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412 CRITICAL NOTICES : the Dorians. On the other hand, he does not dwell on the fact that during the historic period they were the representatives of the aristocratic (or oligarchic) principle against the more democratic lonians. To keep this well in view, with all its implications, might have redressed the balance of judgment on the Athenian democracy. It would be interesting to follow Mr. Benn's account of the later physical thinkers who were on the way to atomism ("The Minute Philosophers") and of the sophistic system of education ("The Diffusion of Culture"); but limits of space forbid, and room must be found for a word on his estimates of Plato and Aristotle. Plato he describes (with a reference to Maurice's Ancient Philosophy) as " the most practical of all philosophers ". Aristotle, on the contrary, he regards as a man of " exclusively theoretic endowment ". This, he goes on to say, " limited his vision to the surface of things," and was the source of his weak- ness in physics. But was Democritus, to whose physical insight Mr. Benn does justice, less of a pure theorist or more of a prac- tical reformer than Aristotle ? Elsewhere, indeed, Mr. Benn suggests a more plausible explanation of Aristotle's failure to adopt the most penetrating physical views of the early thinkers. What he disliked in them was their appearance of paradox. In his own explanation of the universe, he desired to recognise a portion of truth in the common-sense view of things. But is this really the character of the scientific investigator of nature un- touched by practical interests ? Is it not rather to be connected with Aristotle's pre-eminently successful cultivation of the human- istic sciences ; where, as the philosopher himself remarks, the highest degree of scientific precision is unattainable, and the empirical judgments of mankind have to be taken into accoun by any one who would attain such scientific truth as is possible And perhaps there is not quite so much difference as Mr. Benn tries to make out between Aristotle's and Plato's view of the theoretic life. Plato, too, thought this in itself the happiest ; his ideal sage descends from it not out of absolute preference, but under compulsion or from a sense of duty. Of course Mr. Benn'i distinction is broadly true, that Plato's was a reforming mind with extraordinary glimpses into the distant future, while Aristotle was above all a great systematiser, whose outlook was towards politl cal life as it had hitherto been lived in historic Greece. Exactly for that reason he is often with some justice described as a more typical representative of the Greek spirit. The volume breaks off rather abruptly with no more than or three pages on the last period of what was after all, as Mr, Benn admits, essentially Greek thought, although it was carriei forward by men of various races. This is the more to be regrettei because in his Greek Philosophers he had a good chapter on the distinctive contribution made by Plotinus to philosophy. And his own principle of " antithesis " seemed to require some account of the new spiritualistic movement after the sketch given of th<