About this time he was induced to visit one of the friends of his youth, Hermias, now sovereign of Atar neus and Assos, cities of Nlysia, formerly the domestic slave of an Athenian banker, who permitted him to at tend the lectures of Plato. On his exaltation to the throne, Hermias invited Aristotle and Xenocrates, the companions of his studies, to share his prosperity and to assist his counsels. For three years Aristotle resided at the court of Atarneus, the plaCe where he had been initialed in the elements of learning, and the scene, we may believe, of his most favourite recollections. Dur ing:this period of tranquillity, he pursued his studies with unremitting keenness. Meanwhile, a very worth less but artful man, Memnon of Rhodes, aided by his profligate relation Mentor, both of whom had lived in habits of hospitality with Ilermias, concerted a plot to wrest the sceptre out of his hands, and deliver him into the power of Artaxerxes. The stratagem succeeded. Hermias was carried off by Joyce, and ignominiously executed as a rebel. Aristotle would probably have been the victim of the same ungenerous artifice, if he had not found means to escape to the neighbouring is land of Lesbos, with Pythias, the niece, or grand-niece of Hermias, to whom he had previously been betrothed, with the approbation of her uncle. Some ignorant wri ters have had the temerity to affirm, that this amiable person was the mistress (not the relative) of Hermias, and that Aristotle's attachment to her was a proof of the most debased libertinism. But Hermias, we are assured on the best authority, was a eunuch, and Pythias is expressly styled 'och)tOths. The affection of Aristotle for this unfortunate lady, and his fidelity to her uncle, though highly honourable traits of his character, have given rise to the most unfeeling and injurious im putations. 'On their arrival at Mitylene, in Lesbos, he married her, when he was thirty-nine or forty years of age ; but she did not long survive this union. She left him one daughter ; and, as a proof of the tenderness with which she loved her husband, it was her latest in junction, that, when he should die, her bones might be removed to the grave in which his remains were depo sited. The sensibility of Aristotle dictated expressions of regard to the memory of his deArted consort and friend, which to us appear extravagant, and which, by the superstitious Athenians, were • considered idola trous. The P.ean, or Hymn to Virtue, written on occa sion of the death of Hermias, is still preserved, and af fords so noble a specimen of poetic talent, that Scaligcr does not hesitate to pronounce the author's powers in ly rical composition to be equal to those of Pindar. One of the most correct copies of it, with a translation, is inserted in Hurd's notes on Horace, (de Arte Poet.) At Mitylene, Aristotle passed about two years. Long before this time, Philip of Macedon, in announcing to him the birth of his son Alexander, had expressed a confident hope, that, if Aristotle would consent to direct his education, he would do honour to his father and to his kingdom. Aristotle at length accepted the invita tion, and entered on the execution of his arduous of fice, in the second year of the 109th Olympiad, when he was forty-one years of age, and Alexander fourteen. According to some authors, Aristotle resided eighteen years in Macedon. Justin says that Alexander was five years under his charge (per quinquennium sub Aristotele crevit ;) but more consistent accounts lead us to believe that the peridd was not less than seven, or more than eight, and that immediately afterwards he retired to Athens. As one of the first fruits of Philip's gratitude to Aristotle for undertaking the tuition of his son (Plu tarch and Diogenes Laertius inform us) he rebuilt the city of Stagira, which had, a few years before, been, by his order, levelled with the ground. Valerius Maximus and Pliny ascribe this event to Aristotle's influence with his royal pupil after he had ascended the throne. Many instances are recorded, in which Aristotle displayed the benevolence of his heart, by zealous and successful ex ertions to promote the interest of individuals and of na tions ; and, in particular, his services to the republic of Athens procured for him the most enviable tokens of honour which a democratical state could bestow. If any thing had been wanting to aggravate the black in gratitude afterwards exhibited by that volatile people, the statue which they had erected in the citadel to com memorate substantial acts of kindness conferred on them by this noble-minded benefactor, might have served al so as a monument of the baseness of their spirits.
To the education of the Macedonian prince Aristotle applied himself with unremitting attention and consum mate skill. It required no common address and ability to regulate a mind like Alexander's, so headstrong in forming designs, so unbounded in desire, so vehement in pursuit,—a mind in which every affection amounted to the intensity of a passion, and which, even in the tender years of childhood, had conceived the most daring en terprises. He was already a proficient in all the ele
gant and hardy exercises, which in those days formed an essential branch of a princely education ; but he was not satisfied with his superiority in graceful accomplish n.ents, if his mind was not also adorned by those solid acquisitions in knowledge which alone could insure that pre-eminence for which he longed. He soon discover ed what an inestimable advantage he possessed in hav ing Aristotle for his instructor ; and, at a very early pe riod, he avowed his conviction, that to the philosopher he was indebted for greater obligations than even those which he owed to his father. From the one he derived his life and the inheritance of a throne ; from the other he received that intellectual nurture which sweetens ex istence, and raises human nature to the noblest eleva tion. The subjects in which he was instructed were grammar and rhetoric, logic, morals, and politics, with such branches of natural knowledge as were denomi nated physics, though they could not justly claim the dignity of a science. He is oven said to have obtained an acquaintance with medicine, an art for which he shewed a very marked partiality. On these subjects Aristotle did not content himself with communicating a few general notions to his pupil in a superficial and po pular form ; but was at the greatest pains to make him an adept in the acroatic or epoptic philosophy, sometimes called the esoteric, to distinguish it from the more fami liar doctrines called exoteric, because they were deli vered in a manner less abstruse, and illustrated with greater diffuseness, so as to suit the capacities of un lettered hearers. Alexander is said to have valued him self more on his attainments in this abstract erudition, than on his most splendid conquests. But there is rea son to believe that the letter found in Plutarch and Au lus Gellius, remonstrating against the publication of the acroatic works, ought to be rejected as an interpolation of later times, and that Aristotle was not reduced to the subterfuge of eluding the charge, by, denying that they were published, except to the initiatd, because to all others they must be unintelligible. Among other exercises, by which the mind of the prince was invigo rated and enriched, his taste for polite literature was zultivated with the utmost care ; and, in particular, he was introduced to an extensive and minute acquaintance with the beauties of poetry and the rules of criticism. Every effort was employed to enlarge the resources and restrain the aberrations of his powerful but eccentric mind ; so that, if, in the course of his life, he was often hurried into the most unjustifiable actions by the impe tuosity of his passions, we must absolve his enlightened ,,usq.r.tr.tor from all share in the guilty excesses, against which the strictest moral discipline does not furnish aft unfailing safeguard.
In the first year of the 111th Olympiad, Philip died. The heroic spirit of Alexander, no longer subject to re straint, urged him to begin that train of enterprises, in which he excited the wonder and the terror of the world. 'Whatever may have been the early propensities of Aristotle, his delicate constitution, and his abstracted habits, disqualified him for accompanying the young ad venturer in an expedition, which required the greatest personal activity and hardiness, as well as a degree of martial enthusiasm not likely to be kindled in the bosom of a man of letters now on the borders of fifty. From the best motives he recommended his nephew Callis thenes to be the companion of Alexander. In point of honesty and sagacity, no man was more worthy of the ear of a king. But Aristotle, who well knew the tem per of both, might have foreseen that the blunt unbend ing rigidity of his uncourtly relative would often be of fensive to the impatient spirit of Alexander. Though Aristotle might be imprudent in recommending a com panion who could not restrain his freedom of speech, we can offer no palliation for the wanton barbarity with which the incensed monarch punished the most faithful of his counsellors, because he resisted the attempt to degrade his countrymen, by requiring them to comply with the Persian custom of prostrating themselves be fore the king. If it be true that Alexander from that moment regarded Aristotle with suspicion, he would merit more severe reprobation for this deliberately che rished animosity, than for the hasty resentment to which Callisthenes fell a sacrifice. We know for certain that Alexander continued long to supply his tutor with the means of enlarging his knowledge of natural history, and, in particular, that he sent him, at a great expense, every rare and singular production which could assist him in completing his classification of the animal king dom.