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ARI
at Stagy ra, a Town of Macedonia ; whence he is alfo called the Stagyrite.
At 17 Tears of Age he entred himfelf a Difciple of Plato, and attended in the Academy 20 Years. See Academy.
Being then fent on an Embafly from the Athenians to King 'Philip* he found, at his Return, that Xenocrates, du- ring his Abfence, had put himfelf at the Head of the Aca- demic Sect; upon which he chofe the Lyceum for the fu- ture Scene of his Difputations. See Lyceum.
It being his Practice to philofophize Walking, he got the Appellation Peripateticus ; whence his Followers were alfo called Peripateticks. — Tho' others will have him to have been thus named from his attending on Alexander at his Recovery from an Ulnefs, and difcourfing with him as he walked about. See Peripatetic.
He was a Perfon of admirable Genius, and of great and various Learning : Averroes makes no Scruple to call him
- the Genius of Nature, the Limit of human Underftanding ;
and declares him ' fent by Providence to teach us all that
- may be known' — He is accufed of a too immoderate De-
fire of Fame, which led him to deftroy the Writings of all the Philofbphers before him, that he might ftand fingly and without Competitors. And hence, in the Schools, Miflotle is called 'the Philofopher.
Laertius, in his Life of Ariftotle, enumerates his Books, to the Number of 4000 ; of which fcarce above 20 have furvived to our Age : They may be reduced to five Heads ; the firft, relating to Poetry and Rhetoric ; the fecond, to Logicks; the third, to Ethicks and Politicks; the fourth, to Phyficks ; and the fifth, to Metaphyficks. In all which, as there are many Things excellent and invaluable, particu- larly what relates to Poetry, Rhetoric, and the Paffions; fo there are others, in the other Parts, which the Improve- ments of later Ages have taught us to explode and defpife. — See Aristotelian Philofophy.
Aristotelian Philofophy, the Philofophy taught by Ariftotle, and maintained by his Followers. See Philoso- phy.
The Arijlotelian is otherwife called the Pcripatetick Phi- lofophy ; the Rife and Fate whereof, fee under the Article Peripatetic Philofophy.
Aristotelians, a SecT: of Philofophers, otherwife called ^Peripateticks. See Aristotelian and Peripatetics.
The Arifiotelians and their Dogma's prevail to this Day, in the Schools ; malgre all the Efforts of the Cartefians y 2v>ietf0ff/rtM*i and other Corpufcuhrians. See School, New- tonian, Cartesian, Corpuscular,^.
The Principles of Arijiotle's Philofophy, the Learned agree, are chiefly laid down in his four Books de Ccelo ; his S Books of Phyficks, belonging rather to Logicks, or Me- taphyficks, than to Phyficks. — To give an Idea, then, of Ari- flotelianifm, the reigning Syftem of many Ages ; and Ihew Arijiotle's. Method of Philofophizing ■ we cannot do better than produce a Specimen of the Work.
Thofe four Books he entitles, de Ctelo, becaufe the Hea- vens are the chief of the fimple Bodies he treats of. He begins with proving that the World is perfect; which he does thus — All Bodies, fays he, have three Dimenfions ; they can't have more, for the Number three, according to Pythagoras, comprehends all : Now the World is the AfTcrn- blage of all Bodies, therefore the World is perfect.
In the fecond Chapter, he lays down certain Peripatetic Axioms ; as — that all natural Bodies have of themfelves a Power of moving ; that all local Motion is either Recti- linear , Circular, or compofed of the two ; that all fim- ple Motions are reducible to three, the Motion of the Cen- tre, the Motion towards the Centre, and the Motion about the Centre : That all Bodies are either fimple or compound- ed ; fimple are thofe which have fome Power within them- felves, wnereby they move, as Fire, Earth, £5?t\ Compound are fuch as receive their Motion from thofe others whereof they are compounded.
prom thefe Principles he draws feveral Conferences:
A circular Motion, fays he, is a fimple Motion : But the Heavens move in a Circle ; therefore the Motion of the Hea- vens is fimple: But a fimple Motion can only belong to a fimple Body ; i. e. to a Body which moves by its own Force. Therefore the Heaven is a fimple Body, diftinct from the four Elements, which move in right Lines. This Proposi- tion he like wife proves by another Argument, thus — There are two kinds of Motions, the one natural, the other vio- lent ; the circular Motion of the Heavens, therefore, is ei- ther the one or the other: If it be natural, the Heaven is a fimple Body diftinct, from the four Elements, fince the Elements don't move circularly in their natural Motion: It the circular Motion be contrary to the Nature of Heaven, either that Heaven mull be fome of the Elements, as Fire, or fome thing elfe : But Heaven cannot be any of the Ele- ments ; e. gr. it cannot be Fire ; for, if it were, the Mo- tion of Fire being from below upwards, the Heaven would have two contrary Motions, the one circular, the other from below, upwards, which is impoffible. .Again; If the Hea-
ven be any other thing which does not move circularly of its own Nature, it will have fome other natural Motion, which likewife is impoffible 5 for if it move naturally from below upwards, it will be either Fire or Air ; if from above downwards, it will be Water or Earth ; ergo, Sec. — A third Argument is this— -The firft and molt perfect of all fimple Motions, raafl be that of a fimple Body, cfpecially that of the firft and moft perfect of all fimple Bodies : But the cir- cular Motion is the firft and moft perfect ot all fimple Mo- tions, becaufe every circular Line is perfect, and no right Line is fb : For if it be finite, fomething may be added to it; if infinite, it is not perfect, becaufe it wants an End, rsAof, and Things are only perfect when they are ended, T&etof. Therefore, the circular Motion is the firft and moft perfect of all Motions; and therefore a Body which moves circularly is fimple, and the firft and moft divine ot" fimple Bodies. His fourth Argument is — That all Motion is cither; natural or not; and every Motion which is not natural to fome Bodies, is natural to others : Now the circular Motion is not natural to the four Elements ; there muft, therefore, be fome fimple Body to which it is natural : Therefore the Heaven, which moves circularly, is a fimple Body, diftinct from the four Elements. — Laftly, the circular Motion is ei- ther natural or violent to any Body ; if it be natural , it is e- vident this Body is oneof the moft fimple and perfect ; if if be not, 'tis ftrange this Motion ihould Jaft for ever. — From all thefe Arguments, therefore, it follows, that there is fome Body diftinct from the circumambient ones, and which is of a Nature as much more perfect than they, as it is more re- mote. Such is the Subitance of his fecond Chapter.
In the third Chapter, he afferts that the Heavens are incor- ruptible, and immutable ; and the Rcafons he gives for it, are — That they are the Abode of the Gods, that no Perfon has ever obferv'd any Alterations in them, &c. — ■
In the fourth Chapter, he attempts to prove, that the cir- cular Motion has no Contrary : In the 5th, that Bodies are not infinite ; In the 6th, that the Elements are not infinite : In the 8th, he ihews that there are not feveral Worlds of the fame Kind, by this very good Argument ; that as Earth is heavy by Nature, if there were any other Earth befide ours, it would fall upon our Heads, our Earth being the Centre, to which all heavy Bodies tend. In the 9th, he proves it impoffible that there mould be feveral Worlds, be- caufe if there were any Body above the Heavens, it muft be either fimple or compound, in a natural or a violent State 3 none of which is poffible, for Reafons which he draws from the three Kinds of Motion above mentioned. In the 10th, he maintains that the World is eternal, becaufe it is impoffible it fhould have had any Beginning; and becaufe it endures for ever. He employs the nth in explaining the Notion of Incorruptibility ; and in the 12th endeavours to fhew that the World is incorruptible, becaufe it could not have any Beginning, and becaufe it endures for ever: All Things, fays he, fubfift either during a finite, or an infinite Space : But what is only infinite one Way, is neither finite nor infinite ; therefore nothing can fubfift in this Manner.
The Reader, we are of Opinion, will find this Tafte of Pe- ripateticifm fufficient ; otherwife, it had been ealy to have given him his Fill. If he requires more, let him have Re- courfe to the Articles Principle, Element, Form, Qua- lity, Accident, Sympathy, Fuga Vacui, Antife-
RISTASIS, SfC
It wereneedlefs to point out the particular Defects in the Specimen here laid down; 'tis ealy to fcbferve that the Principles are moft of them falfe and impertinent, and the Reafonings abfurd and inconclufive ; but that the grcateft part has no diftinct Meaning at all.
Such is the Philofophy, and fuch the Method of philofo- phizing, of the Genius of Nature, the Prince of Philofo- phers, Ariftotle,
ARITHMANCY, Arithmantia, or Arithmomancy, a kind of Divination, or Method of foretelling future Events, by means of Numbers. See Divination and Number.
The Word is compounded of aeiQuo;, Number, and y.ctv ■ma., Divination.
The Gematria, which makes the firft Species of the Jew- ifh Cabbala, is a fort of Arithmancy. See Gematria and Cabbala.
ARITHMETIC, Arithmetic!, the Art of Number- ing ; or, that Part of Mathematicks which confiders the Po- wers and Properties of Numbers, and teaches how to com- pute or calculate truely, and with Expedition and Eafe. See Number, Mathematicks, Computation,^.
Some Authors chufe to define Arithmetic, tho Science of difcrete Quantity. Sec Discrete and Quantity.
Arithmetic confifts chiefly in the four great Rules or Ope- rations of Addition, Subftraftim, Multiplication, and 2)ivi- fion. See each in its- Place, Addition, Substraction, Multiplication, and Division.
- Tis true, for the facilitating and expediting of Computa-
tions, both Mercantile and Agronomical, divers other ufeful Rules have been contrived 5 as, the Rule of Proportion, of
Alligation,,
