AVICENA, Entr SINA, in biography, has been accounted the prince of Ara bian philosophers and physicians. He was born at Assena, near Bokhara,in 978; and died at Hamadan in 1036, being 58 years of age.
The first years of Avicena were em ployed in the study of the Belles Lettres, and the Koran, and at ten years of age he was perfect master of the hidden senses of that book. Then applying to the stu dy of logic, philosophy, and mathematics, he quickly made a rapid progress. After studying under a master the first princi ples of logic, and the first five or six pro positions of Euclid's elements, he became disgusted with the slow manner of th' schools, applied himself alo'ne, and soon accomplished all thy rest by the help of the commentators only.
Possessed with an extreme avidity to be acquainted with all the sciences, he studied medicine also. Persuaded that this art consists as much in practice as in theory, he sought all opportunities of see ing the sick ; and afterwards confessed, that he had learned more from such ex perience than from all the books he had read. Being now in his sixteenth year, and already celebrated for being the light of his age, he determined to resume his studies of philosophy, which medicine, &c. had made him for some time neglect : and he spent a year and a half in this painful labour, without ever sleeping all this time a whole night together. At the
age of 21, he conceived the bold design of incorporating in one work all the ob jects of human knowledge ; and he car ried it into execution in an Encyclopedia of 20 volumes, to which he gave the title of the " Utility of Utilities." Many wonderful stories are related of his skill in medicine, and the cures which lie performed. Several princes had been taken dangerously ill, and Avicena was the only one that could know their ail ments, and cure them. His reputation in creased daily, and all the princes of the East desired to retain him in their families, and in fact he passed through several of them. But the irregularities of his con duct sometimes lost him their favour, and threw him into great distresses. His ex cesses in pleasures, and his infirmities, made a poet say, who wrote his epitaph, that the profound study of philosophy had not taught him good morals, nor that of medicine the art of preserving his own health.
After his death, however, he enjoyed so great a repUtation, that, till the 12th century, he was preferred for the study of philosophy and medicine to all his predecessors. Even in Europe, his works, which were very numerous, were the only writings in vogue in the schools.