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VII. CRITICAL NOTICES. The Ethics of Aristotle. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by JOHN BUKNET, M.A., Professor of Greek in the United College of St. Salvator and St. Leonard, St. Andrews. Intro- duction, pp. lii., text, etc., pp. 502. FOB several years students of Greek philosophy have looked for- ward with much interest to the publication of a commentary by Prof. Burnet on the Nicomachean Ethics. The author's brilliant work on Early Greek Philosophy naturally led to the highest expectations, and it is just possible that many people may receive this commentary with a slight feeling of disappointment. The brevity of the introductions (general and special) may tend to arouse the suspicion that an undue amount of attention has been given to the text, and that the present work is in the main merely another text of the Ethics. When, however, feelings of this kind are put aside, and the work is considered strictly as a contribution to the interpretation of the Ethics, there can be but one verdict as to its quality and value. Mr. Burnet informs us that the present edition of the Ethics was originally planned, and most of it written, on a more extensive scale. The work was laid aside when it was known that Mr. Bywater was about to publish a revised text, and Mr. Stewart Notes on the Nicomachean Ethics : and is now produced at the request of the publishers in a less elaborate form. No doubt it might be held that a commentary should lean as far as possible to the side of brevity. But it will be noticed that Mr. Burnet abbre- viated his commentary, not for this reason, but because a more elaborate commentary was on the point of being produced. The inconvenience of the present arrangement for the ordinary English student is obvious. He must acquire all three works, Mr. By- water's, Mr. Stewart's and Mr. Burnet's : Mr. Burnet's alone, in its original form, would have served. Besides, the scale of Mr. Burnet's commentary is very different from that of the Notes. The latter must be at least five times greater in amount, so that Mr. Burnet's commentary might have been much more elaborate without even approaching the magnitude of the Notes. On the whole, therefore, one cannot help regretting that Mr. Burnet did not carry out his original plan. Everything that he writes about Greek Philosophy is so interesting that one does not like to miss any of it.