carried out;[1] and in the interval it is not unreasonable to suppose that Aristotle, seeking, as usual, to base theory upon experience, was engaged in making that remarkable collection called the ‘Constitutions’ (see above, p. 48), which contained a history and description of no less than 158 states, and of which numerous fragments remain.
However this may be, the ‘Politics’ forms a rich repertory of facts relating to the history of Greece. And it abounds, too, in the knowledge of human nature, and in wise and penetrating observations on the conduct and motives of mankind, many of which are applicable to all times and countries. The treatise is not entire; it breaks off in the middle of one of the most interesting parts of all, namely Aristotle's theory of education. Perhaps this was one of the cases in which Aristotle, finding that his mind was not fully made up on a particular subject, dropped that subject for the time, meaning to revert to it, but never actually doing so. Besides its unfinished condition, the ‘Politics’ also shows indications of a certain amount of disarrangement in the order of its books. If rearranged according to their natural order, the books in Bekker’s edition would stand thus:—
Book I. On the Family as a constituent element in the State.
Book II. Containing a criticism of some previous theories about the State, and of some remarkable actual constitutions.
- ↑ Spengel, one of the most judicious of German critics, says, that “the ‘Politics’ was written long after the ‘Ethics.’”
