The Vizier of the Two-Horned AlexanderStockton, Frank R.
Science
The Vizier of the Two-Horned Alexander
Stockton, Frank R.
Adventure stories; Fantasy fiction; Immortalism -- Fiction
"It was in this period that I made the acquaintance of an editor--the
first editor, in fact, of whom I know anything at all. I was in Rhodes,
and there was a learned man there named Andronicus, who was engaged in
editing the works of Aristotle. All the manuscripts and books which that
great philosopher left behind him had been given to a friend, or trustee,
and had passed from this person into the possession of others, so that for
about a hundred years the world knew nothing of them. Then they came into
the hands of Andronicus, who undertook to edit them and get them into
proper shape for publication. I went to Andronicus, and as soon as he
found I was a person qualified for such work, he engaged me as his
assistant editor. I held this position for several years, and two or three
of the books of Aristotle I transcribed entirely with my own hand,
properly shaping sentences and paragraphs, and very often making the
necessary divisions. From my experience with Andronicus, I am sure that
none of the works of Aristotle were given to the world exactly as he wrote
them, for we often found his manuscript copies very rough and disjointed
so far as literary construction is concerned, but I will also say that we
never interfered with his philosophical theories or his scientific
statements and deductions."
"In all that time thee never married?" asked Mrs. Crowder.
Crowder and I could not help laughing.
"I did not say so," said he, "but I will say that, with one exception,
I do not remember any interesting matrimonial alliances which occurred
during the period of my literary labors. I married a young woman of
Rhodes, and gave her a very considerable establishment, which I was able
to do, for Andronicus paid me much better than Herodotus had done; but she
did not prove a very suitable helpmeet, and I believe she married me
simply because I was in fairly good circumstances. She soon showed that
she preferred a young man to an elderly student, the greater part of whose
time was occupied with books and manuscripts, and we had not been married
a year when she ran away with a young goldsmith, and disappeared from
Rhodes, as I discovered, on a vessel bound for Rome. I resigned myself
to my loss, and did not even try to obtain news of her. I was too much
engrossed in my work to be interested in a runaway wife.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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