Part VI.

AKISJ or LE.
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fonhath obferved to be chofen as a middle way betwixt the Sentence of thofe who made the Optick Pencil a Pyramid of a quadratick bafe, and thole who made it of a Conick Figure^ is very obfcure-, and hardly adriiits of an Interpte- tation worthy fo great an Author.
^ CHAP. VIII. ”
His Correfpondence with Alexander.
WHilft Aript le tzught Philofophy at A thens^ his Difciple Alexastder was em¬ ployed in an expedition to Afui againft Dari¬ us King of incited thereunto by tlic prin¬
ciples of Honour, which were infufed into hirh by Arptle., particularly from the Prefidents of Achilles^ yl/V7x,and other Heroes celebrated by Homer Iliads Ariptle had fo carefully re- comnrtended unto him. He began this Expedition in the third year of the nth Olympiad, at which time Cteples was Archon at At hetis^ immediate¬ ly after the departure oi' Arpt/e,who(itis pro¬ bable) came only for this rpfon from him, as preferring a quiet and ftudious' Life before the troubles of War.
The firft thing that Alexander did,was to vifit the ToxfAooA Achilles mx\\tSigm{mpeX the fight whereof he broke forth m\o thefe words •, 0 for¬ tunate young Man that hadjia Homer to celebrate thy praife I for had it not been for his J/f7(A,adds a Cicero , in the fame Tomb where Achil¬ les's Body lay, his Name alfo vyould have been buried.He took with him the Iliads of Ho- nter corrected by Ariptle made it his con- 1 ftant companion, infomuch that he laid it every night with his dagger, under his Pillow. And in a Victory ovct Darius^ having taken a Casket of Unguents of extraordinary Value amongft the Spoils of Darius, befet with Pearls pd preci¬ ous Clones (as b Pliny defcribes it) his Friends telling him how many ufes it might be put to, becaule Unguents did not become a Soldier ^ Yes, faith he,it lhall ferve to keep the Books of Homer, that the molt precious work may be kept in the richelt Cal'e ^ hence wasjhis correCt Copy called, as Plutarch faith,
Whilft he was in Afa, engaged in the Wars ; againft Darius, in the midft of his continual Victories and Bufinefs , hearing that Arptle had publilhed his Acroacick Books of Natural Philofophy, he fentthis Letter to him •,
d Alexander to Arptle, Health.
YOU have not done well in publpmgyour Acroatick difcourfes,for wherein Jh ail we excel others, if this learning wherein we have been Infituted, be made common to all? As for me, I had rather excel others in Knowledge than in Power, Farewel.
To which Arptle returned this Anfwer.
® Arptle to Alexander, Flealtli.
YOU wrote to me concerning my Acroatick Difeourfes that they ought not to have been communicated, but kept fecret. Know, that they are made pub'Hck, and not publick', for none but they who have heard Jfs can unde rf and them. Farewell.
Thus, notwithftanding Alexander was bufied in the Wars, yet he forgot not his Mafter Arptle fiGi kept a friendlycorrelpondence with
him. So conftant was he in his Love to Learning,
and particularly fo much enflaraed, (as f Pliny ^ ^ ^
laith) with a curious defire of underftanding ' .
the natures of living Creatures, that he font thoulands of Men, throughout all Afia and Greece, to procure all kinds of living Creatures,
Birds, Bealls and Filhes, at an excefiive charge, g Athcn.tus faith, 8oo Talents, wficli according g Lib. p. to '' Budicuss account is 840000 Crowns ;
Thefe Men he font with what they took to Ari- Jiotle, that he might not be ignorant of any thing that any Nation afforded ^ by which informa¬ tion, he compofod, as Pliny affirmeth, fifty excel¬ lent Volumes, of Living Creatures, of which ten are only left, unlels we put into the fame num¬ ber, thofe Books of his which have feme near relation to this SuhjeCf : As of fje going of living Creatures, i. Of the parts oj living Creatures, and their Caufes. Of the Generation of living Crea¬ tures. If this were done by Alexander, as Pli¬ ny, and Athenxus atteft (though i AElian aferibe i Lib. 4. i ^4 it to Philip) itmuft neceffarily have been whilft he was in his Afiatick Expedition. For Ariptle, as hath been already proved, flayed but a very Ihorttime with him after the death of his Fa¬ ther.
Arptle made the fame ufe of his corref¬ pondence with as he had done of the
Intereft he before had with P/;/7/y, the advantage not only of particularperfons,but of whole Cities.
This the City oiStagirayhe place of his Birth, did acknowledge, which, at the fuit oLAriftotle,
Alexander cauled to be re-edified,and re-peopled and reflored to its former ftate, having before by Pb/Viy been laid level with the Ground. For, though Plutarch relate this as done in the time of PhiHp,Laertius, Ammoniw fLion, Chryfofome,
JElian, and others hold, that it was done by Alexander, to which Valerius Maximus adds, that it was not long before Arifotle's Death.
In memory of which Benefit, the People of Sta- gira ufod to celebrate a yearly Feftival, which they called th^ Ariflotelia'n Leaf, naming the Month inwhi(f:h it fell, Stagarrtes.
k LV7ry?/ fus,whlch Alpnder determined to punilii ve- k Ammon. ry leverely •, by the mediation of Ariptle was pardoned.
That he benefited many particular perfons is evident, faith Ammonius, from his Epillles to the King, yet extant, wherein he recommends feveral Perfons to him,
Hence it is manifeft, that the Author of his Life is miftaken, when he affirms, that in Alex¬ anders Afiatick expeditiem, Arittotle accompa¬ nied him to the Braehmanes, where he writ that noble piece of the Davos and Indit lit ions of 2’^‘y Cities. That likewife he travelled over all Perfia with Alexander, where during the War, Alexan¬ der died, and Ariftotle returned into his own Country. This relation agrees not with the other Circumflances of Arptle's Life. Alexander died in the fourth year of the hundred and thir¬ teenth Olympiad, two years before Arifotle's departure Ptom Athens.
But as it is apparent,- that this Miflake pro¬ ceeded only from Ignorance (yet that fo great, that I Patricius argues from thence neither f D#'"# Perh Ammonius nor Philoponus to be Authors of his^'*^’
Life) fo are there fome other Errors, wffiich no
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