Appendix E

Summary

If 4 (7). 10. 1329 a 40–b 35 is genuine, Aristotle here pauses in the inquiry which he has been pressing forward so fast, and proceeds to justify the step which he has just taken in distributing the population into distinct γένη, by showing that the idea of such a distribution is not an invention of his own or a notion which dates from yesterday, but one which may be traced back to an immemorial past. So far there is nothing in the contents of this passage which need raise a doubt of its genuineness. Aristotle well knew the value of an appeal to antiquity. He says in the Rhetoric (2. 9. 1387 a 16 sqq.) that men more willingly accept the ancient than the new, and regard the ancient as nearly allied to the natural. He appeals in the Nicomachean Ethics (8. 11. 1160 a 25 sq.) to the purpose of ancient festivals in order to show what is the purpose of festivals generally, and in the Politics (5 (8). 3. 1337 b 29 sqq.: 1338 a 34 sq.) he seeks to discover what were the aims of those who originally introduced music into education, in order to show its true educational use (cp. also Eth. Nic. 1. 8. 1098 b 17). Besides, in this very chapter he explains—herein, it would seem, adopting a doctrine of Democritus (Philodemus de Musica, 4. col. 36. 29 sqq.: Kemke p. 108)—that the things which are earliest discovered are those which are necessary to man; thus the early date of the arrangements here referred to proves their necessity.