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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