138

Logic IV. 144

departure, three years must have elapsed before Aristotle could commence study under Plato. Thus, [Zeller's?] opinion is a good example of those antecedently likely hypotheses, to which the German writers are so much addicted, that are not in the least required to explain any known facts. Thus far, everything seems to explain itself beautifully; but now what are we to say to the fact that both Timaeus and Epicurus make Aristotle seventy years old at his death, a fact which Zeller, Kindelbaum, and other historians ship as if it were a fact too insignificant for mention? It must be remembered that Aristotle when he died was a man of immense celebrity, and that he had, only recently, been virtually the [boss?] of Athens, by far the most important man there politically. It was the death of Alexander only the year before which caused Aristotle to leave Athens, and which probably caused the eminent father of Epicurus to