But Alexandria deserves our notice on another account. ‘ If,
says Herder, ' Jerusalem were the cradle of Christianity, Alexandria
was it’s school. Into this ocean of science and of philosophy,
where the notions of all ages and all people were collected together,
the drop of Christianity was thrown, and attracted to itself
whatever it supposed itself capable of assimilating. Hence
various corruptions were generated, and the simplicity of the
Christian doctrines destroyed. I t is certain, however, the earlier
fathers of the church, who were formed in Alexandria, were none
of the worst. Origen alone did more for Christianity than ten
thousand bishops and patriarchs; since, but for the learned critical
industry, which he employed on the records of Christianity,
these would have gone near to sink among unclassic fables. His
spirit was transmitted to some of his scholars also; and many fathers
of the alexandrian school thought and argued at least with
more address and refinement, than many other ignorant and fanatic
heads. Probably it would not have been to be regretted, had
the system of Christianity remained, what, according to the representations
of a Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, and some
others, it was intended to be; a liberal philosophy, reprobating
virtue and the love of truth at no time, and among no people, and
yet unacquainted with exclusive verbal formularies, which afterward
obtained the force of laws.’
The soil in the neighbourhood of Alexandria was anciently
famed for it’s fertility, and still retains the same reputation. I t ’s
harvests have been said to yield a centuple product, which might
possibly be true when dourra was sown, of which the bread of the