Theophrastus

Theophrastus, Greek philosopher, born about 371 B.C. at Eresus in Lesbos. He studied under Plato and Aristotle in Athens, and succeeded the latter as head of the Peripatetic School there. He was an expounder of the Aristotelian philosophy and wrote various works, many of which are lost. The most notnble of his productions is the one entitled Characters, an exposure of the follies and vices of mankind, which has been imitated and translated by the eminent French writer La Bruyere (q.v.). Some of his works are botanical, and others deal with metaphysics, etc. An edition was printed in Leipzig in five volumes (1818-21).