ORIGINS OF SCIENCE IN THE ANCIENT WORLD 35 



the genius for generalization so characteristic of the Greek 

 mind. 



But the attainments of the Hellenic mind can be illustrated 

 by institutions as well as by individuals. The conspicuous 

 example, in science, is the Museum at Alexandria. Here, 

 the Macedonian rulers brought together the literature of 

 the ancient world in a great library and, by attracting schol- 

 ars from the entire Mediterranean region, created what 

 more nearly approaches the great university of the present 

 day than any other institution of ancient times. The Mu- 

 seum was the institutional culmination of the intellectual 

 genius of the Greeks as Aristotle was the personal. Stimu- 

 lated no doubt by the older civilizations with which the 

 conquests of Alexander had made them familiar, the Greeks 

 in this cosmopolitan city of the Ptolemies assumed the 

 intellectual leadership of the ancient world. Founded about 

 300 B. c., the Museum continued in existence for some 700 

 years. The three-fold object of this ancient university was 

 the perpetuation, increase, and diffusion of knowledge. 

 We shall comment only upon its encouragement of natural 

 science. 



Fortunately, the Aristotelian doctrine of factual knowl- 

 edge and inductive reasoning were dominant at the outset. 

 To observation, there was added an increasing amount of 

 experimentation. We find here the beginnings of the method 

 which has yielded such important results at the hands of the 

 physical scientist during the Modern Period. Archimedes 

 and Ptolemy were the intellectual forebears of Galileo and 

 Copernicus. Here Ctesibius and Hero invented the fire 

 engine; and the first steam engine was produced. In geo- 

 graphical science, the technique of map making and survey- 

 ing were examined, and the circumnavigation of Africa was 

 proposed. The globular nature of the earth was accepted, 

 and attempts were made to determine its circumference. 

 In the field of geological science, the submergence and the 

 elevation of land masses, and such problems as the origin 



