56 MEMOIR OP ARISTOTLE. 





those hours which he stole from the necessary sea- 

 son of repose ; for Laertius affirms, that, when he 

 went to bed, he held a hrazen ball in his hand, the 

 noise of which, dropping into a metal basin when he 

 fell asleep, might awake him to resume his studies ; 

 and in this practice he was imitated by his royal pupil 

 Alexander. He was twice married. By his first 

 wife he had a daughter, called after her own name 

 (Pythias), who survived her father, and gave birth to 

 a second Aristotle, of whom nothing except this cir- 

 cumstance has been recorded. His second wife was 

 Herpylis, a native of Stagira, and basely defamed by 

 the enemies of her husband, as a courtezan and a 

 concubine. By her he had an only son, Nicomachus, 

 who was a disciple of Theophrastus, and fell in bat- 

 tle at an early age. To him he dedicated his great 

 work on Morals, called " Nicomachea," which, as it 

 was the last arid principal object of his studies, is of 

 all his performances the longest, the best connected, 

 and incomparably the most interesting. 



His will, a copy of which is preserved in Laertius, 

 is curious, not merely as throwing some light on hia 

 domestic affairs, but as an example of the distinct 

 yet concise form of ancient testamentary deeds. If 

 indited shortly before he expired, it refutes the fables 

 about his committing suicide, and may be reckoned 

 an evidence that he not only died a natural death, 

 but with a calmness and composure worthy of 

 philosopher. Antipater, the confidential minister a 

 Philip, and afterwards viceroy of Macedon, was ap> 



