AH I

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AH I

which was translated into Latin and commented upon by Com*mandine, who published it with Pappus’s explanations in 1572.

ARISTEA, a genus of plants of the triandria monogynia classand order. Petals six; style declined; stigma gaping, funnel-form ; capsule inferior, many-seeded. It has but one species.

ARISTIDA, a genus of the triandria digynia class of plants, thecalyx is a bivalve subulated glume ; corolla a glume one-valvedopening longitudinally, hairy at the base, and terminated by threeawns; seed naked, filiform, single. There are ten species.

ARISTIDES, a celebrated Athenian general, siirnamed theJust, flourished at the same time with Themistocles , who triumphedover him by his boisterous eloquence, and got him banished,13. C. 483, but Aristides being recalled a short time after, wouldnever join with the enemies of Themistocles to get him banished ;for nothing could make him deviate from the strictest rides ofmoderation and justice. Aristides brought the Greeks to uniteagainst the Persians ; distinguished himself at the famous battles ofhlarathon, Salamine and Platea; and established an annual in-come of 460 talents for a fund to bear the expences of war. 'Phisgreat man died so poor, though he had the management of therevenues of Greece , that the state was obliged to pay his funeralexpences, to give fortunes to his daughters in marriage, and amaintenance to his son Lvsimachus.

ARISTIPPUS, a native of Gyrene in Libya, the founder ofthe Cyrenaic sect of philosophy, the son of Aretades, flourishedabout"400 B. C. lie attended the discourses of Socrates , but heldthat pleasure constitutes the ultimate end of all happiness.Ilis manner of life was agreeable to his opinion; for he indulgedhimself extremely in all the luxuries of dress, wine, and women.Upon his leaving" Socrates , he went to iEgina, as Athena-us informsus where he lived with more freedom and luxury than before.Socrates sent frequent exhortations to him, in order to reclaimhim; but all in vain. After the death of Socrates , he returnedto Gyrene, where he professed philosophy, and instituted a sectwhich was called the Gyrenaic, from the place, and the Hedonic or the voluptuous from its doctrines. lie among other philoso-phers resorted to Dionysius who asking him the reason of hiscoming, he replied, “ That when he wanted wisdom, he went toSocrates ; but now as he wanted money, he was come to him.” liesoon insinuated himself into the favour of Dionysius; for, being aman of an easy temper, he conformed himself to every place, time,and person, and was a complete master of the most refined com-plaisance. Having desired money of Dionysius, the latter ob-served to him, that he had assured him a wise man wanted nothing.“ Give me,” says he, “ what I ask and we will talk of that after-wards.” When’Dionysius had given it him, “Now (says lie,)you see I do not want.” Aristippus surpassed all the philosophersin the acuteness of his apophthegms. Being once railed at, heleft the room; and the person who abused him, following him, andasking him why he went away, he answ ered, “ Because it is invour power to rail, but it is not in my power not to hear you.”Being reproached, because, having a suit of law depending, hepaid a lawyer to plead for him, “Just so (said he,) when 1 have agreat supper to make, I always hire a cook.” Being reproved byPlato for his costly feasts, “ I warrant you (said lie,) that youwould not have bestowed three farthings upon such a dinner;”which the other confessing, “ Why, then,” said he “ I find that Ilove my belly, and you love your money.” Having receivedmoney of Dionysius at the same time that Plato accepted a bookonly, and being reproached for it. “The reason is plain (said he,)I want money, and Plato wants books.” Having lost a consider-able farm, he said to one who seemed to compassionate his loss,“ You have but one field; l have three left: why should not 1rather mieve for you r” When a person told him, “ That theland for his sake’was lost,” he replied, “ That it was better so,than that he should be lost for the sake of the land.” With re-gard to his principal opinions ; like Socrates , he rejected thesciences as they were then taught, and pretended that logic alonewas sufficient to teach truth and fix its bounds. He asserted, thatpleasure and pain were the criterion* by which we were to be de-termined ; that these alone made up all our passions ; that the firstproduced all the soft emotions, and the latter all the violent ones.The assemblage of all pleasure, he asserted, made true happiness,and the best wav to attain this was to enjoy the present moments.He wrote a great many books: particularly the History of I .ibya,dedicated to Dionysius; several Dialogues; and four books onvoi-. i —vo 14.

the Luxury of the Ancients. There are four of his epistles extantin the Socratic Gollection published by Leo Allatius . BesidesArete his daughter, whom he educated in philo-ophy, Aristippu?had also a son, whom he disinherited for his stupidity. Arete hada son, who was named Aristippus from his grandfather, and hadthe surname of MxrcoiiiaxT©- from his mother’s instructing him inphilosophy.

ARISTO, a stoic philosopher, the disciple of Zeno, flourishedabout B. G. 2t)0. lie differed from his master. lie rejected logicas of no use*, and natural philosophy, as above the reach of humanunderstanding. It is said, that being bald, the sun burnt his head,and this caused his death. There is a saying of his recorded,which might render the doctrine of Aristippus less odious than itordinarily is, viz. “ That a philosopher might do those of hishearers a prejudice who put a wrong interpretation upon goodmeanings; for example, that the school of Aristippus mightsend out debauchees, and that of Zeno, Gynics:” which seems toimply, that the doctrine of this philosopher never produced thisefl’eci, but w hen it was misunderstood.

ARISTOCRACY, [apr®-, greatest, and x«t7tw, (o govern.jThat form of government which places the supreme power inthe nobles, without a king, and exclusively of the people. Theterm is also olten used for the nobility of a country, under a mo-narchy or any form of government. Aristocracy seems to coin-cide with Oligarchy ; which, however, is more ordinarily usedto signify a corruption of an aristocratical state, where the admi-nistration is in the hands of too few, or w here some one or twousurp the w hole power.

ARiSTOLOGHIA, Birthwort: A genus of the lrexandriaorder, and gynandria class of pjants; and in the natural order,Sarmentacea'. No calvx; corolla one-petaled ; capsule below 1 ,the flower six-celled. The species are 27, chiefly foreign.

ARISTOPHANES , a celebrated comic poet of Athens, co-temporary with 1’iato, Socrates, and Euripides , most of his playswere written during the Peloponnesian war . 11 is imagination waswarm and lively, and his genius particularly turned to raillery.He had also great spirit ami resolution ; and was a declared ene-my to slavery, and to all who wished to oppress their country'.IVhen Dionysius king of Syracuse desired to learn the stale andlanguage of Athens, Plato sent him the comedies of Aristophanes ,telling him, these were the best representations of them. Hewrote above 50 comedies; but only 11 are extant, which arecomplete, viz. l’lutus, the Clouds, the Frogs , Equites, the Acar-nenses, the Wasps, Peace, the Birds , the Ecclesiazusa: or Fe-male Orators, the Thesmophosiazusa: or Priestesses of Geres, andLvsistrata. The Clouds, which he wrote in ridicule of Socrates ,is the most celebrated of all his comedies. He invented a pecu-liar kind of verse, which was called by his name, and is men-tioned bv Cicero, in his Brutus ; and Suidas says, he was also theinventor of the tetrametO and octameter verse. Aristophanes was greatly admired among the ancients, especially for the trueattic elegance of his stvle. The time of his death is unknown ;but he was living after the expulsion of the tyrants by Thrasybu-lus, whom he mentions in his Plutus and other comedies. '1 herehave been several editions and translations of his works. Th<*best edition is that published by Ludolplms Muster, at Amster-dam , in folio, in 1710, and dedicated to the Earl of Halifax.

ARISTOTEL1A, in antiquity, annual feasts celebrated by th«citizens of Staging in honour of Aristotle .

Aristotklta, in botany, a genus of the dodecandria class ani\monogynia order : calyx five-leaved ; petals five; style three-cleft;bcrry three-celled; seeds six. One species found hi Chili, a shrub,leaves ever-green.

ARISTOTELIAN Philosophy, the philosophy tamrht byAristotle , and maintained by his follow ers. It is also called thePeripatetic philosophy. See Pkripatktics.

.ARISTOTELIANS, a sect of philosophers, called also Peri-patetics; which see.

ARISTOTELICA Rota. See Rota.

ARISTOTLE, the head of the Peripatetic philosophers, boraat Stagyra, a small city in Macedon, B. G. 384. He was the sonof Nicomachus, physician to Amynlas, the grandfather of Alex-ander the Great . He lost his parents while young, on whichit is said he gave himself up to the follies of youth. Others sav,he'studied under Plato , from the age of IS, till he was 37. Hefollowed his studies with most exlvaordinarv diligence, so that he3 M soon