aused to be presented to the Stoic
Sphaerus a dish of fruit made of wax, so beautifully coloured as to be
undistinguishable from the natural, and on the mortified philosopher
detecting too late the fraud that had been practised upon him, inquired
what he now thought of the maxim of his sect that "the sage is never
deceived by appearances." Of the same sovereign it is related that he
received the translators of the Septuagint Bible with the highest
honours, entertaining them at his table. Under the atmosphere of the
place their usual religious ceremonial was laid aside, save that the
king courteously requested one of the aged priests to offer an extempore
prayer. It is naively related that the Alexandrians present, ever quick
to discern rhetorical merit, testified their estimation of the
performance with loud applause. But not alone did literature and the
exact sciences thus find protection. As if no subjects with which the
human mind has occupied itself can be unworthy of investigation, in the
Museum were cultivated the more doubtful arts, magic and astrology.
Philadelphus, who, toward the close of his life, was haunted with an
intolerable dread of death, devoted himself with intense assiduity to
the discovery of the elixir of life and to alchemy. Such a comprehensive
organization for the development of human knowledge never existed in the
world before, and, considering the circumstances, never has since. To be
connected with it was the passport to the highest Alexandrian society
and to court favour.

[Sidenote: The Septuagint translators.]

To the Museum, and, it has been asserted, particularly to Ptolemy
Philadelphus, the Christian world is thus under obligation for the
ancient version of the Hebrew Scriptures--the Septuagint. Many idle
stories have been related respecting the circumstances under which that
version was made, as that the seventy-two translators by whom it was
executed were confined each in a separate cell, and, when their work was
finished, the seventy-two copies were found identically the same, word
for word, from this it was supposed that the inspiration of this
translation was established. If any proof of that kind were needed, it
would be much better found in the fact that whenever occasion arises in
the New Testament of quoting from the Old, it is usually done in the
words of the Septuagint. The story of the cells underwent successive
improvements among the early fathers, but is now rejected as a