NEW CONCEPTIONS IN SCIENCE 



had conceived it by his successors in Egypt, the 

 ambitious Ptolemy Soter, and the still more en- 

 lightened Ptolemy Philadelphus. 



With Alexander the supremacy of Athens in the 

 Greek world definitively passed; Alexandria was 

 its successor. Its growth was more rapid than that 

 of Chicago in our own day. In a short time it had 

 become the centre of commerce and learning of 

 the Greek world. In its symmetry, its grandiose 

 beauty, its spirit, its prevalent atmosphere of free- 

 dom, of scepticism, of advancement, of polish, it 

 must have been the Paris of the pre-Christian era, a 

 4 ' City of Light. ' ' It was laid out in straight, parallel 

 streets, like Berlin, or Chicago again ; one of them, 

 200 feet wide, ran westward from the Canopic Gate 

 to the Necropolis. " This street was decorated with 

 magnificent houses, temples, and public buildings, 

 and was intersected by another of the same breadth 

 and magnificence running from north to south." 

 On a peninsula which stretched out into the Med- 

 iterranean, towards the east of the city, arose the 

 splendid palace of the Ptolemies. Near it were the 

 Caesarium, where divine honors were paid to the 

 emperors ; the courts of justice ; the great Mu- 

 seum, or university, and the still more famous 

 Library. 



This library at one time contained more than 

 700,000 volumes, chiefly inscribed upon papyrus. 



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