And now Aben-Ezra was gone too, and with him were gone a thousand plans and hopes.

To have converted him at last to a philosophic faith in the old gods! To have made him her instrument for turning back the stream of human error I...

How often had that dream crossed her! And now, who would take his place?
Athanasius?
Synesius in his good-nature might dignify him with the name of brother, but to her he was a powerless pedant, destined to die without having wrought any deliverance on the earth, as indeed the event proved.

Plutarch of Athens?
He was superannuated.

Syrianus?
A mere logician, twisting Aristotle to mean what she knew, and he ought to have known, Aristotle never meant.