Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography/Volume 3/Theophrastus
THEOPHRASTUS, the favourite pupil of Aristotle, and his successor as head of the Lyceum, was born at Eresus, a town in the island of Lesbos, probably about 374 b.c. He came to Athens in early life, and studied first under Plato, and afterwards under Aristotle. On the death of Aristotle in 322 b.c., Theophrastus, by the will of the philosopher, who likewise left him his library and manuscripts, was nominated president of the Lyceum, for so the place was called in which Aristotle had promulgated his philosophy. Theophrastus upheld the Aristotelic doctrines with great ability and repute, being no doubt stimulated by the rivalry of his contemporaries, Xenocrates and Polemon, who were zealously advocating the philosophy of Plato in the Academy. His name is said by Diogenes Laertius to have been changed by Aristotle from Tyrtamus into that of Theophrastus, or "the divine speaker;" and if it be true, as stated, that the splendour of his eloquence attracted at one time an audience of two thousand students, there seems to have been a good reason for the change. We are informed by the same authority that Theophrastus not only excelled in philosophy, but that he also delighted greatly in comedies, and was the instructor of the comic poet Menander. This quality of his genius might almost have been inferred from his work entitled "Ethical Characters"—one of the few which have come down to us—a work abounding in delineations which are characterized rather by the strength than by the delicacy of their colour; but which are certainly not deficient in comic vigour, and are moreover curious as indications of the morals and manners of the times. The French writer, De la Bruyere, has translated and imitated these characters of Theophrastus. The only other extant writings of Theophrastus are a treatise on Sensuous Perception and its objects, and treatises on plants and on stones. Theophrastus died 287 b.c., at the age probably of about eighty-seven. He complained on his deathbed of the shortness of his life, and lamented that he was hurried away just when he was beginning to discover the solution of the problems on which he had been working. The best editions of his works are by Schneider, 1818-21, and by Wimmer, 1854.—J. F. F.