200 Philosophy of Botany. 



Under the last of the Ptolemies appeared the celebrated bot- 

 anist, Dioscorides, whose writings stood out as the guide and 

 groundwork in botany for the Arabs as well as the Occidental 

 nations to mediaeval times. 



Alexandria can also boast of having produced or supported 

 Eratosthenes, Euclid, and Archimedes in mathematics, and 

 Hipparchus, the greatest astronomer of ancient time. 



Of the many writings of Dioscorides have been preserved 

 his work, " De Materia Medica," and the "Alexipharmaca ; or, 

 About Poisons and Antidotes." His death occurred toward 

 the end of the first century of the Christian era, while the fame 

 of the Alexandrian school was yet at its climax. 



Philosophy during this period suffered a grievous corruption 

 from the attempt which was made by philosophers of dififerent 

 sects and countries — Grecian, Egyptian, Oriental — who were 

 assembled in Alexandria to frame from their different tenets 

 one general system of opinions. Herein originated Neo-Pla- 

 tonism, a religious philosophy, distinguished for the conflict it 

 maintained with the rising power of Christianity. Its author 

 was Plotinus, an Egyptian, born about A.D. 204. 



Another outcrop of this connubium is the Cabbala, a Jewish 

 sect. This system contains some profound tenets, polluted 

 with many erratic superstitions. One of these asserts that 

 God had imprinted upon all plants certain marks, from which 

 the initiated and gifted could read their manifold qualities. 

 Adam, in paradise, is said to have been instructed by God him- 

 self, but to have lost the secret when he was expelled from 

 paradise. It was revealed again unto Solomon. The name of 

 one of our liliaceous plants, " Solomon's seal " (Polygonatum 

 officinale), points to this myth. (Doctrine of signatures.) 



The poetical, romantic, and inquisitive spirit of the Aris- 

 totelian time had died out. One part of humanity was de- 

 pressed by intellectual inertia produced from absolute realism 

 or sensual debauchery : the other lay chained by remorseless 

 oppressors, with no hoi^e to free themselves by their own 

 valor. The hearts of men ached with a desire for a new order 

 in the affairs of humanity, grieved with a desire for some 

 source of delivery. 



Not one of the countries subiect to the Roman rule had suf- 



