Heroes of science

by P. Martin Duncan

Aristoteles was born at Stageira, in the year 384 B.C., and it is interesting to note that his wonderful love of nature was fostered by, and, indeed, probably arose from the profession of his father. His father was the physician and friend of Amyntas, King of Macedonia, and his mother was a descendant of the great physician Æsculapius. The young Aristoteles lost both his parents at an early period of his life, but the son of Amyntas, called Philip, was his friend, and kind people brought the boy up. We know nothing of the boy’s habits or method of life; but it can be readily understood by those who read these lives, and have had a love of nature, before the experience of such a calamity as the loss of parents, that many an hour of sorrow was shortened and solaced by studying the graceful and blooming plants and the movements and habits of animals. Certain it is that the boy loved study, and it soon became evident that his loss was compensated, as it is very often in such cases, by a spirit of self-reliance. In his eighteenth year he went to Athens to study the healing art. When Aristoteles was about twenty-one years of age, the philosopher Plato returned from Sicily, and the young man then seems to have cared more for the study of the sciences which were requisite for a polished physician, than for the art of healing. He made his first self-sacrifice, as many a man has done since; he gave up the uncertainties of the art of curing diseases, and learned natural history and philosophy. His eagerness for knowledge and his extraordinary acuteness and sagacity doubtless attracted Plato’s notice, who soon called him “the intellect of the school,” and said his house was “the house of the reader.” As Aristoteles grew up, his early training and his love of the truth seen in nature, began to separate him from the common run of men, and his self-reliance began to make him an antagonist to the teachings even of the great Plato. But this opposition was not that of a vain and conceited young man. Plato had noticed his ability, and he was really a man of mark, whose opinions were valuable. Aristoteles studied facts, and knew many truths about natural history, but his wonderful master cared more for ideas. Such men must always clash, and Aristoteles writes in one of his books about his opposition to the philosophy of Plato, that it is painful to refute the doctrine of ideas, as it has been introduced by persons who were his friends; “nevertheless it is a duty to disregard such private feelings, for both philosophers and truth are dear to me, but it is right to give the preference to truth.” Truth! what is truth? said Pilate, and turned from the true. The Creator’s light, seen with our longing eyes, precious beyond conception, the sweetest solace of intellect; what is, what was—yet not to be defined by finite man. The very root of science, it is that which we are to hold in our consciences against all opposition. Appreciated by the savage, dear to pagan, the pride of the Christian, the giver of confidence amongst all men. Hard to get at, yet it is at the foundation of all those branches of knowledge which relate to the study of the Creation. Aristoteles studied natural history, that is, the plants and animals which came before him, especially. He recorded their description, noted their reproduction, and tried to make out their resemblances. He noticed the growth of things, and the decay of the surface of the earth, and having the facts and truths before him, he argued upon them. His master, Plato, was not a naturalist, but accepting the truths handed down to him by those who were observers of nature, he generalized about them, and got ideas by thinking out the bearings of the truths. He loved the ideal, and wrote, “Behold this world! You will find that its efficient cause is God, by whom it was brought into being; its moving cause, the goodness of the Creator.” He could no more occupy time by studying the structure of the flowers, plants, and sea-shells, than Aristoteles could in imagining or speculating on the causes of things. Both desired the truth, and tried to get it in different manners; but as at the present day there are moral philosophers and naturalists with totally different kinds of mind and habits of thought, so in those old days the master and pupil never worked together. The master gave way to his grand imagination, and the pupil was strictly a matter-of-fact man.

Aristoteles remained at Athens until he was thirty-seven years of age, when the death of Plato, in 347 B.C., happened. Before that time, however, he had become a man of note, and the Athenians sent him on an embassy to his friend and former patron, Philip of Macedon. It appears that he was able to serve his adopted country; but he made a mistake which all naturalists should avoid—he became a politician. His position at Athens became uncomfortable, and he left the city after the death of Plato, and, accompanied by a fellow-disciple of the great teacher, went into Asia Minor. They were invited by the Prince of Atarneus, named Hermeias, who had received lessons from Aristoteles. This man was once the slave of a banker, and when at Athens received a liberal education. Returning to his native country, he fought for Eubulus, the King of Atarneus, successfully against the Persians. On the death of Eubulus he was raised to the throne, and gladly welcomed one of the men who had given him knowledge, and, therefore, power. The romance of Aristoteles’ life followed quickly, for, unfortunately, Hermeias was captured by the Persians under a Greek general, after Aristoteles had been three years with him. He was put to death, and Aristoteles fled to Mitylene, the chief city of the neighbouring island of Lesbos. Hermeias had a sister, Pythias, and Aristoteles, knowing her excellent character and disposition, and being aware of the sad fate which she would suffer, were she to fall into the hands of the Persians, married her, and she accompanied him in his flight. She made him an excellent wife, and Aristoteles had always a fervent and sincere affection for the patriotic and philosophical prince his friend.

After two years’ residence in Mitylene, Aristoteles was invited by Philip to return to Macedonia, to superintend the education of his son Alexander, the future Alexander the Great, then fourteen years old. He was with this very able prince during about four years, and instructed him in morality, politics, and natural history. It was a strange position for a student of nature to occupy, and that he did his duty to his pupil is evident. It is the universal opinion that much that was admirable in the character of Alexander the Great was due to the influence of Aristoteles. The great conqueror was fond of literature, delighted in physical and even medical pursuits, sought the intimacy of men who thought, rather than that of men who had no other recommendation than titles and riches, and was devoted to the study of nature. These were the fruits of Aristoteles’ instruction, and it must be remembered that Alexander differed entirely in his conduct from the brutal conquerors who have been, over and over again, the scourge and curse of mankind.

Aristoteles lost his wife during this time, and she left him an only daughter. Then Philip was assassinated, and his son reigned at Macedon for two years, and then began his great expedition into Asia. Aristoteles accompanied his pupil to Athens, and parted with him never to see him again, but still to influence him for years. Unfortunately, however, Aristoteles recommended a relation, named Callisthenes, to the young king, and it was the cause of a rupture of friendship in years to come. Left to himself, our hero resolved to open a school for the benefit of the Athenian youth, and to teach good learning in philosophy and nature. He chose a house near a temple of Apollo Lyceius, which was called the “Lyceum,” and attached to it was a garden with walks, where the instruction was given. The Greek word for the walks was peripatua, and the school was called that of the peripatetics. His habit was to give one lecture in the early part of the day, on the more difficult parts of his teaching, to his more advanced students; and this was called the morning walk, and lasted till the hour when people dressed and anointed themselves. Another lecture, called the evening walk, was on more popular subjects, and to a larger and less select class. It was during these thirteen years of teaching that Aristoteles composed and completed the greater part of his works which have descended to our days. Amongst them are treatises on natural history, the result of his own observations and of the carefully selected works of others.

His great pupil never forgot his master during his victorious career, and Alexander is said to have sent Aristoteles the enormous sum of eight hundred talents to prosecute his studies in natural history. He, moreover, ordered several thousands of persons over the whole of Greece and Asia, who lived by hunting, bird-catching, and fishing, or who had the care of parks, herds, hives, stews, and aviaries, to furnish Aristoteles with materials for a work on animals. Two volumes on plants were written by Aristoteles, but they are lost to us; and he influenced the botanists of his day by his great exactitude of description and observation.

Aristoteles’ writings and teaching embraced a great variety of subjects, and they were so genuine that he became the leader of one of the principal schools of Greece; and his method of study and many of his facts and ideas have influenced mankind down to the present day. His works were much studied during the Middle Ages, and although his books on botany have been lost, still he influenced the study of botany through his pupil, Theophrastus, who became the great light of after years.

There is one point about Aristoteles’ character which everybody must admire, and it was the gratitude he felt for the good friends of his youth and of the days of struggling upwards in his career. It has been noticed that he was brought up by kind people. They were not relations, but probably were appointed his guardians by his father. They were Proxenus and his wife, citizens of Atarneus, who had left that city and had been long resident in Stageira. Not only were they the good friends of the boy, but they evidently brought him in contact with Hermeias, who subsequently became the prince of the place and Aristoteles’ fast friend and brother-in-law. Aristoteles testified his gratitude to his friends by directing in his will that statues of them, as well as of his parents, should be set up at his expense. He likewise educated their son, Nicanor, to whom he gave his daughter in marriage. Whilst growing old he wrote a beautiful poem, which is still to be read, praising the virtues of his friend and patron, Hermeias.

But success in life is sure to produce envy and hostility, and Aristoteles was no exception to this rule. A charge was made against him of impiety, and that he had made a god of his friend Hermeias. Such charges were not uncommon in those days. Socrates, one of the greatest and purest of men, had been accused of impiety a few years before, and that teacher of the immortality of the soul, and the master and friend of Plato, had been condemned and poisoned. The charges were absurd enough, but the judges were ignorant, and sunk in paganism, and almost invariably took the side of the accuser. Indeed, all through the history of the progress of the rise of civilization there were men who teaching a false religion, accused the bright lights of genius, science, and wit, of irreligion. The false priest and the fighting class, with rare exceptions, have always persecuted the leaders in science, and have antagonized progress, except in their own interests.

When the charge was made against Aristoteles, Alexander the Great was dead, and the great teacher, knowing full well what would be the result of the trial, quitted Athens and took refuge in Chalcis, in Eubœa, saying that he wished to prevent the Athenians twice running against philosophy, alluding to the judicial murder of Socrates.