The story was first published in the magazine Astounding Science-Fiction for February, 1958,[1] and first appeared in book form in de Camp's collection A Gun for Dinosaur and Other Imaginative Tales (Doubleday, 1963).

Believing that the influential ancient philosopher's lack of interest in experiment retarded scientific progress through much of subsequent history, Weaver aims to nudge the savant in what he considers the proper direction.

Ultimately forced to defend himself with a handgun he has brought, Weaver is on the point of being executed for espionage and murder, but he is snapped back into the present, as the effects of his time projection wear off.

Aristotle, convinced that the tedious accumulation of experimental knowledge is beneath the dignity of civilized philosophers and that it is a waste of time attempting to catch up to "India" in that regard, turns out to have come down strongly against the notion in his writings.

Critic P. Schuyler Miller called the story "even better" than de Camp's "A Gun for Dinosaur" in its recreation of Aristotle's Macedonia as seen through modern eyes, and its twist in the alternate time-track theme.

The development is indeed to some degree foreshadowed in the present story itself, with its meticulously researched depiction of the Classical Greek and Hellenistic milieu for which de Camp clearly had strong interest and empathy and also when seen through the eyes of its own native-born denizens and without a time traveler in attendance.