88 A SHORT HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



scientific centre to study at Alexandria the healing art, anatomy, 

 mathematical science, geography, and astronomy. Neither 

 Athens, Rome, Carthage, nor any other city of the ancient world 

 can boast similar distinction as a home of science. 



EUCLID. Three centuries after Thales had introduced the 

 rudiments of Egyptian mathematics into Greece, the focus of 

 mathematical activity was again transferred to that ancient land, 

 but its spirit and aims remained there still for centuries essentially 

 Greek. Continuing the ancient register, Proclus writes : 



Not much younger than these (the Aristotelians) is Euclid, who 

 brought the elements together, arranged much of the work of Eudoxus 

 in complete form, and brought much which had been begun by 

 Thesetetus to completion. Besides he supported what had been only 

 partially proved by his predecessors with irrefragable proofs. . . . 

 It is related that King Ptolemy asked him once if there were not in 

 geometrical matters a shorter way than through the Elements : to 

 which he replied that in geometry there is no straight path for 

 kings. . . . 



As a recent writer has well said : " There are royal roads in 

 science ; but those who first tread them are men of genius and not 

 kings." 



Euclid's period of activity was about 300 B.C. ; his place of birth 

 and even his race are unknown; he is said to have been of a 

 mild and benevolent disposition, and to have appreciated fully 

 the scientific merits of his predecessors. While we know next 

 to nothing of his life and personality, his writings have had 

 an influence and a prolonged vitality almost, if not quite, unpar- 

 alleled. 



EUCLID'S " ELEMENTS." Scientifically, Euclid is attached to 

 the Platonic philosophy. Thus he makes the goal of his Elements 

 the construction of the so-called "Platonic bodies" i.e., the five 

 regular polyhedrons. This treatise, which served as the basis of 

 practically all elementary instruction for the following 2000 years, 

 is naturally his best-known work, and appears to have been ac- 

 cepted in the Greek world after many previous attempts as a 



