364 HISTORICAL TALES.

gained, came this maiden philosopher, in the bloom
of youth, distinguished for beauty, virtue, simplicity
in dress and manner, great learning, and unusual
mental depth and power. Setting up a school of
philosophy in her native city, in response to a request
from the magistrates, she soon became a power for
good. Those ardently desirous of progress in philo-
sophical knowledge found in her teachings clear and
lucid explanations; those who simply followed the
tide of fashion naturally gravitated thither; many,
no doubt, came attracted by the beauty of the
charming maiden teacher ; some among them sought
to win her hand in marriage, but she modestly but
firmly refused her lovers and continued to instruct
her disciples, expounding from maiden lips the deep
and abstruse doctrines of Neoplatonic lore.

Among the visitors to the woman philosopher
were many of those most illustrious in Alexandria
for rank and merit, among them Orestes, the prefect
of Alexandria, and Synesius, the celebrated Neo-
platonic philosopher; and her lecture-rooms were
crowded with the wealth and fashion of the city.
Day after day a long train of chariots crowded the
streets before her door, and numbers of slaves awaited
there their lords’ return. Her audiences out-rivalled
those attending on the dry and long-drawn-out ser-
mons of the archbishop, which were quite thrown
into the shade by Hypatia’s philosophical discourses.

We are told that sometimes she modestly appeared
before the judges, while her learning and authority
made her not ashamed to discourse to a crowd of
men. It is said that she led any student readily into