CHAPTER XIII.

ARISTOTLE.

MIDWAY in the long line of shadows of philosophical minds which we saw before we examined their histories, is one that stands out clearly, distinctly-the shadow of a slight, nervous figure in delicate draperies, with a small though well-shaped head, drooping somewhat, as the head of one whose mind was constantly engaged in close examination of objects naturally would. The countenance is rather keen than thoughtful, with a receding forehead, a straight, sharp nose, a mouth whose lips are compressed, and a chin so delicately moulded that the physiognomist would hesitate before declaring him a man whose character was, if anything, absolutely firm.

This is the great ancient philosopher, Aristotle or Aristoteles, whose statue you may see in the "Spada" Palace at Rome.

Aristotle was born at a seaside town of the province of Chalcidice, in Macedonia, called Stageira, to which he owes his appellation, so constantly used in modern writings, "the Stagirite." He was born during the reign of Amyntas the Second; and a few years after great alterations and improvements had been made in the country, in every way, by the wise and clever monarch Archelaus, at whose assassination, or, as some say, death by accident, Amyntas came to the throne.

Both Aristotle's father, Nicomachus the court physician, and his mother Phæstis, were said to belong to the

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race or clan of Æsculapius or Asclepios, the god or patron of medical science.

From his native town, of which writers give us glowing descriptions as being situate among fertile groves of orange and lemon trees, sloping down to the very shore of the blue sea, the young Aristotle is supposed to have made excursions, when his father was summoned to attend the king, to Pella, a town of the province Bolticis, whither the court of the Macedon kings had just been removed.

Here, at least on one occasion, Aristotle is supposed to have met and ingratiated himself with the young Prince Philip, the fourth son of Amyntas, who was later on to be so powerful an influence in the philosopher's career. The sympathy between the two was perhaps owing to their Greek proclivities. Philip, having been sent to Thebes as a hostage by his father, had become an ardent and admiring pupil of the young but lofty-souled conqueror Epaminondas, the descendant from the ancient kings of Boeotia (a province of Greece adjoining Attica, which is now part of Livadia). By him he had been inspired with a passion for Greece and everything Greek, a sentiment which he showed throughout his life by coveting the possession of the country he so much admired, after he had tried to make his own Macedonia in manners and customs as much like Greece as possible.

The youthful Aristotle must have been also Greek in feeling. His home was merely on the borders of Macedon, and he doubtless felt for Greece as the townsfolk of Berwick feel for Scotland. His ancestors are supposed to have been purely Greek. Indeed, it seems a fact that in boyhood he belonged in mind and heart completely to the country which in later years-perhaps embittered by feeling her decline slowly and surely setting in-turned upon him and accused him of being a traitor to her interests.

When Aristotle was seventeen years of age both his parents died, leaving him rich and unfettered, except by

the guardianship of one Proxenus (a native of Atarneus, a small town in the district of Atarnea, opposite the island of Lesbos, afterwards called Mitylene).

Alone, with but a slack rein to guide him-for of this guardian we hear but little more than his name-it is hardly a matter for surprise that stories are extant of Aristotle's extravagance.

There are two accounts of his youth.

One-promulgated by his enemies, and related by Epicurus, Timæus, Diogenes Laertius, and others—represents the lad as casting all care to the winds after the death of his parents, and squandering his patrimony with such unworthy recklessness, that, finding himself penniless, he joined the army. Soon wearied of military life, he is supposed to have returned to Stageira, and to have realised what he could by the use of the surgical building, apparatus, and medicines left by his father. From Stageira he is represented as proceeding to Athens at the age of thirty to enrol himself as one of the students of the Academy.

Another account-given by later writers, such as Hermippus (B.C. 220) and Apollodorus (B.c. 150)-declares the young Aristotle to have become the pupil of Plato shortly after he became an orphan, and does not allude to any preceding abandonment to the follies of youth.

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The tradition that Aristotle learnt from Socratestradition flatly contradicted by dates, which give the birth of Aristotle as having occurred, at the very earliest, a year or two after the death of the sage-seems to have arisen from the recorded surmise that for some little time he studied rhetoric with the orator Isocrates, who, though prevented by natural timidity from gaining his living by public speaking, had a much-frequented school of eloquence in Athens. Many mistakes, that have led to much confusion in more modern works of philosophical history, have arisen from the curious likeness of the name Isocrates to the glorious name of Socrates.

Common sense, which is so powerful an aid when readers are called upon to decide between conflicting and perhaps almost equally authentic accounts of what took place ages ago-accounts which cannot possibly be verified by any ordinary means-speaks most decidedly in favour of the account of Aristotle's youthful indiscretions being a mere concoction of the many enemies who were envious of his greatness and the recognition which that greatness met with even in his own time.

For common sense can hardly endorse the suggestion that a man, whose intellect was such that he is in reality the link between the passionate efforts of the discontented ignorance of a Past and the systematic acquirements of the patient learning of a Future, could so contradict his mental and physical nature as to abandon himself to the anarchy of brute impulses.

It would almost be treason to credit the one whom the poet Dante designates as the "centre and head of the philosophic family" with conduct such as this, which, reprehensible in ordinary cases, would in his be an enormity.

Assigning the rumours to the terrible power which, were human nature naturally sensible, it would shun as a deadly poison-the power of envy or jealousy-let us pass on.

Aristotle, prompted by the restless spur continually used by genius to its possessor, went to Plato. No doubt he had often longed to know and to study under Plato, but passing events had turned the current of his thoughts. Perhaps some overwhelming disappointinent, some terrible agony, drove him to seek the tutor, the reputed physician for the minds of the young, in a paroxysm of despair. Great minds are envied. How much more just it would be to reverentially pity them, for their very strength is their weakness. The powers they have in excess render an ordinary trouble an agony. Their everyday sufferings would be horrible nightmares to ordinary, well-balanced natures.

Nothing less than agony would or could have driven any mind to the gigantic efforts to which we owe great discoveries in the world of thought. And happy, easygoing minds, contemplating the bright fact of the discovery or achievement, whatever it may be, almost wish themselves the discoverer or perpetrator.

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They little dream of the awful, overwhelming hours spent with that which is the parent of the thought, of the deed, of the successful effort-a power which cannot be named suffering, for suffering is a mild term, but agony.

The young Aristotle, of the slender, stooping form and furrowed brow, went to the Academy; perhaps took refuge there to find weapons with which to combat his raging, disappointed self.

Plato was absent at the court of Dionysius. Doubtless Aristotle was accepted and welcomed by the deputy, whoever it may have been, that Plato had left in charge; and doubtless, in the calm groves where peaceful contemplation of eternal truths was the object for which everything was regulated, he not only regained his mental equilibrium, but his refreshed mind grew and waxed strong with amazing rapidity.

Although he seems to have been an enthusiastic pupil of Plato, from the very first he must have opposed him in thought, for they were utterly different in all things. During Plato's three years' absence, Aristotle, while awaiting his return, varied his studies by collecting the parchment scrolls which in those days did duty for books. Plato, who afterwards called his pupil "the reader," was accustomed to confer with his own "innate ideas" rather than with the recorded experiences of others. Aristotle's wit was sharp, keen, and logical; Plato's sarcasm was heavy. Aristotle's mind was naturally objective, or given to observation and reasoning from the results of close analysis; Plato's mind was intensely subjective. When an idea had internally manifested itself to Plato, and after he had seen its value, the idea remained as it were a