]

[Footnote 121: Aulus Gellius, (Noctes Atticae, vi. 17,) Ammianus
Marcellinua, (xxii. 16,) and Orosius, (l. vi. c. 15.) They all speak in
the past tense, and the words of Ammianus are remarkably strong: fuerunt
Bibliothecae innumerabiles; et loquitum monumentorum veterum concinens
fides, &c.]

[Footnote 122: Renaudot answers for versions of the Bible, Hexapla,
Catenoe Patrum, Commentaries, &c., (p. 170.) Our Alexandrian Ms., if it
came from Egypt, and not from Constantinople or Mount Athos, (Wetstein,
Prolegom. ad N. T. p. 8, &c.,) might possibly be among them.]

[Footnote 123: I have often perused with pleasure a chapter of
Quintilian, (Institut. Orator. x. i.,) in which that judicious critic
enumerates and appreciates the series of Greek and Latin classics.]

[Footnote 124: Such as Galen, Pliny, Aristotle, &c. On this subject
Wotton (Reflections on Ancient and Modern Learning, p. 85-95) argues,
with solid sense, against the lively exotic fancies of Sir William
Temple. The contempt of the Greeks for Barbaric science would scarcely
admit the Indian or Aethiopic books into the library of Alexandria;
nor is it proved that philosophy has sustained any real loss from their
exclusion.]

In the administration of Egypt, [125] Amrou balanced the demands of
justice and policy; the interest of the people of the law, who were
defended by God; and of the people of the alliance, who were protected
by man. In the recent tumult of conquest and deliverance, the tongue
of the Copts and the sword of the Arabs were most adverse to the
tranquillity of the province. To the former, Amrou declared, that
faction and falsehood would be doubly chastised; by the punishment of
the accusers, whom he should detest as his personal enemies, and by the
promotion of their innocent brethren, whom their envy had labored to
injure and supplant. He excited the latter by the motives of religion
and honor to sustain the dignity of their character, to endear
themselves by a modest and temperate conduct to God and the caliph,
to spare and protect a people who had trusted to their faith, and to
content themselves with the legitimate and splendid rewards of their
victory. In the management of the revenue, he disapproved the simple but
oppressive mode of a capitation, and preferred with reason a proportion
of taxes deducted on every branch from the clear profits of agriculture
and commerce. A third part of the tribute was appropriated to the annual
repairs