(384-322 B.C.)
[Illustration: Two men sitting face to face. [TN]]
Of all the philosophers of antiquity, Aristotle was one of the most
celebrated; and in every seat of learning, his name, even at this day,
is held in esteem.
He was son of Nicomachus, a physician, and friend of Amyntas, king of
Macedonia, and was descended from Machaon, son of AEsculapius. He was
born at Stagira, a city of Macedonia, in the first year of the 99th
Olympiad. He lost his father and mother in his infancy, and was very
much neglected by those who had the charge of his education.
In his early years he dissipated almost all his patrimony in libertinism
and debauchery. At first he became a soldier; but the profession of arms
not suiting his turn of mind, he went to Delphi to consult the Oracle,
and fix his determination. By the response of the Oracle, he was
directed to go to Athens and pursue the study of philosophy. He was
then in his eighteenth year. For twenty years he studied in the academy
under Plato, and as he had spent all his inheritance, he was induced, in
order to procure a subsistence, to vend medicines at Athens.
Aristotle ate little and slept less. So strong was his passion for
study, that in order to resist the oppression of sleep, he kept at his
bedside a brazen basin, over which when in bed, he stretched one of his
hands in which he held an iron ball, that if he should fall asleep, the
noise of the ball dropping into the basin might awake him instantly.
According to Laertius his voice was shrill and squeaking, his eyes
small, his legs slender, and he dressed magnificently.
Aristotle was a man of acute parts, and one who easily comprehended the
most difficult questions. He soon became master of the doctrines of
Plato, and distinguished himself among the other academicians. No
question was decided in the academy without the opinion of Aristotle,
though it was often subversive of that of Plato. By all his
fellow-students he was considered as a prodigy of genius, and his
opinions were often followed, in opposition to those of his master.
Aristotle left the academy. This excited the resentment of Plato. He
could not refrain from treating him as a rebel, comparing him to the
chick which pecks its dam.
The Athenians appointed him ambassador to Philip, king of Macedonia,
father of Alexander the Great. Aristotle, having spent some time in
Macedonia in settling the affairs of the Athenians, found, upon his
return, that Xenocrates had been chosen master of the academy. Seeing
that place thus filled he said, "It would be a shame for me to be
silent, when Xenocrates speaks." He accordingly established a new sect,
and taught doctrines different from those of his master Plato.
The celebrity of Aristotle, who now surpassed all his contemporaries in
every kind of science, especially in the departments of philosophy and
politics, induced Philip, king of Macedonia, to offer him the care of
the education of his son Alexander, then fourteen years of age.
Aristotle accepted. He continued Alexander's preceptor for eight years;
and according to the testimony of Plutarch, taught him some secret
doctrines which he communicated to none other.
The study of philosophy did not render the manners of Aristotle austere.
He applied to business, and took an interest in everything that passed
at the court of Macedonia. From respect to this philosopher, Philip
rebuilt Stagira, his native city, which had been destroyed during the
wars, and restored to their possessions all the inhabitants, of whom
some had fled and others had been reduced to slavery.
When Alexander's education was finished, Aristotle returned to Athens,
where he was well received on account of the mildness with which, for
his sake, that city had been treated by Philip. He fixed upon a place in
the Lyceum highly beautified with avenues of trees, where he established
his school. He used to walk about when teaching and from this
circumstance his sect was called _Peripatetic_. The Lyceum was soon
thronged by a concourse of students whom Aristotle's reputation had
drawn together from every quarter of Greece.
Alexander recommended to him to attend particularly to experiments in
physical science. To facilitate his observations he sent him, besides
800 talents to defray expenses, a great number of huntsmen and fishermen
to supply him from every quarter with subjects for experiment.
At that time Aristotle published his books of physics and metaphysics.
Of this, Alexander who was now in Asia, got information. That ambitious
prince, desirous of being in everything the first man in the world, was
dissatisfied that the learning of his master should become common.
He showed his resentment by the following letter: "You have not done
well in publishing your books on speculative science. If what you taught
me be taught to men of all ranks, I shall then have nothing but in
common with others. But I would have you consider that I had rather be
superior to other men in abstract and secret knowledge, than to surpass
them in power."
To appease this prince Aristotle sent him for answer, that he had
published his books, but in such a way that in fact they were not
published. By this he apparently meant, that his doctrines were laid
down in a manner so embarrassed that it was impossible for any one ever
to understand them.
Aristotle carefully investigated that question, the great object of
moral philosophy, how men might be rendered happy in the present world.
In the first place, he refutes the opinion of the voluptuous, who make
happiness to consist in corporal pleasures. "Not only," said he, "are
these pleasures fleeting, they are also succeeded by disgust; and while
they enfeeble the body they debase the mind."
He next rejects the opinion of the ambitious, who place happiness in
honors, and, with this object in view, pay no regard to the maxims of
equity or the restraints of law. "Honor," he said, "exists in him who
honors." "The ambitious," he adds, "desire to be honored in consequence
of some virtue of which they wish themselves supposed to be possessed;
that consequently, happiness consists in virtue, rather than in honors,
especially as these are external and do not depend upon ourselves."
In the last place, he refutes the system of the avaricious, who
constitute riches the supreme good. "Riches," he said, "are not
desirable on their own account; they render him who possesses them
unhappy, because he is afraid to use them. In order to render them
really useful it is necessary to use and to distribute them, and not to
place happiness in what is in itself detestable and not worth the
having."
The opinion of Aristotle is, that happiness consists in the most perfect
exercise of the understanding and the practice of the virtues. The most
noble exercise of the understanding, he considered to be speculation
concerning natural objects; the heavens, the stars, nature, and chiefly
the First Being. He observed, however, that without a competency of the
good things of fortune suited to a man's situation in life, it was
impossible to be perfectly happy, because without this we could neither
have time to pursue speculation, nor opportunity to practise the
virtues. Thus, for example, one could not please his friends; and to do
good to those whom we love is always one of the highest enjoyments of
life.
"Happiness depends therefore," he said, "on three things: the goods of
mind, as wisdom and prudence; the goods of the body, as beauty, health,
strength; and the goods of fortune, as riches and nobility." Virtue he
maintained, is not sufficient to render men happy; the goods of the body
and of fortune are absolutely necessary; and a wise man would be unhappy
were he to want riches or if his share of them were insufficient.
He affirmed, on the other hand: "Vice is sufficient to render men
unhappy. Though in the greatest affluence and enjoying every other
advantage, it is impossible for a man ever to be happy while the slave
of vice. The wise man is not wholly exempted from the ills of life, but
his share of them is small." "The virtues and vices," he said, "are not
incompatible, for the same man, though intemperate, may be just and
prudent."
He mentions three kinds of friendship; one of relationship, another of
inclination, and a third of hospitality.
Elegant literature, he thinks, contributes greatly to produce a love of
virtue; and the cultivation of letters he affirms to be the greatest
consolation of age.
Like Plato, he admitted the existence of a Supreme Being, to whom he
attributed providence.
In his politics, he maintains that the monarchical form of government is
the most perfect, because in other forms there are more rulers than one.
An army under the conduct of one able commander, succeeds better than
one conducted by several leaders; and while deputies, or chief men, are
employed in assembling and deliberating, a monarch has already finished
an expedition and executed his designs. The rulers of a republic do not
care though they should ruin the state, provided they enrich themselves.
Jealousies are engendered, divisions arise, and the republic is in
danger of being finally destroyed and overthrown. In a monarchy, on the
other hand, the interests of the prince are those of the state; and the
state of course must flourish.
Aristotle was one day asked, "What does a man gain by telling a lie?"
"Not to be believed," said he, "even when he tells the truth."
Having been blamed for giving alms to a bad man, he said: "It is not
because he is bad, but because he is a man, that I have compassion for
him."
To his friends and scholars he used to say, that knowledge is to the
soul what light is to the eyes; and that mellowness of the fruit makes
up for the bitterness of the root. When irritated against the Athenians,
he reproached them with neglecting their _laws_, and using their _corn_;
though possessed of the former, as well as the latter.
He was one day asked, "What it is that is soonest effaced?" "Gratitude,"
replied he. "What is hope?" "A waking man's dream."
Diogenes presented Aristotle with a fig. Aristotle very well knew that
were he to refuse it, Diogenes would level his wit against him. He took
the fig, therefore, and with a smile said, "Diogenes has at once lost
his fig and the use he intended to make of it."
He said there were three things very necessary to children: Genius,
exercise, and instruction. When asked the difference between the learned
and the ignorant, he replied: "The same as between the living and the
dead." "Knowledge," he said, "is an ornament in prosperity, and in
adversity a refuge. Those who give children a good education, are much
more their fathers than those who have begotten them; the latter
communicate mere life to them; the former put it in their power to spend
it comfortably." "Beauty," said he, "is a recommendation infinitely
stronger than any kind of learning."
He was one day asked, What pupils should do to turn their instructions
to the greatest advantage? "They must," said he, "always keep in view
those before them, and never look back to those behind them."
A certain person was one day boasting of being the citizen of an
illustrious state. "Do not value yourself upon that," said Aristotle;
"rather ask yourself whether you deserve to be so?"
Reflecting on human life, he sometimes said: "There are some who amass
riches with as much avidity as if they were to live forever; others are
as careless about their possessions as if they were to die to-morrow."
When asked, what is a friend? he replied, "One soul animating two
bodies." "How," said one to him, "ought we to act to our friends?" "As
we would have them to act toward us," replied Aristotle. He used
frequently to exclaim, "Ah! my friends, there is not a friend in the
world!"
He was one day asked, "How it comes that we prefer beautiful women to
those who are ugly?" "You now ask a blind man's question," returned
Aristotle.
He was asked what advantage he had derived from philosophy? "To do
voluntarily," replied he, "what others do through fear of the laws."
It is said that during his stay at Athens he was intimate with an able
Jew, by whom he was accurately instructed in the science and religion of
the Egyptians, for the acquisition of which everyone at that time used
to go to Egypt itself.
Having taught in the Lyceum for thirteen years with great reputation,
Aristotle was accused of impiety by Eurimedon, priest of Ceres. He was
so overwhelmed with the recollection of what Socrates had suffered that
he hastily left Athens and retired to Chalcis in Euboea. It is said by
some that he there died of vexation because he could not discover the
cause of the flux and reflux of the Euripus. By others it is added that
he threw himself into that sea, and when falling said, "Let the Euripus
receive me since I cannot comprehend it." And lastly, it is affirmed by
others that he died of a colic in the sixty-third year of his age, two
years after the death of his pupil, Alexander the Great.
By the Stagirites, altars were erected to him as a god.
Aristotle made a will, of which Antipater was appointed the executor. He
left a son called Nicomachus, and a daughter who was married to a
grandson of Demaratus, king of Lacedaemonia.