216 HISTOET OF BOTANY. 



the Book of Kings it is said, " God gave Solomon wisdom and 

 understanding above all the children of the East country, and 

 all the wisdom of Egypt, for he was wiser than all men. He 

 spake proverbs and songs ; he also spake of trees^ from the 

 cedar-tree that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that spring- 

 eth out of tlie wall ; and people from all countries came to hear 

 his wisdom." The Magi^ or " wise men of the East," cultivated 

 the sciences to a great extent ; but they kept their discoveries 

 vsL mysterious concealment, in order the better to tyrannize over 

 the minds of the people. Their researches were in a great 

 measure lost to the world. .Greece, however, received from 

 Asia and Egypt the first elements of knowledge. 



331. ThQ philosojyhers of Greece^ too eager to learn nature at one 

 glance, were not satisfied with the slow process of observation 

 and experiment, and to ascend from particular facts to general 

 principles, but they believed themselves able by the force of 

 their own genius, to build up systems which would explain all 

 phenomena ; supposing that man had in his mind preconceived 

 ideas of what nature ought to he. This error in the philosophy 

 of the ancients for a long time obstructed the progress of all 

 science ; and it was not until laying aside this false notion, and, 

 admitting that the only sure method of learning nature is to 

 study her works, that the labors of philosophers began to be 

 followed by important discoveries. Some of the ancient Greek 

 philosophers asserted, that plants were organized like animals, 

 that they possessed sensible and rational souls capable of de- 

 sires and fears, pleasure and pain. Pythagoras of Samos^ who 

 travelled in Egypt, and was there instructed by the priests of 

 the goddess Isis, is said by Pliny to have been the first of the 

 Greek writers who com])osed a treatise on the projyerties of ])lants. 

 A disciple of his, Empedocles, seemed to have some correct 

 ideas of vegetable yjhysiology. He called seeds, the eggs of 

 ^plants ; the roots, their heads and mouths ; and considered that 

 the two sexes were combined in the same individual. Hip- 

 pocrates wrote upon the medicinal properties of plants ; but his 

 descriptions are vague, and cannot be applied to plants with 

 any degree of certainty. Aristotle^ perceiving that the course 

 taken by preceding philosophers had not conducted them to the 

 true knowledge of things, partially renounced their false ideas, 

 and rested more upon observation and experience. In his re- 

 searches he was favored by Alexander, of whom he had been 

 the preceptor. That conqueror, in the midst of pride and the 

 fury of passion, still possessed the love of true glory, and a de- 

 sire that his conquests might serve to promote the improvement 



Solomon is said to have spoken of trees and other plants— The Magi. — 331. Philosophers of Gieece — 

 Pythagoras — Empedocles— Hippocrates. 



