INFLUENCE OF ABSTRACT THOUGHT 27 



mineralogy. His History of Plants describes about 

 five hundred species. At the same time he treats 

 the general principles of botany, the distribution of 

 plants, the nourishment of the plant through leaf as 

 well as root, the sexuality of date palm and terebinth. 

 He lays great stress on the uses of plants. His classi- 

 fication of plants is inferior to Aristotle's classifica- 

 tion of animals. His views in reference to spontaneous 

 generation are more guarded than those of his master. 

 His work On Stones is dominated by the practical 

 rather than the generalizing spirit. It is evidently 

 inspired by a knowledge of mines, such as the cele- 

 brated Laurium, from which Athens drew its supply 

 of silver, and the wealth from which enabled the 

 Athenians to develop a sea-power that overmatched 

 that of the Persians. Even to-day enough remains of 

 the galleries, shafts, scoria, mine-lamps, and other 

 utensils to give a clear idea of this scene of ancient 

 industry. Theophrastus considered the medicinal 

 uses of minerals as well as of plants. 



We have failed to mention Hippocrates (460-370 

 B.C.), the Father of Medicine, in whom is found an 

 intimate union of practical science and speculative 

 philosophy. We must also pass over such later Greek 

 scientists as Aristarchus and Hipparchus who con- 

 futed the theories of Pythagoras and Plato in refer- 

 ence to the relative distances of the heavenly bodies 

 from the earth. Archimedes of Syracuse demands, 

 however, particular consideration. He lived in the 

 third century B.C., and has been called the greatest 

 mathematician of antiquity. In him we find the de- 

 votion to the abstract that marked the Greek intelli- 

 gence. He went so far as to say that every kind of 



