with young men of marked ability, the brilliant student
may have suffered from the impatience and self-assertion
of youth. There was certainly nothing worse.
While at the Academy Aristotle exhibited an unflagging
spirit and unwearied zeal in the pursuit of knowledge in all
its forms, a spirit which gave rise to nick-names and anec-
dotes, which probably contained as much truth, or as little,
as most of the anecdotes which gather round remarkable
characters. One of these stories was that he used a mechan-
ical contrivance to wake him up whenever sleep threatened
to put an end to his hours of study.
In 347 B.C. Plato died, and his nephew Speusippus was
chosen as head of the Academy. Aristotle left Athens with
his fellow-student Xenocrates, and together they repaired
to the court of Hermeias, King of Atarneus, in Asia Mi-
nor. Hermeias, a man of low origin, but of high instincts
and advanced education, had himself attended the lectures
of Plato, and received the two young philosophers as wel-
come guests. Aristotle stayed three years at Atarneus, and,
while there, married {251} Pythias, the niece of the King.
In later life he was married a second time to one Herpyllis,
who bore him a son, Nichomachus. At the end of three
years Hermeias fell a victim to the treachery of the Per-
sians, and Aristotle went to Mytilene. Here he remained
for several years till he received an invitation from Philip
of Macedonia to become the tutor of the young Alexan-
der, afterwards conqueror of the world, then aged thirteen.
Aristotle obeyed the summons, and for about five years su-
perintended the education of Alexander. Both Philip and
Alexander appear to have paid Aristotle high honour, and
there were stories that he was supplied by the Macedonian
court, not only with funds for the prosecution of learn-
ing, but even with thousands of slaves for the collection of
specimens. These stories are probably false and certainly
exaggerated. But there is no doubt that, in his scientific
and philosophical enquiries, he was backed by the influence
of the court, and could even perhaps have looked to that
quarter for supplies, had it ever been necessary.Upon the death of Philip, Alexander succeeded to the king-
ship. The period of his studies was now over, and he began
to make preparations for his subsequent conquests. Aris-
totle’s work being finished, he returned to Athens, which
he had not visited since the death of Plato. He found the
Platonic school flourishing under Xenocrates, and Platon-
ism the dominant philosophy of Athens. He thereupon set
up his own school at a place called the Lyceum. It was
in connection with this that his followers became known,
in after years, as the “peripatetics,” a name which arose
from Aristotle’s habit of walking about as he discoursed.
The period of {252} his residence in Athens lasted thirteen
years, during which time he was occupied in the leadership
of his school and in literary labours. This appears to have
been the most fruitful period of his life. There is no doubt
that all his most important writings were composed at this
time. But at the end of this period his fortunes changed.In B.C. 323 Alexander the Great died suddenly at Baby-
lon in the midst of his triumphs. The Athenian Govern-
ment was in the hands of a pro-Macedonian party. Upon
the death of Alexander this party was overthrown, and a
general reaction occurred against everything Macedonian.