12 HEROES OF SCIENCE. 



There is one point about Aristoteles' character 

 which everybody must admire, and it was the 

 gratitude he felt for the good friends of his youth 

 and of the days of struggling upwards in his career. 

 It has been noticed that he was brought up by kind 

 people. They were not relations, but probably 

 were appointed his guardians by his father. They 

 were Proxenus and his wife, citizens of Atarneus, 

 who had left that city and had been long resident 

 in Stageira. Not only were they the good friends 

 of the boy, but they evidently brought him in 

 contact with Hermeias, who subsequently became 

 the prince of the place and Aristoteles' fast friend 

 and brother-in-law. Aristoteles testified his grati- 

 tude to his friends by directing in his will that 

 statues of them, as well as of his parents, should 

 be set up at his expense. He likewise educated 

 their son, Nicanor, to whom he gave his daughter 

 in marriage. Whilst • growing old he wrote a 

 beautiful poem, which is still to be read, praising 

 the virtues of his friend and patron, Hermeias. 



But success in life is sure to produce envy and 

 hostility, and Aristoteles was no exception to this 

 rule. A charge was made against him of impiety, 

 and that he had made a god of his friend Hermeias. 

 Such charges were not uncommon in those days. 

 Socrates, one of the greatest and purest of men, 

 had been accused of impiety a few years before, 

 and that teacher of the immortality of the soul, and 

 the master and friend of Plato, had been condemned 

 and poisoned. The charges were absurd enough, 



