Natural- Historical Collections. S19 



made choice of him as tutor to his son Alexander. The philosopher was then 

 only twenty-eight years of age, and was still one of Plato's disciples, so that it 

 might be thought he owed the distinction as much to the connection which ex- 

 isted between him and Philip, as to his merit, which could not then be suffi- 

 ciently appreciated. It appears that at this period he had not yet opened school, 

 and it is even doubted whether he professed publicly before the death of his 

 master, which happened in 347- 



Aristotle remained at Athens to the time when the war broke out between the 

 king of Macedonia, and the Athenians. It is indeed asserted that he had ac- 

 companied Alexander so far as Egypt, but this does not seem probable, as the 

 descriptions of animals belonging to that country, which occur in his works are 

 borrowed from Herodotus, and reappear with the same errors. Aristotle opened 

 his school at the Lycseum. He went there twice every day, and exposed in his 

 morning lectures the elements of philosophy and the subjects which required no 

 preliminary study, while in the evening ones he developed the higher parts of his 

 doctrine. In this manner he taught for twelve or thirteen years, and during the 

 whole of this time did not cease to correspond with Alexander. It would appear, 

 however, that toward the end of his life, that prince got cool towards him. In 

 some of his letters it is seen that that he sought to vex him by exalting Xeno- 

 crates. Some writers have even alleged that after killing Callisthenes, he re- 

 served the same fate for Aristotle, but that Antipater, to whom he sent the order, 

 refused to execute it. 



Notwithstanding this coolness, Aristotle continued to enjoy an appearance of 

 protection which ensured his tranquillity ; but scarcely was Alexander dead when 

 tlie Athenians threw off a constraint which fear had imposed upon them. Tlie 

 demagogues, who confounded in one common feeling their hatred for the king of 

 Macedonia and his preceptor, the sophists whose miserable subtleties he had re- 

 futed, the platonists, whom he had abandoned, and whose doctrines he had af- 

 terwards combated, all seemed leagued against him, and stirred up a priest, 

 named Eurymedon, who accused him of impiety. Aristotle, warned by the ex- 

 ample of Socrates, withdrew wishing, he said, to spare the Athenians a new 

 outrage against philosophy. He retired to Chalcis in Euboea, and there died 

 shortly after. 



Before speaking of Aristotle's labours, it was necessary for us to retrace the 

 principal events of his life, as it is certain that the station which that great man 

 held in society was highly favourable to his genius. He had inspired in his 

 pupil a taste for the natural sciences, and thus each successive victory of the 

 conqueror enlarged the field of observation to the philosopher. It appears that in 

 the course of his expedition, Alexander sent to Aristotle all the most remarkable 

 productions of the countries which he visited. He did not even confine himself 

 to tliis kind of assistance, and, to facilitate his means of collecting materials for 

 his history of animals, he gave 900 talents, a sum amounting to more than three 

 millions of our money. Pliny adds, that he placed at his disposal thousands of 

 persons for hunting, fishing, and collecting the observations which he required. 



Resources like these are no doubt immense, but the advantages which Aristotle 

 derived from them are also infinitely above what might have been expected. 

 Not only did he reduce the natural sciences to a method which could alone ensure 

 their success, but he also, during a life which was not very long, collected more 

 particular observations, and deduced more general laws, that the whole of his 

 successors together were able to do, in the space of several centuries. Let it be 

 added, that we can only judge in an imperfect manner of the whole extent of his 

 acquirements, as a part of his works has been entirely lost to us, and the other 

 has only survived in an altered state. Strabo, in the Third Book of his Geo- 

 graphy, informs us what was the destiny of these books. Aristotle, wlien dying^ 

 had bequeathed them to Theophrastus, Isis favourite pupil and his successor in 

 the school. Theoplirastus again left them to Neleus, who carried them to Sep- 

 sis, a city of Asia Minor, then dependent upon the kingdom of Pergamos. The 

 Ijeirs of Neleus, fearing that they might be carried off by Attains, who was then 

 forming a library on the model of that of Alexandria, hid them in a cellar, where 



