34 MEMOIR OP ARISTOTLE. 



even from his boyhood, had given symptoms of thosd 

 extraordinary talents which have made bis actions as 

 a conqueror so familiar to posterity. It has been al- 

 leged, on the authority of Laertius, that, while a stu- 

 dent at the Academy, he had been sent by the 

 Athenians on an embassy to Philip, to implore his 

 forbearance in behalf of the Grecian cities, which he 

 then threatened to subject to the yoke of his military 

 despotism ; and that, having succeeded in his mis- 

 sion, his grateful fellow- citizens decreed his statue 

 to be placed in the Acropolis, as a benefactor to the 

 Republic. It is more than probable, however, that 

 these statements have arisen from a slight anachronism, 

 and that the Athenians had used his influence with 

 Philip to spare their freedom, not before but after 

 he had become an inmate of his family. This cir- 

 cumstance may have occasioned the erection of a 

 statue to his memory, in remembrance of the services 

 which he then rendered the State. 



It was in the fifth year of his father's reign that 

 Alexander was born. Several tutors or preceptors 

 had been employed in training his infant mind, at 

 the head of whom was Leonidas, a kinsman of the 

 queen. But Philip early perceived, that the educa- 

 tion of his son was a matter of too great importance 

 to be entrusted to ordinary masters. Music, dan- 

 cing, and such-like accomplishments, he found to be 

 unsuitable to his genius, which, as Sophocles has 

 said, required 



a The rudder's guidance, and the curb's restraint.** 



