216 
HISTORY 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 Jiyssop that spring- 
eth out of the wall ; and people from all countries came to hear 
his wisdom." The Mag% or wise men of the East," cultivated 
the sciences to a great extent ; but they kept their discoveries 
in 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. Th.Q^hilosoji)hers of Greece^ too eager to learn nature at one 
glance, w^ere 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 w^ould 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 composed a treatise on the jprojperties of plants. 
A disciple of his, Empedocles, seemed to have some correct 
ideas of vegetable physiology. 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 Greece- 
Pythagoras — Empedocles — Hippocrates. 
