*H6 COSMOS. 



nevertheless, the zoological history of Avieuma, in tne posses- 

 sion of the Royal Library at Paris, differs from Aristotle's 

 work on the same subject.* As a botanist, we must name 

 Ibn-Baithar of Malaga, whose travels in Greece, Persia, In- 

 dia, and Egypt entitle him to be regarded with admiration 

 lor the tendency he evinced to compare together, by independ- 

 ent observations, the productions of different zones in the East 

 and West.t The point from whence all these efforts ema- 

 nated was the study of medicine, by which the Arabs long 

 ruled the Christian schools, and for the more perfect develop- 

 ment of wlych Ibn-Sina (Avicenna), a native of Aschena, near 

 Bokhara, Iba-Pi.oschd ( Averroes) of Cordova, the younger Sera- 

 pion of Syria, and Mesne of Maridin on the Euphrates, avail- 

 ed themselves of all the means yielded by the Arabian cara- 

 van and sea trade. I have purposely enumerated the widely- 

 removed birth-places of celebrated Arabian literati, since they 

 are calculated to remind us of the great area over which the 

 peculiar ro*Mital direction and the simultaneous activity of the 

 Arabian race extended the sphere of ideas. 



The scientific knowledge of a more anciently-civilized race 

 —the Iirliaus — was also drawn wdthin this circle, when, un- 

 couth strHeij to attain to a more intimate acquaintance with science, 

 although the cares of government have withdrawn us from it ; we have 

 delighted in spending our time in the careful readingofexcelle^it works, 

 in order that our soul might be enlightened and strengthened by exer- 

 cise, vnihout which the life of man is wanting both in nile and in free- 

 dom (at animae clarius vigeat instrumentum in acquisitione scientise, 

 sine '^j^ua mortalium vita uon regitur liberaliter). Libros ipsos taraquam 

 pra^riium amici Caesaris gratulantur accipite, et ipsos antiquis philoso- 

 pbor im operibus, qui vocis vestrae ministerio reviviscuut, aggregantes 

 in aiditorio vestro." (Compare Jom'dain, p. 169-178, and Friedrich 

 vou Raumer's excellent work Geschichte dei Hohenstaufen, bd. iii,, 

 184', s. 413.) The Arabs have served as a uniting link between an- 

 cier t and modern science. If it had not been for them and their love 

 of 1 'anslation, a great portion of that which the Greeks had either 

 forned themselves, or derived from other nations, would have been 

 lost Vo succeeding ages. It is when considered from this point of view 

 that ^he subjects which have been touched upon, though apparently 

 m-2rely linguistic, acquire general cosmical interest. 



* Jourdain, in his Traductions cTAristote, p. 135-138, and Schneider, 

 AdnM. ad Aristotelis de Animalibus Hist., lib. ix., cap. 15, speak of Mi- 

 chael Scot's translation of Aristotle's Historia Animalium, and of a sim- 

 ilar work by Avicenna (Manuscript No. 6493, in the Paris Library). 



t On Ibn-Baithar, see Sprengel, Gesch. der Arzneykunde, th. ii., 1823, 

 s. 468; and Royle, On the Antiquity of Hindoo Medicine, p. 28. We 

 have possessed, since 1840, a German translation of Ibu-Baithar, undei 

 the title Grosse Zusammens!ellmig uher die Krdfte dcr bekannten ein 

 fachen Heil- nnd Nahrungs-mittel, translated from the Arabic by J. v 

 Boathe'irer, 2 baudes. 



