Tin.] THE PHILOSOPHER AND THE SOLDIER. 187 



in the very attitude and the very temper which they 

 require. 



If any smile at this theory of mine, let them recol- 

 lect one curious fact: that perhaps the greatest captain 

 of the old world was trained by perhaps the greatest 

 philosopher of the old world the father of Natural 

 History ; that Aristotle was the tutor of Alexander of 

 Macedon. I do not fancy, of course, that Aristotle 

 taught Alexander any Natural History. But this we 

 know, that he taught him to use those very faculties 

 by which Aristotle became a natural historian, and 

 many things besides ; that he called out in his pupil 

 somewhat of his own extraordinary powers of observa- 

 tion, extraordinary powers of arrangement. He 

 helped to make him a great general: but he helped 

 to make him more a great politician, coloniser, dis- 

 coverer. He instilled into him such a sense of the 

 importance of Natural History, that Alexander helped 

 him nobly in his researches; and, if Athenaeus is to be 

 believed, gave him eight hundred talents towards per- 

 fecting his history of animals. Surely it is not too much 

 to say that this close friendship between the natural 

 philosopher and the soldier has changed the whole 

 course of civilisation to this very day. Do not consider 

 me utopian when I tell you, that I should like to see 

 the study of physical science an integral part of the 

 curriculum of every military school. I would train the 

 mind of the lad who was to become hereafter an officer 

 in the army and in the navy likewise by accustoming 

 him to careful observation of, and sound thought about, 

 the face of nature; of the commonest objects under his 

 feet, just as much as the stars above his head; pro- 

 vided always that he learnt, not at second-hand from 



