学生亚历山大在政治领域建立的新秩序，而老师亚里士多德则在哲学领域建立新秩序，这实际上是一项宏伟事业的两个方面——两个优秀的马其顿人分别统一了两个混乱的世界。
Aristotle and Greek Science
I. The Historical Background
In 338 B.C. he defeated the Athenians at Chæronea, and saw at last a Greece united, though with chains. And then, as he stood upon this victory, and planned how he and his son should master and unify the world, he fell under an assassin's hand.
Alexander, when Aristotle came, was a wild youth of thirteen; passionate, epileptic, almost alcoholic; it was his pastime to tame horses untamable by men. The efforts of the philosopher to cool the fires of this budding volcano were not of much avail; Alexander had better success with Bucephalus than Aristotle with Alexander. "For a while," says Plutarch, "Alexander loved and cherished Aristotle no less than as if he had been his own father; saying that though he had received life from the one, the other had taught him the art of living." ("Life," says a fine Greek adage, "is the gift of nature; but beautiful living is the gift of wisdom.") "For my part," said Alexander in a letter to Aristotle, "I had rather excel in the knowledge of what is good than in the extent of my power and dominion." But this was probably no more than a royal-youthful compliment; beneath the enthusiastic tyro of philosophy was the fiery son of a barbarian princess and an untamed king; the restraints of reason were too delicate to hold these ancestral passions in leash; and Alexander left philosophy after two years to mount the throne and ride the world. History leaves us free to believe (though we should suspect these pleasant thoughts) that Alexander's unifying passion derived some of its force and grandeur from his teacher, the most synthetic thinker in the history of thought; and that the conquest of order in the political realm by the pupil, and in the philosophic realm by the master, were but diverse sides of one noble and epic project—two magnificent Macedonians unifying two chaotic worlds.
Setting out to conquer Asia, Alexander left behind him, in the cities of Greece, governments favorable to him but populations resolutely hostile. The long tradition of a free and once imperial Athens made subjection—even to a brilliant world-conquering despot—intolerable; and the bitter eloquence of Demosthenes kept the Assembly always on the edge of revolt against the "Macedonian party" that held the reins of city power. Now when Aristotle, after another period of travel, returned to Athens in the year 334 B.C., he very naturally associated with this Macedonian group, and took no pains to conceal his approval of Alexander's unifying rule. As we study the remarkable succession of works, in speculation and research, which Aristotle proceeded to unfold in the last twelve years of his life; and as we watch him in his multifold tasks of organizing his school, and of coördinating such a wealth of knowledge as probably never before had passed through the mind of one man; let us occasionally remember that this was no quiet and secure pursuit of truth; that at any minute the political sky might change, and precipitate a storm in this peaceful philosophic life. Only with this situation in mind shall we understand Aristotle's political philosophy, and his tragic end.
▍语言点
assassin: n. 刺客
epileptic: adj. 多动的；躁动的
budding: adj. 萌芽的；发育期的
avail: n. 益处；效用；利益
Plutarch: 普鲁塔克，公元 46 - 120，是一位用希腊文写作的罗马传记文学家、散文家、以及柏拉图学派的知识分子。
the art of living: 生活的艺术
adage: n. 名言
no more than: 仅仅是
fiery: adj. 暴躁的；激烈的
hold something in leash: 用绳索绑起某物
ride the world: 征服世界
grandeur: n. 格局；壮丽
synthetic: adj. 综合的
realm: n. 领域
resolutely: adv. 坚决地；毅然地
subjection: n. 服从；隶属
despot: n. 专制君主，暴君；独裁者
Demosthenes: 狄摩西尼，公元前 384 — 322，古希腊最伟大的政治家、演说家、雄辩家和希腊联军统帅，为了克服口吃的毛病，口含石子在海边练习演说。
revolt: vi. 反抗；反叛
unfold: vt. 展开
multifold: adj. 多面的；多种的
precipitate: vt. 促成；降水
亚里士多德创办了学校吕克昂，并制定了一系列规章制度来规范学生行为，不过实际情况却是学生能和老师在一起吃饭，跟着老师在体育场漫步并听老师讲课。吕克昂以教授生物学和其他自然科学为主。这也为亚里士多德的学术研究提供了大量素材与资料。
Aristotle and Greek Science
II. The Work of Aristotle
It was not hard for the instructor of the king of kings to find pupils even in so hostile a city as Athens. When, in the fifty-third year of his age, Aristotle established his school, the Lyceum, so many students flocked to him that it became necessary to make complicated regulations for the maintenance of order. The students themselves determined the rules, and elected, every ten days, one of their number to supervise the School. But we must not think of it as a place of rigid discipline; rather the picture which comes down to us is of scholars eating their meals in common with the master, and learning from him as he and they strolled up and down the Walk along the athletic field from which the Lyceum took its name.
The new School was no mere replica of that which Plato had left behind him. The Academy was devoted above all to mathematics and to speculative and political philosophy; the Lyceum had rather a tendency to biology and the natural sciences. If we may believe Pliny, Alexander instructed his hunters, gamekeepers, gardeners and fishermen to furnish Aristotle with all the zoological and botanical material he might desire; other ancient writers tell us that at one time he had at his disposal a thousand men scattered throughout Greece and Asia, collecting for him specimens of the fauna and flora of every land. With this wealth of material he was enabled to establish the first great zoological garden that the world had seen. We can hardly exaggerate the influence of this collection upon his science and his philosophy.
Where did Aristotle derive the funds to finance these undertakings? He was himself, by this time, a man of spacious income; and he had married into the fortune of one of the most powerful public men in Greece. Athenæus (no doubt with some exaggeration) relates that Alexander gave Aristotle, for physical and biological equipment and research, the sum of 800 talents (in modern purchasing power, some $4,000,000). It was at Aristotle's suggestion, some think, that Alexander sent a costly expedition to explore the sources of the Nile and discover the causes of its periodical overflow. Such works as the digest of 158 political constitutions, drawn up for Aristotle, indicate a considerable corps of aides and secretaries. In short we have here the first example in European history of the large-scale financing of science by public wealth. What knowledge would we not win if modern states were to support research on a proportionately lavish scale!
Yet we should do Aristotle injustice if we were to ignore the almost fatal limitations of equipment which accompanied these unprecedented resources and facilities. He was compelled "to fix time without a watch, to compare degrees of heat without a thermometer, to observe the heavens without a telescope, and the weather without a barometer ... Of all our mathematical, optical and physical instruments he possessed only the rule and compass, together with the most imperfect substitutes of some few others. Chemical analysis, correct measurements and weights, and a thorough application of mathematics to physics, were unknown. The attractive force of matter, the law of gravitation, electrical phenomena, the conditions of chemical combination, pressure of air and its effects, the nature of light, heat, combustion, etc., in short, all the facts on which the physical theories of modern science are based were wholly, or almost wholly, undiscovered."
▍语言点
king of kings: 某个行业或领域的佼佼者
flock: vi. 聚集；成群而行
supervise: vt. 监督，管理
rigid: adj. 严格的；僵硬的
Peripatetikoi: n. 漫步学派或逍遥学派，由于他习惯于同学生边散步边讨论问题，人们又把他创立的学派叫做漫步学派。
gamekeeper: n. 猎场看守人
zoological: adj. 动物学的；关于动物的
at one's disposal: 由其支配；由某人做主
scattered: adj. 分散的；散乱的
fauna and flora: n. 动植物
spacious: adj. 大量的
expedition: n. 远征；探险队
overflow: n. 泛滥
digest: n. 消化
barometer: n. 气压计
optical: adj. 光学的
the most imperfect: 最不精良的
substitute: n. 替代品
