And since Philip saw that his son’s nature was unyielding and that he
resisted compulsion, but was easily led by reasoning into the path of
duty, he himself tried to persuade rather than to command him; and
because he would not wholly entrust the direction and training of the
boy to the ordinary teachers of poetry and the formal studies, feeling
that it was a matter of too great importance, and, in the words of
Sophocles,
he sent for the most famous and learned of philosophers, Aristotle, and paid him a noble and appropriate tuition-fee. The city of Stageira, that is, of which Aristotle was a native, and which he had himself destroyed, he peopled again, and restored to it those of its citizens who were in exile or slavery.
Well, then, as a place where master and pupil could labour and study, he
assigned them the precinct of the nymphs near Mieza, where to this day
the visitor is shown the stone seats and shady walks of Aristotle. It
would appear, moreover, that Alexander not only received from his master
his ethical and political doctrines, but also participated in those
secret and more profound teachings which philosophers designate by the
special terms acroamatic
and epoptic,
esoteric,
as opposed to
exoteric
doctrines.
For after he had already crossed into Asia, and when he learned that
certain treatises on these recondite matters had been published in books
by Aristotle, he wrote him a letter on behalf of philosophy, and put it
in plain language. And this is a copy of the letter. Alexander, to
Aristotle, greeting. Thou hast not done well to publish thy
acroamatic doctrines; for in what shall I surpass other men if those
doctrines wherein I have been trained are to be all men’s common
property? But I had rather excel in my acquaintance with the best
things than in my power. Farewell.
Accordingly, in defending himself, Aristotle encourages this ambition of Alexander by saying that the doctrines of which he spoke were both published and not published; for in truth his treatise on metaphysics is of no use for those who would either teach or learn the science, but is written as a memorandum for those already trained therein.