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 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 back in triumph all the