THEOPHRASTUS, a celebrated philosopher, was a native of Eresium, a maritime town in the island of Lesbos, and is supposed to have been born about the year 392 before the Christian era. His father was by trade a fuller. The original name of the son, we are informed, was Tyrtamus; but on account of his conspicuous eloquence, he was called Euphrastus, and afterwards Theophrastus. At an early age he repaired to Athens, where he successively became the disciple of Plato and of Aristotle. On the retirement of the latter, he became the head of the Peripatetic school; and so high was his reputation as a teacher of philosophy, that at one period the number of his scholars amounted to two thousand. He appears to have reached a very advanced age. If the preface to his Characters is genuine, and if one passage which it contains is correct in the reading, he undertook that work at the age of ninety-nine. This statement however cannot be received without the utmost suspicion. He succeeded Aristotle in 322, and was himself succeeded by Strato in 287 b c. He had thus presided in the Lycaeum for about thirty-five years.^[1. Clinton’s Fasti Hellenici, vol. ii. p. 183. ] His works, according to the catalogue of Diogenes Laertius, were very numerous; and several of them have been that period arrives, the Saviour shall again, in person, revisit this world, summon from their grave the bodies of all mankind who have died, change in a moment the bodies of those who shall then be alive, and afterwards proceed to a solemn trial of the whole, each one by himself, according to their deeds done in the body. At the close, the eternal destiny of each will be announced, and the mediatorial reign of Christ terminated by the introduction of the righteous into the fulness of that celestial enjoyment to which our race was originally destined, and the banishment of the wicked into that place which was prepared for the devil and his angels. (Comp. 1 Cor. xv.; John xi. 23-26; Matt. xxv. 31—46; Rom. xiv. 9, 10; 2 Thess. i. 5-10, &c.)

Such are the leading principles of that great system of religious truth which the Bible unfolds. In stating them, our object has uniformly been, with regard to such as are generally adopted among pious inquirers, to present them clearly, and with their Scripture evidence, to our readers; and in regard to those on which differences of opinion have prevailed among such, to bring forward, candidly and impartially, the views held, and the reasons urged, on both sides. It is for the intelligent reader, with his Bible in his hand, to determine for himself what is right; and, as one who must answer to the Judge of all for his opinions as well as his conduct, to embrace and follow what he is satisfied the inspired writers teach.

annotations, various readings, and an index. Of the “Historia Plantarum" an elaborate edition was published by Bodaeus, Amst. 1644, fol. A separate volume had formerly appeared under the title of “Julii Caesaris Scaligeri Animadversiones in Historias Theophrasti.” Lugduni, 1584, 8vo. The same learned man had likewise published “Commentarii et Animadversiones in sex libros de Causis Plantarum Theophrasti.” Lugd. 1566, fol. The octavo volume is a book of rare occurrence. An English translation of the treatise on stones, accompanying the original, was published by Sir John Hill, M.D. Lond. 1746, 8vo.

Of the Characters of Theophrastus, the separate editions are very numerous. The earliest, which only includes fifteen characters, is that of Pirckheymher, Norembergae, 1527, 8vo. But for the most able and conspicuous edition we are indebted to Casaubon, Lugd. 1592, 8vo. This edition, which has often been reprinted, is accompanied with a most learned and elaborate commentary. Here we ought not perhaps to overlook the edition of Needham, Cantab. 1712, 8vo. He has published the prelections of Duport, professor of Greek at Cambridge, on thirteen of the characters, and has reprinted the commentary of Casaubon. The editions by Fischer in 1763, and Schneider in 1799> likewise deserve to be specified. The number of characters Casaubon had augmented to twenty-eight. Other two were long afterwards brought to light by Ama-duzzi, who published them in a splendid volume printed by Bodoni: “Characterum Ethicoum Theophrasti Eresii Capita duo hactenus anecdota, quae ex cod. MS. Vaticano saeculi XL Graece edidit, Latine vertit, praefatione et adnotationibus illustravit Johannes Christophorus Amadu-tius.” Parmae, 1786, 4to. Here the Greek text occupies six pages, but the volume extends to nearly one hundred and forty. The Characters of Theophrastus have been translated into many languages. The version of La Bruyere, with additional characters by the translator, ranks among the most conspicuous books in the French language. His version was transferred into English in 1699: Budgell’s translation of the original followed in 1713, and Gally’s in 1725. A more recent version has appeared [7:21:236]under the subsequent title: “The Characters of Theophrastus, translated from the Greek, and illustrated by physiognomical sketches. To which are subjoined the Greek text, with notes, and hints on the individual varieties of human nature. By Francis Howell.” Lond. 1824, 8vo.