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HAVE you ever been playing in your yard when a strange boy who had been watching from the other side of the fence asked to be let into the game, saying he would show you how to play? You didn't want him around, and you didn't want him in, but somehow or other he got in and was soon bossing everybody else.
Well, there was a man named Philip who lived north of Greece, and he had been watching Sparta and Athens—not playing but fighting—and he wanted to get into the game. Philip was king of a little country called Macedonia, but he thought he would like to be king of Greece also, and it seemed to him a good time, when Sparta and Athens were down and out after the Peloponnesian War,to step in and make himself king of that country. Philip was a great fighter, but he didn't want to fight Greece unless he had to. He wanted to be made king peaceably, and he wanted Greece to do it willingly. He thought up a scheme to bring this about, and this was his scheme.
He knew, as you do, how the Greeks hated the Persians, whom they had driven out of their country over a hundred years before. Although the Persian Wars had taken place so long ago, the Greeks had never forgotten the bravery of their forefathers and the tales of their victories over the Persians. These stories had been told them over and over by their parents and grandparents, and they loved to read and reread them in Herodotus's history of the world.
So Philip said to the Greeks, “Your ancestors drove the Persians out of Greece, to be sure, but the Persians went back to their country, and you didn't go after them and punish them as you should have done. You didn't try to get even with them. Why don't you go over to Persia and conquer it now, and make the Persians pay for what they did to you?”
Then he slyly added, “Let me help you. I'll lead you against them.”
No one seemed to see through Philip's scheme—nobody except one man. This man was an Athenian named Demosthenes.
Demosthenes, when he was a boy, had decided that he would someday be a great speaker or orator, just as you might say you are going to be a doctor, or an aviator, or a teacher when you grow up.
Demosthenes had picked the one profession which by nature he was worst fitted for. In the first place, he had such a very soft, weak voice that one coul hardly hear him. Besides, this, he stammered very badly and could not recite even a short poem without hesitating and stumbling so that people laughed at him. It seemed absurd, therefore, that he should aim to be a great speaker.
But Demosthenes practiced and practiced and practicedby himself. He went down on the seashore and put pebbles in his mouth to make it more difficult to speak clearly. Then he spoke to the roaring waves, making believe that he was addressing an angry crowd, who were trying to drown the sound of his voice, so that he would have to speak very loud indeed.
At last, by keeping constantly at it, Demosthenes did become a very great speaker. He spoke so wonderfully that he could make his audience laugh or make them cry whenever he wanted to, and he could persuade them to do almost anything he wished.
Now, Demosthenes was the man who saw through Philip's scheme for conquering Persia. He knew that Philip's real aim was to become king of Greece. So he made twelve speeches against him. These speeches were known as Philippics, as they were against Philip. So famous were they that even today we call a speech that bitterly attacks anyone a Philippic.
The Greeks who heard Demosthenes were red-hot against Philip while they listened to him. But as soon as they got away from the sound of Demosthenes's words, the same Greeks became lukewarm and did nothing to stop Philip.
At last, in spite of everything that Demosthenes had said, Philip had his way and became king over all Greece.
Before, however, he could start out, as he had promised, to conquer Persia, he was killed by one of his own men, so that he was unable to carry out his plan.
Philip had a son named Alexander. Alexander was only twenty years old, but when his father died he became king of Macedonia and also of Greece.
When Alexander was a mere child, he saw some men trying without success to tame a young and very wild horse that shied and reared in the air so that no one was able to ride it. Alexander asked to be allowed to try to ride the animal. Alexander's father made fun of his son for wanting to attempt what those older than he had been unable to do, but at last gave his consent.
Now, Alexander had noticed what the others, although much older, had not noticed. The horse seemed to be afraid of its own shadow, for young colts are easily frightened by anything dark and moving, as some children are afraid of the dark at night.
Alexander turned the horse around facing the sun, so that its shadow would be behind, out of sight. He then mounted the animal and, to the amazement of all, rode off without any further trouble.
His father was delighted at his son's cleverness and gave him the horse as a reward. Alexander named the horse Bucephalus and became so fond of him that when the horse died Alexander built a monument to him and named several cities after him.
Now, Alexander was a wonderful boy, but he had such a wonderful teacher named Aristotle that some people think part, at least, of his greatness was due to the teacher.
Aristotle was probably the greatest teacher who ever lived. If there were more great teachers like Aristotle, it seems likely there would have been more great pupils like Alexander.
Aristotle wrote books about all sorts of things—books about the stars called astronomy, books about animals called zoology, and books on other subjects that you probably have never even heard of, such as psychology and politics.
For hundreds of years these books that Aristotle wrote were the schoolbooks that boys and girls studied, and for many years they were the onlyschoolbooks. Nowadays, schoolbooks usually change every few years after they are written. See how remarkable it was that Aristotle's schoolbooks should have been used for so long a time.
Aristotle had been taught by a man named Plato, who was also a great teacher and philosopher. Plato had been a pupil of Socrates, so that Aristotle was a kind of grand-pupilof Socrates. You have heard of the Wise Men of the East. These were the three Wise Men of Greece.
SOCRATES,
PLATO,
ARISTOTLE.
Some day you may read what they wrote or said over two thousand years ago.
你和小伙伴在自家院子里玩，有个陌生男孩一直在围栏外看你们玩，他突然开口请求加入你们，还说他会教你们怎么玩。你不想他在旁观看，也不想他加入进来，但是，不知怎么的，他还是加入进来了，而且很快就成了你们这群人的头儿。你有过这样的经历吗？
有个名叫腓力的人住在希腊的北边，他一直在观察着斯巴达和雅典——不是在玩耍而是在打仗——他想加入这个游戏。腓力是个名叫马其顿的小国的国王，但是他觉得自己也想成为希腊国王。斯巴达和雅典在伯罗奔尼撒战争后一蹶不振，在他看来，这似乎正是他乘虚而入、成为希腊国王的大好时机。腓力能征善战，但是除非不得已，否则他不想和希腊开战。他想以和平的方式当上希腊国王，也希望希腊人愿意拥戴他。他想出了个计谋来实现他的想法，他的计谋是这样的：
你从前面的故事知道，希腊人如何痛恨波斯人吧，一百多年以前，他们把波斯人赶出了希腊，腓力也清楚这一点。尽管波斯战争已经过去很久了，但是希腊人从未忘记自己祖先的英雄事迹和他们战胜波斯人的故事。他们的父母、祖父母一遍又一遍地给他们讲这些故事，他们也喜欢把希罗多德写的这些历史故事读了又读。
于是，腓力对希腊人说：“诚然，你们的祖先将波斯人赶出了希腊，但是波斯人回到了他们的国家，你们本应当追上去狠狠惩罚他们一下，而你们却放过他们，没有想去摆平他们。你们何不现在就去波斯，征服它，让波斯人为他们的罪过付出代价呢？”
接着，他又狡猾地补充说：“让我来帮助你们吧。我会率领你们攻打他们。”
似乎没有人看穿腓力的诡计——除了一个人，也就仅仅一个人。他是一个名叫狄摩西尼的雅典人。
狄摩西尼，当他还是个孩子的时候，就决心总有一天要成为一名伟大的演说家或雄辩家，就像你也许说过的，长大了要当医生啦，或当飞行员啦，或当教师啦那样。
狄摩西尼选择了一项自己天生最不适合的职业。首先，他的嗓音又弱又柔，人们很难听清他说什么。除此以外，他口吃得很厉害，连朗诵一首短诗，他也支支吾吾、结结巴巴的，总是引来别人的嘲笑声。因此，他立志做一名伟大的演说家似乎是太荒唐了。
但是狄摩西尼独自一人练习，练习再练习。他到海边去，把鹅卵石放在嘴里，这样要把话说清楚就更难了。然后，他对着咆哮的海浪说话，假装自己正对着一群愤怒的民众发表演说，为了不让人群的喧哗淹没自己的声音，他就不得不用特别大的声音说话。
最后，通过坚持不懈的练习，狄摩西尼真的成了一名非常伟大的演说家。他的演讲非常精彩，可以随时打动听众的心，要他们笑，他们就笑，要他们哭，他们就哭，要他们做什么，就可以说服他们去做什么。
此时，只有狄摩西尼看出腓力征服波斯的提议是个阴谋，他知道腓力真正的目的是想做希腊的国王。因此，他发表了十二场演说来反对腓力。这些演说被称为“反腓力辞”，因为它们都是抨击腓力的。这些演说非常著名，直到今天我们还把痛斥他人的演说叫做“反腓力辞”。
希腊人在听狄摩西尼演讲时都怒火中烧，激烈反对腓力。但是，听完狄摩西尼的演讲，这些希腊人一转身就变得毫无斗志了，没有做任何事去阻止腓力。
最后，尽管狄摩西尼把要说的话都说了，腓力的阴谋还是得逞了，成了统治全希腊的国王。
不过，他还没有来得及按自己承诺的那样去征服波斯，就被自己身边的一个人杀了，这样，他就没能将自己的计划付诸实施。
腓力有个儿子叫亚历山大。亚历山大当时只有20岁，但是他父亲死后，他就成了马其顿的国王，同时也是希腊的国王。
亚历山大还是个小孩子的时候，他看到几个人试图驯服一匹性子非常野的小马，却没有成功，因为马一见到人接近就惊得不断后退，两只前蹄腾空而起，没有人能够骑上去。亚历山大请求父亲让自己也试试，看能不能驯服这匹马。亚历山大的父亲觉得儿子的请求很可笑，那些年纪比他大的人都做不到，一个小孩子却要试试，但是最终他还是同意了。
亚历山大注意到了其他人没有注意到的一个细节，尽管这些人比他年长得多。这匹马似乎很害怕自己的影子，因为凡是黑暗而又移动的东西都很容易使小马驹感到害怕，如同小孩子晚上怕黑一样。
亚历山大把马驹掉了个头，让它正对着太阳，这样它的影子就在后面，它看不见了。然后，他骑上马，轻而易举地驰骋起来，令所有人都惊讶得目瞪口呆。
他的父亲因为儿子的聪明而高兴不已，就把这匹小马驹送给他作为奖励。亚历山大给它取名叫布塞弗勒斯，他非常喜爱这匹马，在马死后，亚历山大还专门为它建了一座纪念碑，还以马的名字命名了几个城市。
亚历山大是个了不起的孩子，不过，他有一个杰出的老师名叫亚里士多德，有些人甚至认为亚历山大之所以伟大至少有部分原因是他有这样一个老师。
亚里士多德可能是从古至今最伟大的老师了。如果能有更多像亚里士多德一样伟大的老师，大概会有更多像亚历山大一样了不起的学生。
亚里士多德写了关于各类事物的书——关于星球的书叫天文学，关于动物的书叫动物学，还有你可能从未听说过的其他学科的书，比如心理学和政治学。
千百年来，亚里士多德写的这些书都是男孩、女孩们学习的教科书，而且很多年里这些书也是唯一的教科书。如今，学校的教科书通常每隔几年就要重新编写一次。你看，亚里士多德的教科书竟然用了那么长的时间，这是多么了不起啊！
亚里士多德曾经受教于一个名叫柏拉图的人，他也是位杰出的老师和哲学家。柏拉图曾是苏格拉底的学生，因此亚里士多德也算得上是苏格拉底的“徒孙”。你们听说过《圣经》中的“东方三博士”，而这是希腊的“三位智者”：
苏格拉底
柏拉图
亚里士多德
也许将来有一天，你们可能会读到他们两千多年以前写的书或说过的话。