Natural' Historical Collections. 291 



However, if the Greeks had not been led by an enlightened prince, their expe- 

 dition would have been no more useful to the progress of science than the thou- 

 sands which had preceded. But Alexander, in accordance with the advice of 

 Aristotle, was surrounded by philosophers especially charged to observe all the 

 productions of the countries through which the armies past ; and thus, instead of 

 the fabulous tales of Ctesias, authentic accounts were given by qualified men, 

 who were placed in the most favourable circumstances to see and study every 

 thing. Amongst those who were members of this mission, we must particularly 

 distinguish Callisthenes, who, before his departure, was already known by many 

 scientific works, especially by a book on plants, and by an anatomical description 

 of the interior of the ^e. The result of his observations is not known to us, 

 owing to his tragical end ; however, it is probable that his researches have not 

 been entirely lost to science, and that, to the moment of his disgrace, he had kept 

 up a constant correspondence with Aristotle, who was at once his master and his 

 parent. 



The scientific explorations were not confined to the provinces through wliich 

 Alexander passed ; and when the neighbouring countries were visited by his lieu- 

 tenants, some savans were almost always added to the expedition. Thus, when 

 after having descended the Indus, the king of Blacedon ordered Nearchus to pur- 

 sue his loute by sea, he associated with him the philosopher Onesicritus. The 

 fleet, traversing a sea which the Greeks then for the first time saw, sailed towards 

 the west to Harmozia, a port situated near the mouth of the Persian Gulf. In 

 her course she had frequent communications with the people who lived on the 

 coasts, and the narrative of the voyage contains many descriptions of plants and 

 animals, which were observed whilst touching at different places. There is a no- 

 tice, for instance, of the tree which bears cotton, of the royal or striped tiger, of 

 the whale, the jaws of which were used by some of the natives in the construction 

 of their houses. 



Alexander died at thirty-two years old, in the year before Christ 323. His 

 empire, which extended from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus, was soon dismem- 

 bered, and his lieutenants contended for the fragments. For some time every 

 thing was in confusion ; but Perdiccas having been killed, and afterwards Anti- 

 gonus and his son Demetrius Poliorcetes having been defeated at the battle of 

 Ipsus, three kingdoms were established, which promised to be durable. Cassan- 

 der reigned in Alacedon, Seleucus in Syria and the neighbouring countries, Pto- 

 lemy in Egypt. Of these princes, the first alone seems not to have loved the 

 sciences and letters : he governed Greece, tyrannized over Athens, and diminish- 

 ed the taste for study. But it was not the same with the others. Not only did 

 they protect letters, but they even cultivated them with some success. Ptolemy, 

 who had been a captain under Alexander, and who moreover, it is said, was his 

 natural brother, wrote a history of the conquest, and it was upon this narrative 

 that Arrian founded his work. 



Ptolemy and Seleucus both applied themselves to the formation of a library on 

 the model of that of Aristotle, and perhaps after the advice which he had given 

 them at an earlier period. Before this philosopher, some individuals had col- 

 lected books as a means of amusement, but no one had thought of it as an instru- 

 ment in the study of the sciences. He was the first who formed a collection of 

 books for consultation when needed. His library, which seems to have been very 

 extensive, was afterwards united to that of Alexandria by Ptolemy, who bought 

 it of Neleus. 



The empire of Seleucus was the largest ; but it was soon broken up into the 

 kingdoms of Pergamus, Cappadocia, Pontus, Bithynia, and Bactriana. The 

 kingdom of the Ptolemys, on the other hand, was the smallest, but it was the 

 most tranquil, and it soon came to flourish by the same means as led to the prosperi- 

 ty of Egypt under the ancient dynasties. He extended it by conquests in the south, 

 and it was incontestibly the richest, the most industrious, and for a long time 

 the best governed of all those which had been under the empire of Alexander. 

 VOL. II. 2 P 



