rtant writings were composed at this time. But at the end
of this period his fortunes changed.

In B.C. 323 Alexander the Great died suddenly at Babylon in the midst
of his triumphs. The Athenian Government was in the hands of a
pro-Macedonian party. Upon the death of Alexander this party was
overthrown, and a general reaction occurred against everything
Macedonian. Alexander had been regarded in Greece much as Napoleon was
regarded in Europe a century ago. He had insulted the free Greek
cities. He had even sacked the city of Thebes. The whole of Greece
lived in perpetual terror of invasion. Now that this fear was removed
by his death, there was a general outburst of feeling against
Macedonia. An anti-Macedonian party came into power. Now Aristotle had
always been regarded as a representative and protege of the Macedonian
court, although, as a matter of fact, he had recently fallen out of
favour with the autocratic Alexander. A charge of impiety was trumped
up against him. To escape prosecution he fled to Chalcis in Euboea, in
order that, as he said, "the Athenians might not have another
opportunity of sinning against philosophy as they had already done in
the person of Socrates." He perhaps intended to return to Athens as
soon as the storm had blown over. But in the first year of his
residence at Chalcis he was overtaken by a sudden illness, and died at
the age of sixty-three, in B.C. 322.

{253}

Aristotle is said to have composed some four hundred books. Our
astonishment at this productivity diminishes somewhat when we remember
that what is here called a "book" is much the same as what we should
call a chapter in a modern treatise. More than three-quarters of these
writings have been lost. But, by good fortune, what remains to us is
undoubtedly by far the most important part, and we have preserved in
it a fairly complete account of the whole Aristotelian system in all
its departments. Nearly all the writings, however, have come down to
us in a mutilated state. This is especially the case with the
"Metaphysics." This treatise is unfinished, and it was probably left
unfinished by its author at his death. But apart from this, several of
the books of the "Metaphysics" are undoubtedly spurious. Others
apparently come in the wrong order. We end one book in the middle of a
discussion, and when we begin the next we find ourselves in the middle
of an entirely different subject. There are frequent repetitions, and
parts of