though I am heretical enough to doubt whether the latter repays the minute
and laborious study often devoted to it.

Aristotle being the father, if not the creator, of the modern scientific
method, it has followed naturally--indeed, almost inevitably--that his
principles have become part of our very intellectual being, so that they
seem now almost self-evident, while his actual observations, though very
remarkable--as, for instance, when he observes that bees on one journey
confine themselves to one kind of flower--still have been in many cases
superseded by others, carried on under more favorable conditions. We must
not be ungrateful to the great master, because his lessons have taught us
how to advance.

Plato, on the other hand, I say so with all respect, seems to me in some
cases to play on words: his arguments are very able, very philosophical,
often very noble; but not always conclusive; in a language differently
constructed they might sometimes tell in exactly the opposite sense. If
this method has proved less fruitful, if in metaphysics we have made but
little advance, that very fact in one point of view leaves the
_Dialogues_ of Socrates as instructive now as ever they were; while the
problems with which they deal will always rouse our interest, as the calm
and lofty spirit which inspires them must command our admiration. Of the
_Apology_ and the _Phaedo_ especially it would be impossible to speak too
gratefully.

I would also mention Demosthenes' _De Corona_, which Lord Brougham
pronounced the greatest oration of the greatest of orators; Lucretius,
Plutarch's Lives, Horace, and at least the _De Officiis_, _De Amicitia_,
and _De Senectute_ of Cicero.