Hayley-XXX-37

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To Mr Flaxman & his pupil
I smile

My dear Aristotleians

I smile to see you both as keen for Aristotle as the \lively/ Doctors illeg of the university of Paris were in the time of Boileau when the saucy Poet like the Hermit of Eartham made very free with the said Aristote [sic] precepteur du roi feu querelleuse Memoire Alexandre dit le Grand – However if \as/ you seriously wish \seem inclined/ to read this famous philosopher in his own dry & crabbed Style you shall have the dear little Phidias shall have a copy of his whole works or of his best parts very soon. Though in my not humble Opinion both the dear Phid & the dear Praxiteles may read \later[?] Greek and Latin authors more/ much more worthy of \worthy of employing/ their \their scarce valuable pretious Time/ reading, for I confess \between ourselves that/. I agree with those sensible surveyors \Judges/ of Aristotle^s Philosophy who have forcibly said “That it is rather the Philosophy of words than of things & that the study of his writings tends more to perplex the understanding with subtle distinction than to enlighten it with real Knowledge”— His moral \ethical/ Writings contain many useful precepts & just observations but are far from being a perfect code of morals adapted to produce genuine Integrity & simplicity of Manners”— His Language is so cramp [? crass?] from affected Brevity that I& perhaps from Mutilation

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that much time must be wasted in perusing the original - \I say wasted/ because All his Ideas may be found in other writers more happi [?] \far superior to Him in Style/ expression & — perhapst there is hardly a \good/ moral Idea in Aristotle which Horace & Cicero have not \expressed/ embellished by the felicity of their Expression — the case is very different with Xenophon & Plato — those two great Masters of Simple & of flowery Language —

it is a good Rule Carissimo Scultore [sic] for reading & particularly for the reading of those Students in art who having other professional occupations cannot devote themselves to Books \entirely/ like a mere Man of Letters it is I say a good rule that Pliny gives us in those 4 simple words not multa sed multum

Tho I confess myself a sort of Helluo Liborum yet I trust both the dear Sculptors are assured that if Either Master or disciple had \immediate/ occasion even for all my Books they might command them all on Any pressing Occasion after this sincere & affectionate declaration I will confess that the dear little Phidias^s first intimating that He could hardly find the Leisure half Hour every week to write me a Letter & then calling for a Cargo of Books which He could not read in 3 five Years at the rate of reading which I presume a young artist must travel at appeared to me

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a little odd – & both the dear artists seem to have \rather/ forgot the natural Vanity of an Author who having devoted some 7 or 8 Hours \in every day/ of \his/ Life on an average to Books might naturally expect the dear little Cub \whom/ He had moulded into a Latinist & a Grecian to consult him on a Course of reading rather than call at once for a Cargo of Books without any apparent deference to his Opinion

However as the Vanity of \the/ honest Bookworm whom you thus unintentionally smothered in his own Volumes is a very good natured Vanity He will content himself with giving this little Smiling \half jocular/ reproof to the dear Sons of Minerva whose studies Improvements Health Happiness & Glory are most truly much dearer to Him than his own —-

I am aware my dear Praxiteles that yr dear little disciple has yet taken has hitherto been more attentive to Language than to art & or science - the Time has now come for him to embrace all the pursuits that may be more important to the formation of his \manly &/ professional Character –

I have the most affectionate & happy Confidence in you my very dear Friend as his principal Guide in the formation of both yet we will lay all \our three/ Heads together on this important Object of regular plans of \literary/ Study when I have the Happiness of making one in your little Palladian Cabinet which I hope may be the case for a few days at least before the arrival of Summer — Spring passes away

In the mean Time let me assure you both that you shall never feel any kind of Want

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that I can supply & if you happen to have immediate occasion or Fancy for any particular Book on the first Hint of yr wishes I will employ some humble agent of Minerva to furnish her dear votaries with the Object of their desire —

If it Pleases Heaven to bless me with Health & Faculties to render y [sic] own Studies as useful & pleasing to both the dear Artists as I wish to do they will find perhaps no unprofitable assistant & at all events a most affectionate & attentive

Friend
in the Hermit
of Eartham