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firll F-plftle of Clement to the Corinllilani, and a fragment 

 of tin. Iccoiiil. In tlie New Tcllameut there is wanting the 

 beginning as far as Matt. xxv. 6. « wjjitpii,; ifx'l"' ; liktwiie 

 fi-om John vi. 50, to viii. 52. and from 2 Cor. iv. i;;, to xii. 

 7. The Pfahns arc preceded by the epilUe of Athanafuis 

 to Marcclhnns, and folloued by a catuloffue, containing tliofe 

 r.'liich are to be iifed in prayer for each honr, both of the 

 dav and of the night ; alio by 14 hymns, partly apocryphal, 

 partly biblical, the eleventh of which is an iiymn in praifc of 

 the Virgin Mar\', entitled rrfxrtvx^ Mafi»,- rm Ssotohs: the 

 hypothefes Eufebii are annexed to the Pfalms, and his ca- 

 noncs to the Gofpcls. This nianufcript has neither accents 

 nor marks of afpiration ; it is written with capital, ot as they 

 arc called, uncial lettei-s; and there are no inteivaU between 

 the words, bnt the fcnfc of a palFage is fometimes terminated 

 bv a point, and fometimes by a vacant fpace. Although 

 abbreviations are not very numerous,yct this manulcript abbre- 

 viates XiifZifro;,SxlSi\^ioi, iKrui, i<rfa,n\,Kv;io.:, fiW.f, "rrxlr.f, ^pavof, 

 rrt'i^yx, r%v(oi, a-Jir,}, Mil;, Xi^'"^ > ''"'■1 '^ '•''^ •'^f" other marks 

 of abbreviation. Dr. fiemler fuppofes, that the more ancient 

 mamifcripts from which the Cod. Alex, was copied, had a 

 mnch greater number ; from a falfe method of dccyphering 

 which marks, he explains many crroi-s committed by the co- 

 pyift of the latter. See his Note 33 to WetlUin's Prolego- 

 mena. Of thefc abbreviations, and the points annexed to 

 certain letters, which before appeared iininteliigihle ; and of 

 the large initial letters, which are fometimes placed in a very 

 extraordinary manner ; and of other particnlars, a full ac- 

 count may be feeu in Woide's Preface, who has given a veiy 

 accurate defcription of the manufcript in general. No ma- 

 nulcript has been more frequently and more accurately col- 

 lated; and it was fuppofed, that the lall extnifts, made by 

 Wetllein, would have rendered future labotirs of this kind 

 fuperfluous; but Woide informs us, that Wetftein is 

 chargeable with feveral omiflions and errors, and has admit- 

 ted into his coUeClion of readings the miftakes of Mill. We 

 are now in pofieffion of a perfeft impreflion of this manu- 

 fcript, accompanied with fo complete and fo critical a col- 

 lection of various readings, as is hardly to be expetled from 

 the edition of any other manufcript. Dr. Woide publifhed 

 it in 1786, with types caft for the purpofe, line for line, 

 without intervals between the words, as in the manufcript 

 itftlf : the copy is fo perfect a refemblance of the original, 

 that it may fupply its place : its title is " Novum Tefta- 

 mentum Grarcum Codice MS. Alexandrino qui Londini 

 in Bibhotheca Mufei Britanniei afTervatur defcriptum." It 

 is a very fplendid folio, and the preface of the learned edi- 

 tor contains an accurate defcription of the manufcript, with 

 an exaft lift of all its various readings, that takes up no lefs 

 than 89 pages, and each reading is accompanied with a re- 

 mark, in which is given an account of what his predeceffors, 

 Junius, Walton, Fell, Mill, Grabe, and Wetftein, had per- 

 formed or neglefted. Thofe who are deiirous of further in- 

 formation concerning this manufcript, may confult the Pro- 

 legomena of Mill, Grabe, Wetftein, and Woide. See alfo 

 Michaelis's Introduftion to the New Teftament, by Marfli, 

 vol. ii. part i. p. 186 — 209. part ii. p. 648 — 660. 



Alexandrian Library, called by Livy «' Elegantice re- 

 gum cuncque egregium opus," was hrft founded by Ptolemy 

 ijoter, for the ufe of the Academy, or Society of learned 

 men, which he had founded at Alexandria. Befide the 

 books which he procured, his fon Ptolemy Phibdclphus 

 added many more, and left in this library at his death a hun- 

 dred thoufand volumes ; and the fucceeding princes of this 

 race enlarged it rtill more, till at length the books lodged in 

 H amounted to the number of feven hundred thoufand vo- 

 Jiiinet The method by wbicb they are iaid to have collefted 



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thefc book; was this : they feized all the books that wer* 

 brought by the Greeks, or'other foreigners, into Egypt, and 

 feut them' to the Academy, or Mufeum, where they were 

 tranfcribed by perfons employed for that purpofe. The 

 tranfcripts were then delivered to the proprietors, and the 

 originals laid up in the library. Ptolemy Euergetes, for in- 

 ftance, borrowed of the Athenians the works of Sophocles, 

 Euripides and yEfchylus, and mily returned them the copies, 

 which he caufed to be tranfcribed in as beautiful a manner 

 as pofuble ; the originals he retained for his own library; pre- 

 fentingthc Athenians with 15 talent,, for the exchange, that 

 is, with thre- thoufand pounds ilerling and upwards. As 

 the Mufeum was at firft in the quarter of the city called 

 Bruchion, the library was placed there ; but when th.e num- 

 ber of books amounted to four hundred thoufand volumes,^ 

 another library, within the Serapeum, was erefted by way of 

 fiipplemcnt to it, and on that account called the daughter 

 of the former. The books lodged in this increaled to the 

 number of three hundred thoufand volumes ; and thefe two 

 made up the number of feven hundred thoufand volutries, of 

 which the royal libraries of the Ptolemies were faid to con, 

 fift. In the'war which Julius Caefar waged with the inha- 

 bitants of Alexandria, the library of Bruchion was acci- 

 dentally, but unfortunately, burnt. But the library in Se- 

 rapeum ftiU remained, and tliere Cleopatra depofited the two 

 hundred thoufand volumes of the Pergamean library, with 

 which (lie was prefented by Marc Antony. Thefe, an4 

 othei-3 added to them from time to time, rendered the new 

 library of Alexandria more numerous and coniiderable than 

 the former ; and though it was plundered more than once 

 during the revolutions which happened in the Roman em- 

 pire, yet it was as frequently fupplied with the fame number 

 of books, and continued for many ages to be of great fame 

 and ufe, till it was burnt by the Saracens in the 642d year of 

 the Chrirtian aera. Abulpharagius, in his hiftoiy of the 

 lotli dynafty, gives the following account of this cataftrophe. 

 John Philoponus, furnamed the Grammarian, a famous Pe- 

 ripatetic philofopher, being at Alexandria when the city vi-as 

 taken by the Saracens, was admitted to familiar intercourfc 

 with Amrou, the Arabian general, and prefumed to folieit 

 a gift, ineftimable in his opinion, but conteirptible in that of 

 the barbarians ; and this was the royal library. Amrou was 

 inclined to gratify his wifli, but his rigid integrity fcrupled 

 to alienate the leaft objedt without the confent of the Ca- 

 liph. He accordingly wrote to Omar, whofe well known 

 anfwer was diftated by the ignorance of a fanatic. " If 

 thefe writings of the Greeks agree with the Koran, or book 

 of God, they are ufelefs, and need not be prefcrved ; if they 

 difagree, they are pernicious, and ought to be deftroyed." 

 The fentence of deftruftion was executed with blind obe- 

 dience : the volumes of paper or parchment were diftributed 

 to the four thoufand baths of the city ; and fuch was their 

 number, that fix months were barely fufficient for the con- 

 fumption of this precious fuel. Since the dynatties of 

 Abulpharagius have been given to the world in a Latin ver- 

 fion, this tale, as Mr. Gibbon (Hill. vol. ix. p. 440.) calls it, 

 has been repeatedly tranfcribed ; and every fcholar, with 

 pious indignation, has deplored the irreparable wreck of the 

 learning, the arts, and the genius of antiquity. " For my 

 own part," fays this Hittorian, adopting the fcepticifm of 

 Renaudot (Hill. Alex. Patriarch, p. 1 70.) " I am ftrongly 

 tempted to deny both the faft and the confequences; the 

 faft is indeed marvellous." " Read and wonder!" fays the 

 Hiftorian himfelf ; and the folitary report of a ftrangcr who 

 wrote at the end of fix hundred years in the confines of Me- 

 dia, is overbalanced by the filence of two annalifts of a more 

 early <Jate, both Chriftians, both natives of Egypt? and the 



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