mSTOKT OF BOTANY. 
219 
uished ; Mistress of the world," corrupted by victories, and 
y tyrants, she had abandoned herself to luxury. The false 
philosophy of the vanquished Greeks reigned in the schools ol 
victorious Rome, chasing away every trace of true knowledge. 
[Religious fanaticism had also its influence; pretended Chris- 
tians, as well as Pagans, destroyed libraries and the monuments 
of literature, sacred and profane. At this time the barbarians 
of the North and West precipitated themselves upon a country 
weakened by effeminate habits. Italy, ravaged by the Huns 
and Yandals, became successively the prey of the Heruli, of the 
Goths and Lombards. These people, nursed in war, abhorred the 
sciences and arts ; and believing they were unfavorable to courage, 
allowed not their children to cultivate them. The Latin ceased 
to be the common language, and a corrupt mixture of barbarous 
languages took its place. The population was greatly diminish- 
ed ; the country, formerly fertile and cultivated became over- 
grown with forests and inhabited by wild beasts. In this dark 
period Botany shared the fate of other sciences. The monks, 
strangers to the first elements of literature, and yet passing for 
the lights of their age, spake in a barbarous language of the 
plants of Theophrastus and Pliny, commented upon writings 
they were incapable of comprehending, and mingled with their 
errors respecting facts the most shameful superstitions. 
335. The state of science was thus gloomy in the empire of 
the West, when Cnariemagne vainly endeavored to relight the 
torch of human knowledge in this barbarous age. Charlemagne 
entered into a correspondence with the famous Calif of the 
Saracens, Haroun Alraschid, a man who greatly contributed 
towards polishing and enlightening the Arabians ; and who pre- 
ferred the friendship of the King of France to that of all the 
princes of Europe, because none, like Charlemagne, possessed a 
desire for intellectual greatness. After the death of Charle- 
magne, which took place in the year 814, Europe became in- 
volved in still greater mental darkness than before. When the 
Western empire, weakened by luxury and effeminacy, had fallen 
an easy prey into the hands of barbarians, the empire of the 
East, though feeble, yet preserved the precious deposits of an- 
cient literature ; but the greater part of the learned, occupied 
with the subtleties of scholastic theology, made no effort to en- 
large the boundaries of natural science. Religious intolerance 
drove from the empire many enlightened men, who, banished 
by the emperor Theodosius, carried among the Arabs the taste 
for Greek and Latin literature, and founded schools upon the 
Bhores of the Euphrates, where they taught rhetoric, languages, 
Baroarians ravage Italy — Language corrupted — Botany shared the fate of other sciences — J 
Veinagne-~Dec1iae of learning ia the Empire of the East. 
-335. Char 
