The name of Theophrastus has been noticed as that of the pupil of Aristoteles, and it is one which will always be mentioned with respect by students of natural history. He was born at Eresus, on the island of Lesbos; but the date of his birth is uncertain; moreover, nothing is known of his early youth, except that his name was Tyrtamus. His early education must have been good, and he was sent to study at Athens by his father, and to be a pupil of Plato. Becoming a friend of Aristoteles, this great man, charmed with the abilities, and especially with the beautiful pronunciation and oratory of the youth, gave him the name of Theophrastus, or one who speaks divinely. Theophrastus studied with Plato, and on the death of his master, left the academy and mixed with the turbulent politics of the day, but in a truly patriotic spirit. He was absent from Athens for many years, and the historian Plutarch writes that Theophrastus delivered his country twice from the oppression of tyrants. One of the defeated at the battle of Chæronæa, Theophrastus returned to Athens, gave up the military life, and became the favourite pupil of Aristoteles in the Lyceum. Theophrastus became an earnest student of Aristoteles’ teaching, and his singular grace of expression and knowledge of his mother tongue soon made him a prominent philosopher. When Aristoteles retired, his pupil became his successor; and as he combined the knowledge of that teacher with the eloquence of Plato, his success was extraordinary. The number of his pupils, on one occasion, is said to have amounted to two thousand who flocked around him from all parts of Greece. He soon began to feel the effects of his well-deserved and useful success upon the envious minds of the men who had caused the retirement of Aristoteles. And this envy and malice were rendered all the more intense because, having been a gallant soldier, and being a great teacher of advanced knowledge, Theophrastus became an authority on all intellectual subjects. A man was put forward by a party in the State, to bring the same charge of impiety against Theophrastus which had succeeded in the instances of Socrates and Aristoteles. But Theophrastus pleaded his own cause before the Areopagus with such convincing eloquence that he was pronounced innocent. On the other hand, his accuser would have fallen a victim to the false charge he had brought, had not his noble-minded antagonist pleaded for his pardon.