessary to observe, that my reason for so doing was, that I might benefit as much as possible those who were not purchasers of that translation. For as it consists of nine volumes 4to, and fifty copies only of it were printed, it must unavoidably be confined to a few purchasers. Of the present volume, therefore, a greater number than fifty were printed, in order that those English readers might be in possession of the principal physical and metaphysical dogmas of Aristotle, who by the magnitude of the price, and the paucity of the copies, were prevented from obtaining the translation of the whole of his Works. Conceiving also, that it would be more acceptable to the reader, to present him with these dogmas in their most genuine form, I have given them in the very words of Aristotle himself; and have added the commentaries on them of his best Greek disciples. For I have neither the arrogance to suppose, that any explanations of mine could be sufficient to supersede the elucidations of these excellent men, nor the audacity to destroy Aristotle's very scientific method of philosophizing, by attemping, like the ephemeral writers of the age, to exhibit his doctrines in a form calculated to satisfy the superficial, and captivate the vulgar. As an apology for the freedom with which I have censured modern writers and modern opinions, I deem it will be sufficient to observe, that I write a 2 |