MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 33 



had educated, and destined to become the heiress of 

 his fortunes. Her expectations were now miserably 

 reduced ; but this sad reverse endeared her the more 

 to Aristotle, who espoused his fair companion, for 

 whom he entertained a sincere attachment. He 

 was then in his thirty-seventh year, which is pre- 

 cisely the age recommended by himself as the fittest 

 on the male side for entering into wedlock. The 

 lady did not long survive her marriage, but she left 

 an iufant daughter whom the father named after a 

 wife tenderly beloved, and who repaid his affection 

 with the most tender sensibility. It is mentioned 

 by Diogenes Laertius, as her last request, that when 

 her husband should die (which might the fates Ions; 

 avert ! ) her own ashes were to be disinterred, and 

 enclosed with his in the same monument. 



Aristotle passed but a short time in the Island of 

 Lesbos, his celebrity being now too well known to 

 allow him much leisure for the indulgence either of 

 love or melancholy. His father's name and his own 

 were familiar at the court of Macedon ; and, during 

 his residence in Athens, he had strengthened his 

 hereditary friendship with Philip, a prince only one 

 year younger than himself, who, having lived from 

 the age of fifteen to twenty-two in Thebes, and the 

 leitrhbouring cities, had ascended the throne of hi* 

 ancestors in the twenty-third year of his age. This 

 cm urn stance of itself may account for the applica- 

 tion which that monarch made to Aristotle, to im 

 dertake the education of his son Alexander, who. 



