ter, Philip had a son named Alexander, who was somewhat
unruly, and Philip sent a Macedonian cry over to Aristotle, and
Aristotle harkened to the call for help and went over and took charge of
the education of Alexander.

The science of medicine in Aristotle's boyhood was the science of
simples. In surgery the world has progressed, but in medicine, doctors
have progressed most, by consigning to the grave, that tells no tales,
the deadly materia medica.

In Aristotle's childhood, when his father was both guide and physician
to the king, on hunting trips through the mountains, the doctor taught
the boys to recognize sarsaparilla, stramonium, hemlock, hellebore,
sassafras and mandrake. Then Aristotle made a list of all the plants he
knew and wrote down the supposed properties of each.

Before Aristotle was half-grown, both his father and mother died, and he
was cared for by a Mr. and Mrs. Proxenus. This worthy couple would never
have been known to the world were it not for the fact that they
ministered to this orphan boy. Long years afterward he wrote a poem to
their memory, and paid them such a tender, human compliment that their
names have been woven into the very fabric of letters. "They loved each
other, and still had love enough left for me," he says. And we can only
guess whether this man and his wife with hearts illumined by divine
passion, the only thing that yet gladdens the world, ever imagined that
they were supplying an atmosphere in which would bud and blossom one of
the greatest intellects the world has ever known.

It was through the help of Proxenus that Aristotle was enabled to go to
Athens and attend the School of Oratory, of which Plato was dean.

The fine, receptive spirit of this slender youth evidently brought out
from Plato's heart the best that was packed away there.

Aristotle was soon the star scholar. To get much out of school you have
to take much with you when you go there. In one particular, especially,
Aristotle, the country boy from Macedonia, brought much to Plato--and
this was the scientific spirit. Plato's bent was philosophy, poetry,
rhetoric--he was an artist in expression.

"Know thyself," said Socrates, the teacher of Plato.

"Be thyself," said Plato. "Know the world of Nature, of which you are a
part," said Aristotle; "and you will be yourself and know yourself
without thought or effort. The things you see, you are."

Twenty-three years Aristotle and Plato were together, and