36 MEMOIR OF 



which Philip invited him to undertake this office 

 expresses his high opinion of the philosopher's 

 attainments. He declares that he " thanked the 

 gods, not more for having given him a son, than for 

 having bestowed him in* the time of Aristotle." 

 Nor less expressive are Alexander's own words 

 of the value he placed in his tutor's instructions, 

 " I am not less indebted to Aristotle than to 

 my father ; since, if it was through the one that I 

 lived, it was through the other that I have learned 

 to live well/' During his residence at the court 

 of Macedon, he not only superintended the 

 education of the youthful prince, but most likely, 

 amid many other improvements in science, formed 

 that system of Zoology which has justly obtained 

 for him the titles of " The father of Natural 

 History," and, " The secretary of Nature." 



Alexander was called to the throne at the early 

 age of twenty, through the assassination of his 

 father by Pausanias, one of the officers of the 

 guard. Two years afterwards he set out on. his 

 Asiatic expedition, and Aristotle returned to 

 Athens ; and during the next thirteen years he 

 lectured in the Lyceum, a large enclosure in the 

 suburbs ; still, however, continuing to correspond 

 with his former pupil. That celebrated prince 

 had already bestowed on his tutor the magnificent 

 sum of eight hundred talents, to be appropriated 

 to the furtherance of his investigations, and had 

 placed at his disposal many thousands of per- 

 sofis, who were employed by him in collecting 

 animals for his inspection, by hawking, hunting, 



