remains from the pen of this Christian philoso-
pher. Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. iv. c. 3. Hieron.
de Vir. Ill. c. 20. Id. ad Magn. ep. 84. Lard-
ner's Credibility, part ii. c. 28. 2.-E.
§

stupid as to despise fame, if it be the reward of eloquence and a life of virtue, and I do not desire to obtain it by any other means." And, in another place (Orat. Plat. secunda.): "I had rather be master of eloquent speech, with a sober and virtuous life, than enjoy a thousand times the wealth of Darius the son of Hystaspes." Such a man, with all his errors and weaknesses, must be respected as an ornament to the age in which he lives. Philostr. Vit. Sophist. Suidas. Fabric. Bib. Græc. lib. iv. c. 30. § 4, 5. Lardner's Heathen Testimonies, c. 20.-E.

ARISTIPPUS, a Grecian philosopher, the founder of the Cyrenaic sect, was born at Cyrene in Africa, and flourished about 400 years before Christ. In his youth, when he was attending the Olympic games, he heard such particulars concerning the wisdom of Socrates, and his method of instructing youth, as inspired him with an ardent desire of becoming one of his disciples. Leaving his native city, where he had large possessions, he took up his residence at Athens, and attended the school of Socrates. At first he was much delighted with the doctrine of a master who professed to prescribe the true remedy for the ills of life, and to conduct his followers to happiness on the path of wisdom: but he soon found the moral system of Socrates too severe to suit his inclinations, and indulged himself in a luxurious and effeminate manner of living. His behaviour displeased Socrates, and gave occasion to an excellent Lecture on Pleasure, preserved by Xenophon (Memorab. lib.

ARISTIDES, an eminent painter, a native of Thebes, and contemporary with Apelles, flourished about B. C. 340. He is said to have been the first who painted mind, and expressed the affections and passions. A famous picture of this kind was that of a mother, in a captured town, mortally wounded, and her infant seeking the breast; in which the mother seemed apprehensive lest the child should suck blood in stead of milk. Alexander carried this piece to Pella in Macedon. Aristides also painted a battle with the Persians, comprehending one

of Socrates.

It was, pe pus instituted

place, w

ough it mus stain informa

hundred figures. At Rome was a Bacchus and ii.). The expensive habits which Aristippusing the lif

Ariadne by his hand, part of the plunder of Corinth. Concerning this picture it is said, that when Mummius put up the spoil of that city to

formed, excited a desire of gain, which induced
him, while he was a pupil of Socrates, to open

At the period

a school of rhetoric; and he was the first of the tyrant of Sic auction, Attalus king of Pergamus bought it Socratic school who took money for teaching. Sophers, Aris at a price which so much surprised the Roman Socrates, who remarked his extravagance, ask-pince; and t which he was ignorant, he annulled the bar- came you (he replied) to have so little?" From him an advan general, that, suspecting some secret value, of ed him how he came to have so much?"How the convenien gain, to the great displeasure of Attalus, and the profits of his own school of rhetoric he sent Sorging the hum reserved the work for the temple of Ceres at crates, probably in hopes of silencing his reproots came to Svra ter is related to have given one hundred talents. however, returned the present, saying that b "To give wh In the Capitol was an old man with a lyre teach- dæmon forbade him to receive it. From have not." ing a boy to play, by Aristides. A sick man of time Aristippus alienated himself from his mus required a his painting was greatly admired. Expression ter, and soon afterwards left his. school, robes, Plato re No longer the pupil of wisdom, but of paced with all the

Rome.

seems to have been his distinguishing excellence. In colouring he was somewhat hard. Plinii. Hist. Nat. lib. xxxv.-A.

ARISTIDES, an Athenian philosopher of the second century, became a convert to the Christian faith. He was an cloquent teacher

withdrew from Athens.

sure, Aristippus now visited the island of
na.

himself with a

At the annual festival of Neptune thodate himself to

lebrated Laïs, according to her usual pra
was present; and the philosopher beca

Corinth. (Cic. Ep. Fam. lib. ix. ep. 26. A
On the passage, a

Aristippus every dr

of philosophy, and after his conversion re- captive to her charms, and accompanied Aristippum decuit In this habit he presented, at the same time with lib. v. p. 216. xii. p. 554. xii. p. 559. fairs, in every sta

tained the profession and habit of a philosopher.

Quadratus," An Apology for the Christian
Faith" to the emperor Adrian. Of this work
Jerom speaks as a monument of the writer's in-

saubon, 1612.)

arising, at which he appeared terrifie
of the crew said to him: "Why

led to please the

genuity in another place he observes, that it philosophers more afraid than we ?" he possessed in th

was interspersed with sentences from the philo

(says he) we have more to lose."

logy which he presented to the emperor Anto- c. 1.) At Corinth Aristippus devote

resentment. WE

sophers; and that Justin imitated it in the Apo- Hist. Var. lib. ix. § 20. Aul. Gelle ridiculed their! ainus Pius. It is to be lamented, that nothing to voluptuousness, and apologised to pus left Syracuse

66

ARI

(373)

duct by saying, "that it was not pleasure that
was criminal, but being the slave of pleasure.'
In a voyage which Aristippus made into Asia
from Corinth, the vessel was shipwrecked on
the island of Rhodes. Accidentally observing,
as he came on shore, a geometrical diagram
drawn upon the sand, he said to his companions,
Take courage, I see the footsteps of men."
(Vitruv. Arch. lib. vi. Diod. Sic. lib. xiv.)
When they arrived at the principal town of the
island, the philosopher soon procured a hospi-
table reception for himself and his fellow-tra-
vellers; herein confirming one of his own
aphorisms: "If you ask what advantage a man
of letters has above one that is illiterate; send
him among strangers, and you will see." From
Asia Aristippus probably returned to Corinth,
and thence to Ægina; for Plato (Phædon.)
says, that he remained at Ægina till the death

of Socrates.

ARI

nor is it certain whether he went back into his own country. The Socratic Epistles, by which we are informed that his daughter Arete wrote sick and died at the island of Lipara on his reto him to request his return, and that he fell turn home, are probably spurious. The last incident concerning him, which deserves credit, is, that Aschines, after his return from Sicily, found Aristippus teaching at Athens: this was, perhaps, about the year 366 before Christ.

fathered upon Aristippus, cannot be necessary. To repeat all the dull or loose jests which are have been transmitted under his name, may be acceptable. Polyxenus, a friend of Aristippus, A few smart repartees and good maxims, which happening to call upon him when great preparations were making for an entertainment, entered into a long discourse against luxury: Aristippus grew tired with his harangue, and invited cepted the invitation: "I perceive then (said Aristippus) it is not the luxury of my table that him to stay and sup with him: Polyxenus acoffends you, but the expense." Being asked b Dionysius, why philosophers frequented the houses of the great, but not the great those of philosophers; he replied, “because philosophers At the period when the court of Dionysius theirs." To one who had asked what he had know their wants, but the great did not know philosophers, Aristippus appeared in the train of dence to speak freely to any man." Being rethe tyrant of Sicily was the general resort of gained by philosophy, he answered, "Confithat prince; and the easy gaiety of his manners, proached with his expensive entertainments;

pus

It was, perhaps, about this time that Aristipinstituted his school at Cyrene, which, from the place, was called the Cyrenaic sect; al though it must be owned, that we have little certain information concerning this school, either during the life of its founder or after his

death.

and the convenient suppleness of his system,

When

"If this be wrong (he said), why is so much

A wealthy citizen complaining that Aristippus,

gave him an advantage over all his brethren in money lavished upon the feasts of the gods?" he first came to Syracuse, Dionysius asked him in asking five hundred crowns to instruct his managing the humours of the tyrant. When Why he visited his court?" Aristippus re- son, had required as much as would purchase a Wied, "To give what I have, and to receive slave; "Purchase one then with the money Dionysius required all the guests to appear in two." To one who was boasting of his skill that I have not." At a public festival, when (said the philosopher), and you will be master of rple robes, Plato refused; but Aristippus a- and activity in swimming, he said," Are you ned himself with a rich and splendid dress, not ashamed to value yourself upon that which

By

=: danced with all the ease of a courtier. happy versatility which enabled him to mmodate himself to every circumstance, so

r failed to please the tyrant. The inte

a

every dolphin can do better?" In the midst of dispute with his friend Eschines, when both were growing warm, "Let us give over (he said) before we make ourselves the talk of servants; we have quarrelled, it is true, but I, as your senior, have a right to make the first motion towards reconciliation." Eschines accepted the proposal, and acknowledged his friend's superior generosity. "Philosophers (said Aristippus) excel other men in this, that, if there were no laws, they would live honestly.-It is

Ech he possessed in the royal favour ex- better to be poor than illiterate; for the poor
envy of his brethren; and the freedom man wants only money, the illiterate man wants
ch he ridiculed their singularities, pro- that which distinguishes man from the brute.
eir resentment. When, or from what Ther
Uppus left Syracuse, is not known; but a

as the healthful man is not he who eats most, but he who eats what nature requires. Young people should be taught whatever may be useful to them when they become men." Horace alludes to a tale concerning Aristippus, that, on his journey through Libya, he ordered his servants to throw away his money in order to lighten their burden (Hor. Sat. lib. ii. 3. 99.): but this story can hardly be credited of a man who appears to have been always fond of wealth and splendor.

Aristippus was the man of pleasure in practice, and the preceptor of pleasure in profession. Like Socrates he dismissed from his doctrine those speculations which have no concern with the conduct of life; but he by no means adhered to the pure system of morals which he had learned in the school of that preceptor of virtue. The fundamental principle of his doctrine, as far as it can be learned from the imperfect accounts of it which remain, was, that pleasure is the ultimate object of human pursuit; and that it is only in subserviency to this that wealth, fame, friendship, or even virtue, is to be desired. The business of philosophy he understood to be, to regulate the senses in such manner as will render them most productive of pleasure. Happiness he defined to be the aggregate of all the pleasures enjoyed through life. He held the pleasures of the body to be superior to those of the mind; yet he did not exclude the latter, not derive all enjoyment from the selfish gratification of the senses. He admitted that pleasure might be derived from the happiness of others, and that we ought to rejoice in the prosperity of our country. (Diog. Laert. Cic.de Fin. lib. ii. c. 71. lib. v. c. 128. Tusc. Quaest. lib. i. c. 6. iii. 13. De Off. iii. 33. Ælian, lib. xiv. §.6.) Though his doctrine corrupted the Socratic stream, it retained some tincture of the pure fountain from which it flowed; and it is probable that Aristippus himself always retained a high respect for the character of his master; for it is related, that, when the death of Socrates was the subject of conversation, he said, "My only wish is, that I may die as he did.”

The school of Aristippus, at Cyrene, was continued in succession by his daughter Arete, Hegesias, Anicerris, Theodorus, and Bion, and about an hundred years after its birth expired; partly owing perhaps to the freedom with which its professors lived as well as taught; but chiefly to the rise of the Epicurean sect, which gave a more philosophical and less exceptionable form to the doctrine of pleasure. Diog. Laërt. Vit. Arist. Stanley. Brucker.-E.

ARISTO OF CHIOS, a Greek philosopher of the Stoic sect, flourished about 260 years before Christ. He was an intimate associate of Perseus the son of Demetrius, and with him attended upon the lectures of Zeno. From his persuasive powers of eloquence he was called the Siren. Offending his master by his voluptuous manner of life, he went over to the school of Polemo, and afterwards attempted to institute a sect of his own. He dismissed from his plan of instruction both logic and physics; the former as useless, the latter as above our comprehension. Syllogisms, he said, were like cobwebs, artificially constructed, but too fine to be useful. In opposition to Arcesilaus, who taught the doctrine of uncertainty, he strenuously main-tained, that the wise man does not opine but know. In order to refute this tenet, Perseus engaged one of twin brothers, who strongly resembled each other, to lodge a deposit in his hands, which the other afterwards demanded, and, after some hesitation on the part of Aristo, received; whence Aristo was taught, that he might form an opinion without possessing knowledge. In morals, this philosopher, according to the representation of Cicero, carried the Stoic doctrine beyond the line of his master; not only asserting, that virtue alone constitutes the supreme good, but that in other things there is no difference (Cic. de Fin. lib. iv. c. 27.), which can make one more to be desired than another. According to Diogenes Laërtius, he went still farther, and applied the doctrine of indifference even to moral actions; teaching, that all actions are alike, and that to a wise man it is the same thing, whether he perform the part of an Agamemnon or a Thersites, provided only that he perform it well. Seneca charges him with rejecting the preceptive part of philosophy respecting the particular duties of life, and contemning it, as belonging rather to the pædagogue than the philosopher; "as if (says that moralist) the philosopher were any thing else than a pædagogue of human kind." (Ep. 89. 94.) If Aristo discouraged the use of moral aphorisms and maxims, he slighted one of the most powerful instruments of moral discipline. "Precepts," observes Seneca (Ep. 94.), "come by themselves with great weight upon the mind, whether they be woven into a verse, or reduced to a concise sentence in prose.' e." Concerning the Divine Nature, Aristo taught that it is incomprehensible. He despaired of being able to understand the greatness of God (Minuc. Felix, p. 154.); and not only thought that the nature of God cannot be comprehended, but doubted whether the Gods have perception or animal life