_Hypatia,_ succeeds in the Government of the _Platonic_ School at _Alexandria_, for which she was judged Qualified, in Preference to all the Men of Learning at that Time.
And truly were not this Matter so well attested by those Writers we have just nam’d, and by others we shall presently have Occasion to alledge; yet no Body could any longer doubt of it, after being informed by the very same Persons, that _Hypatia_ succeeded in the Government of the _Platonic_ School at _Alexandria_, the Place of her Birth and Education. This was another-guess Thing, God knows, than taking the Degree of Doctor in any of the Faculties; which one or two Women have not long since done, for which they have been loaded with fulsome Elogies, tho’ producing no Effects suitable to the Titles they have so much ambitioned. But what greater Glory for a Woman, what greater Honour redounding to all Women, than to see a Lady teaching in that Chair, where _Ammonius_ and _Hierocles_ (to Name no more, for ’tis a Mistake in _Socrates_ or his Transcriber to make _Plotinus_ one of them) where so many Professors, I say, uttered the Oracles of Learning, rather as divine Intelligences than mortal Men? What infinite Merit must she have possessed, who could be preferr’d to that conspicuous Station, at a Time when Men of immense Learning abounded both at _Alexandria_, and in many other Parts of the _Roman_ Empire?