History of the conflict between religion and science / by John William Draper.

  • Draper, John William, 1811-1882.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: History of the conflict between religion and science / by John William Draper. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    51/410 (page 19)
    books, an additional library was established in the adja- cent quarter Ehacotis, and placed in the Serapion or temple of Serapis. The number of volumes in this iibrary, which was called the Daughter of that in the Museum, was eventually three hundred thousand. There were, therefore, seven hundred thousand volumes in these royal collections. Alexandria was not merely the capital of Egypt, it was the intellectual metropolis of the world. Here it was truly said the Genius of the East met the Genius of the West, and this Paris of antiquity became a focus of fashionable dissipation and universal skepticism. In the allurements of its bewitching society even the Jews forgot their patriotism. They abandoned the language of their forefathers, and adopted Greek. In the establishment of the Museum, Ptolemy So ter and his son Philadelplius had three objects in view: 1. The perpetuation of such knowledge as was then in the world ; 2. Its increase; 3. Its diffusion. 1. For the perpetuation of knowledge. Orders were given to the chief librarian to buy at the king’s expense whatever books he could. A body of transcribers was maintained in the Museum, whose duty it was to make correct copies of such works as then’ owners were not disposed to sell. Any books brought by foreigners into Egypt were taken at once to the Museum, and, when correct copies had been made, the transcript was given to the owner, and the original placed in the library. Often a very large pecuniary indemnity was paid. Thus it is said of Ptolemy Euergetes that, having obtained from Athens the works of Euripides, Sophocles, and AEschylus, he sent to their owners transcripts, together with about fifteen thousand dollars, as an indemnity. On his return from the Syrian expedition he carried