34 HISTORY OF SCIENCE. 



led to results which have proved of permanent value. The astronomy, 

 the mathematics, the physics, the medicine, the theology, the scholar- 

 ship of the moderns are all under obligation to the labours of the cele- 

 brated school of philosophers with which the reader is about to make 

 acquaintance. Coincident with the commencement of this new era 

 in the history of science, the geographical locality of its chief home 

 changes, and our scene shifts from Athens to Alexandria. This city, 

 which perpetuates the name of the great conqueror, was founded by 

 him about three hundred and thirty years before the Christian era, and 

 was intended to become a vast centre for trade between the East and 

 the West. Alexandria did, in fact, enjoy a long career of commercial 

 prosperity, and soon became a metropolis famous for its magnificence, 

 but most of all for its intellectual glories. 



Perhaps the influence of Aristotle may be traced in the personal 

 interest which Alexander took in scientific studies; and this taste 

 appears to have been transmitted to his great captain and successor, 

 PTOLEMY LAGUS. At the division of Alexander's empire, Egypt fell 

 to the share of Ptolemy, and this prince resolved to make ^lix^R.dria 

 not only the greatest commercial entrepot in the world, but also the great 

 centre of science and learning. This last ambition descended to the 

 successors of Ptolemy Lagus, and in order to realize,it, they collected 

 the famous Library, which contained, it was said, all the writings of the 

 world ; and they established and maintained that remarkable institu- 

 tion which was called the Museum. The reader must not be misled 

 by the sense we now commonly attach to the word museum into sup- 

 posing that the Museum of Alexandria was a repository of curiosities. 

 It was a portion of the king's palace appropriated to men of learning, 

 who werelrfere maintained by the royal liberality, and provided with 

 all the appliances for facilitating their studies. The vast libraries, 

 containing upwards of 700,000 volumes, were close at hand. There 

 was a botanical garden for the phytologists, a menagerie for the zoo- 

 logists, a dissecting-room for the anatomists. Here the astronomers 

 were supplied with every instrument known to their science armillary 

 spheres, astrolabes, mural quadrants, dioptras. Here poets, gramma- 

 rians, historians, astronomers, mathematicians, engineers, chemists, 

 physicians, theologians, magicians, and astrologers dwelt under one 

 roof and fed at one table. Sometimes the monarch himself would 

 preside at their repasts. Verily, these were golden days for men of 

 learning ! To Alexandria, as to a centre, were attracted the studious 

 of every nation, of whom there were, it is said, at one time, no fewer 

 than 14,000 gathered together. 



Under the protection of the first Ptolemy (surnamed Lagus, and 

 afterwards Sotor) and his successors, there flourished at Alexandria 

 several distinguished men, any one of whom would have sufficed to 

 make the place notable in the annals of science. No name belonging 

 to the Alexandrian school is more widely and honourably known than 



