een many miles off at sea--the Pharos counted
as one of the seven wonders of the world--it is not these magnificent
achievements of architecture that arrest our attention; the true, the
most glorious monument of the Macedonian kings of Egypt is the Museum.
Its influences will last when even the Pyramids have passed away.

THE ALEXANDRIAN MUSEUM. The Alexandrian Museum was commenced by Ptolemy
Soter, and was completed by his son Ptolemy Philadelphus. It was
situated in the Bruchion, the aristocratic quarter of the city,
adjoining the king's palace. Built of marble, it was surrounded with
a piazza, in which the residents might walk and converse together. Its
sculptured apartments contained the Philadelphian library, and were
crowded with the choicest statues and pictures. This library eventually
comprised four hundred thousand volumes. In the course of time, probably
on account of inadequate accommodation for so many books, an additional
library was established in the adjacent quarter Rhacotis, and placed
in the Serapion or temple of Serapis. The number of volumes in this
library, 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 Soter and his son
Philadelphus 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 their 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