20 THE NEW METHOD 



Egypt, to have control of the educational interests of 

 the world. On the death of Alexander, Ptolemy be- 

 came king of Egypt. For carrying out the plan of 

 Alexander, Ptolemy had in his treasury $400,000,000 

 in gold and silver. 



The magnificence of the buildings reared for the 

 Alexandrian school I will not attempt to describe. 

 They were built by the greatest architects of Greece, 

 and adorned by the greatest sculptors the world has 

 ever known. Surrounding these buildings were botan- 

 ical gardens, filled with the living representatives of 

 the flora of all nations ; zoological gardens represent- 

 ing the living forms of the land and the sea ; great 

 temples filled with paintings, sculpture, and every art 

 of the known world. Still more important than these 

 was the library of 700,000 volumes, by far the largest 

 library of antiquity. In short everything was done 

 that could help to make a school for the collection of 

 all knowledge, for the increase of knowledge by 

 scientific investigation, and the diffusion of knowl- 

 edge throughout the world. Under the reign of the 

 Ptolemies the Alexandrian school continued about 

 three hundred years, until Egypt became a Roman 

 province. During this time it had reached its greatest 

 excellence. The students were from all parts of the 

 world, and the average number for three centuries 

 had been twelve thousand. 



Under Roman dominion the school was not kept 



