[115]
28. And what did it profit me that, when I was scarcely
twenty years old, a book of Aristotle's entitled The Ten
Categories[116] fell into my hands? On the very title of this I
hung as on something great and divine, since my rhetoric master at
Carthage and others who had reputations for learning were always
referring to it with such swelling pride. I read it by myself and
understood it. And what did it mean that when I discussed it with
others they said that even with the assistance of tutors -- who
not only explained it orally, but drew many diagrams in the sand
-- they scarcely understood it and could tell me no more about it
than I had acquired in the reading of it by myself alone? For the
book appeared to me to speak plainly enough about substances, such
as a man; and of their qualities, such as the shape of a man, his
kind, his stature, how many feet high, and his family
relationship, his status, when born, whether he is sitting or
standing, is shod or armed, or is doing something or having
something done to him -- and all the innumerable things that are
classified under these nine categories (of which I have given some
examples) or under the chief category of substance.
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