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Therefore it seems not unreasonable to me to take
next into our consideration, as it were all in a train, what
he has also said against him. But first let us contemplate
a little the diligence–together with the manifold and
profound knowledge—of this our philosopher, who says,
that Aristotle, Xenocrates, Theophrastus, and all the
Peripatetics have followed these doctrines of Plato. For
in what corner of the uninhabitable world have you, O
Colotes, written your book, that, composing all these accusations against such personages, you never have lighted upon
their works, nor have taken into your hands the books of
Aristotle concerning Heaven and the Soul, nor those of
Theophrastus against the Naturalists, nor the Zoroaster
of Heraclides, nor his books of Hell, nor that of Natural
Doubts and Difficulties, nor the book of Dicaearchus concerning the Soul; in all which books they are in the highest degree contradictory and repugnant to Plato about the
principal and greatest points of natural philosophy? Nay,
Strato himself, the very head and prince of the other Peripatetics, agrees not in many things with Aristotle, and
holds opinions altogether contrary to Plato, concerning
motion, the understanding, the soul, and generation. In
fine, he says that the world is not an animal, and that
what is according to Nature follows what is according to
Fortune; for that Chance gave the beginning, and so every
one of the natural effects was afterwards finished.
Now as to the ideas,—for which he quarrels with Plato,
—Aristotle, by moving this matter at every turn, and alleging
[p. 356]
all manner of doubts concerning them, in his Ethics,
in his Physics, and in his Exoterical Dialogues seems to
some rather obstinately than philosophically to have disputed against these doctrines, as having proposed to himself the debasing and undervaluing of Plato's philosophy;
so far he was from following it. What an impudent rashness then is this, that having neither seen nor understood
what these persons have written and what were their opinions, he should go and devise such things as they never
imagined; and persuading himself that he reprehends and
refutes others, he should produce a proof, written with his
own hand, arguing and convincing himself of ignorance,
licentiousness, and shameful impudence, in saying that
those who contradict Plato agree with him, and that those
who oppose him follow him?
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 5.
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