“AS for Theophrastus,” writes Quintilian, “there is such a divine beauty in his language, that he may be said even to have derived his name from it.” While this “divine beauty” found its vehicle in a melody peculiar to the Greek language and not to be translated, those who read Healey’s version of the “Characters” will not be at a loss for suggestions of Quintilian’s reasons for admiring them. As the author of these “Characters,” Theophrastus is the founder of a distinct modern school which embraces Sir Thomas Overbury, La Bruyère, John Earle, Owen Felltham, and Thomas Fuller,—each of whom has borrowed and used to advantage methods of character sketching and moralizing which belonged originally to “ethical characters” of the great successor of Aristotle.

  The authorities are not agreed on the date of the birth of Theophrastus, but fix it between 373 and 368 B.C. His birthplace was Eresus, on the island of Lesbos, and after studying there under Leuciphus (Alciphus?) he went to Athens and became a disciple of Plato. Becoming an intimate friend of Aristotle who made him the guardian of his children, he was made chief of the Peripatetic school after Aristotle’s death and presided over it until his own death in 287 B.C. He was greatly honored by his own generation and was studied by students of science and literature as long as Greek remained a living tongue. Besides his “Characters,” Theophrastus wrote extensively on science and philosophy,—notably a “History of Plants” and a “History of Physics,” parts of which are still extant.