That of Egypt had already been the growth of more than three
thousand years. The question for the intrusive Greek sovereigns to solve
was how to co-ordinate this hoary system with the philosophical
scepticism that had issued as the result of Greek thought. With singular
sagacity, they saw that this might be accomplished by availing
themselves of Orientalism, the common point of contact of the two
systems; and that, by its formal introduction and development, it would
be possible not only to enable the philosophical king, to whom all the
pagan gods were alike equally fictitious and equally useful, to manifest
respect even to the ultra-heathenish practices of the Egyptian populace,
but, what was of far more moment, to establish an apparent concord
between the old sacerdotal Egyptian party--strong in its unparalleled
antiquity; strong in its reminiscences; strong in its recent
persecutions; strong in its Pharaonic relics, regarded by all men with a
superstitious or reverent awe--and the free-thinking and versatile
Greeks. The occasion was like some others in history, some even in our
own times; a small but energetic body of invaders was holding in
subjection an ancient and populous country.

[Sidenote: The Museum of Alexandria.]

[Sidenote: Establishment of the worship of Serapis.]

To give practical force to this project, a grand state institution was
founded at Alexandria. It became celebrated as the Museum. To it, as to
a centre, philosophers from all parts of the world converged. It is said
that at one time not less than fourteen thousand students were assembled
there. Alexandria, in confirmation of the prophetic foresight of the
great soldier who founded it, quickly became an immense metropolis,
abounding in mercantile and manufacturing activity. As is ever the case
with such cities, its higher classes were prodigal and dissipated, its
lower only to be held in restraint by armed force. Its public amusements
were such as might be expected--theatrical shows, music, horse-racing.
In the solitude of such a crowd, or in the noise of such dissipation,
anyone could find a retreat--atheists who had been banished from Athens,
devotees from the Ganges, monotheistic Jews, blasphemers from Asia
Minor. Indeed, it has been said that in this heterogeneous community
blasphemy was hardly looked upon as a crime; at the worst, it was no
more than an unfortunate, and, it might be, an innocent mistake. But,
since uneducated men need som