ch works as their owners were not disposed to sell.
_Any books brought by foreigners into Egypt_ were taken at once to the
museum, and when correct copies had been made, the transcript was given
to the owner, and the original placed in the library. Often a very large
pecuniary indemnity was paid.

2. _For the increase of knowledge._ One of the chief objects of the
museum was that of serving as the home of a body of men who devoted
themselves to study, and were lodged and maintained at the king's
expense. In the original organization of the museum the residents were
divided into four faculties,--Literature, Mathematics, Astronomy, and
Medicine. An officer of very great distinction presided over the
establishment, and had general charge of its interests. Demetius
Phalareus, perhaps the most learned man of his age, who had been
Governor of Athens for many years, was the first so appointed. Under him
was the librarian, an office sometimes held by men whose names have
descended to our times, as Eratosthenes and Apollonius Rhodius. In
connection with the museum was a botanical and a zoological garden.
These gardens, as their names imply, were for the purpose of
facilitating the study of plants and animals. There was also an
astronomical observatory, containing armillary spheres, globes,
solstitial and equatorial armils, astrolabes, parallactic rules, and
other apparatus then in use, the graduation on the divided instruments
being into degrees and sixths.

3. _For the diffusion of knowledge._ In the museum was given, by
lectures, conversation, or other appropriate methods, instruction in all
the various departments of human knowledge.

_There flocked to this great intellectual centre, students from all
countries._ It is said that at one time not fewer than fourteen thousand
were in attendance. Subsequently even the Christian church received from
it some of the most eminent of its Fathers, as Clemens Alexandrinus,
Origen, Athanasius, &c.

The library in the museum was burned during the siege of Alexandria by
Julius Caesar. To make amends for this great loss, the library collected
by Eumenes, King of Pergamus, was presented by Mark Antony to Queen
Cleopatra. Originally it was founded as a rival to that of the
Ptolemies. It was added to the collection in the Serapion, or the temple
of Serapis.[440:1]

It was not destined, however, to remain there many centuries, as this
very valuable library was willfully destroyed by the C