216 COSMOS. 



nevertheless, the zoological history of Avic^nna, in the 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 

 for 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 efibrts ema- 

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

 ruled the Christian schools, and for the more per.fect develop- 

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

 Bokhara, Ibn-Roschd ( Averroes) of Cordova, the younger Sera- 

 pion of Syria, and Mesue 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 mental direction and the simultaneous activity of the 

 Arabian race extended the sphere of ideas. 



The scientific knowledge of a more anciently-civilized race 

 —the Indians — was also drawn within this circle, when, un- 



youth striven 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 although the cares of government have withdrawn us from it ; we have 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 reading of excellent works, 

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

 cise, without which the life of man is wanting both in rule and in free- 

 dom (ut auimae clarius vigeat instrumentum in acquisitione scientijE, 

 sine qua mortalium vita non regitur liberaliter). Libros ipsos tamquam 

 praemium amici Caesaris gratulantur accipite, et ipsos antiquis philoso- 

 pbiorum operibus, qui vocis vestrae ministerio reviviscunt, aggregantes 

 in auditorio vestro." (Compare Joui-dain, p. 169-178, and Friedrich 

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

 1841, s. 413.) The Arabs have served as a uniting link between an- 

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

 of translation, a great portion of that which the Greeks had either 

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

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

 that the subjects which have been touched upon, though apparently 

 merely linguistic, acquire general cosmical interest. 



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

 Adnot. 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-Baithai', 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 Ibn-Baithar, under 

 the title Grosse Zusammenstellung uber die Krdfte der bekannten ein^ 

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

 Soathe'.uier, 2 bandes. 



