MEMOIR OP ARISTOTLE. 
47 
any solid proof ; and the absurd calumny that he not 
only regarded this pretended displeasure as an in- 
jury, but even proceeded the length of joining in a 
conspiracy to poison the king, is warranted by no- 
thing in history, except a report preserved in Plu- 
tarch, of a vague and hasty expression in a letter of 
Alexander to Antipaler, “ I will punish the sophist 
(Callisthenes) and those who sent him.” The friend- 
ly epistles addressed by him while in Asia to his 
former instructor, contradict the supposition of any 
irritation or enmity between them. 
Leaving the “ Macedonian madman” to pursue 
his conquests in the east, we must now return to 
the personal history of the Stagirite. On arriving 
at Athens, he found Xenocrates teaching in the 
school of Plato, his predecessor Speusippus having 
been dead four years. The character of Xenocra- 
tes was that of dull gravity and rigid austerity. He 
had been a fellow-student with Aristotle at the Aca- 
demy, where the striking contrast of their genius 
did not escape the notice of Plato, who used to ex- 
claim, “ What a horse and an ass have I to yoke to- 
gether ; Xenocrates requires the spur, Aristotle the 
curb alluding to the obtuseness of the one and 
the acuteness of the other. The circumstance of 
such a man having been exalted to the supreme 
chair of philosophy, is said to have determined the 
Stagirite to open a school on his own account ; re- 
marking, “ that it would be disgraceful for him to 
be silent while Xenocrates publicly taught.” This 
