e solid support on which their thoughts may
rest, mere abstract doctrines not meeting their wants, it became
necessary to provide a corporeal representation for this eclectic
philosophical Pantheism, and hence the Ptolemies were obliged to
restore, or, as some say, to import the worship of the god Serapis.
Those who affirm that he was imported say that he was brought from
Sinope; modern Egyptian scholars, however, give a different account. As
setting forth the Pantheistic doctrine of which he was the emblem, his
image, subsequently to attain world-wide fame, was made of all kinds of
metals and stones. "All is God." But still the people, with that
instinct which other nations and ages have displayed, hankered after a
female divinity, and this led to the partial restoration of the worship
of Isis. It is interesting to remark how the humble classes never shake
off the reminiscences of early life, leaning rather to the maternal than
to the paternal attachment. Perhaps it is for that reason that they
expect a more favourable attention to their supplications from a female
divinity than a god. Accordingly, the devotees of Isis soon out-numbered
those of Serapis, though a magnificent temple had been built for him at
Rhacotis, in the quarter adjoining the Museum, and his worship was
celebrated with more than imperial splendour. In subsequent ages the
worship of Serapis diffused itself throughout the Roman empire, though
the authorities--consuls, senate, emperors--knowing well the idea it
foreshadowed, and the doctrine it was meant to imply, used their utmost
power to put it down.

[Sidenote: The Alexandrian libraries.]

[Sidenote: Botanical gardens; menageries; dissecting-houses;
observatories.]

[Sidenote: Life in the Museum.]

The Alexandrian Museum soon assumed the character of a University. In it
those great libraries were collected, the pride and boast of antiquity.
Demetrius Phalareus was instructed to collect all the writings in the
world. So powerfully were the exertions of himself and his successors
enforced by the government that two immense libraries were procured.
They contained 700,000 volumes. In this literary and scientific retreat,
supported in ease and even in luxury--luxury, for allusions to the
sumptuous dinners have descended to our times--the philosophers spent
their time in mental culture by study, or mutual improvement by debates.
The king himself conferred appointments to these positions; in later