308 HISTORY OF BOTANY. 



for learning and civilization in a barbarous age, vainly endea- 

 voured to re-light the torch of human knowledge. 



The renown of Charlemagne extended to Asia ; he entered 

 into a correspondence with the famous Caliph of the Saracens, 

 Haroun Alraschid, a man who greatly contributed towards 

 polishing and enlightening the Arabians, and who preferred the 

 friendship of the king of France to that of all the princes of 

 Europe ; for none like Charlemagne possessed a desire for in- 

 tellectual greatness. 



After the death of Charlemagne, which took place in the 

 year 814, Europe became involved in still greater mental 

 darkness than before. 



On the separation of the Roman Empire into the Eastern and 

 Western Empires, and the latter, weakened by luxury and 

 effeminacy, had fallen an easy prey into the hands of barbari- 

 ans, the Empire of the East, though feeble, yet preserved the 

 precious deposits of ancient literature ; but the greater part of 

 the learned, occupied with the subtleties of scholastic theology, 

 made no effort to enlarge the boundaries of natural science. 

 Religious intolerance drove from the empire many enlightened 

 men, who, banished by the emperor Theodosius, carried among 

 the Arabs the taste for Greek and Latin literature, and founded 

 schools upon the shores of the Euphrates, where they taught 

 rhetoric, languages and medicine. 



The Arabs, fond of mysteries, and led by their genius and 

 ardent imaginations, to the cultivation of poetry and works of 

 fiction, seemed to have little taste for sciences which required 

 assiduous application and patient investigation. Under Maho- 

 met, urged on by fanaticism, they were the conquerors and 

 scourges of the civilized world. Alexandria experienced their 

 ruthless violence. This city, by turns the asylum and the 

 tomb of letters, had witnessed, under the first of the Caesars, the 

 destruction of the library collected by the Ptolemies ; under 

 Aurelian, that founded by Augustus ; under Theodosius, that 

 which Antony had given to Cleopatra; and for the fourth time 

 in possession of an immense collection of books, acquired 

 through her love for philosophy, this city saw her magnificent 

 library reduced to ashes by the victorious Saracens. 



This barbarous but noble race at length became imbued with 

 the love of science ; a succession of caliphs, (among whom 

 was Haroun Alraschid, already spoken of as the friend of 

 Charlemagne,) by their devotion to learning, rendered Bagdad 

 the most enlightened city of the earth. Their learned men 

 began to construct maps of conquered countries, and to de- 

 Separation of the Roman Empire : its effects upon literature the Arabs 

 Haroun Alraschid. 



