hristian
Theophilus, and on the spot where this beautiful temple of Serapis
stood, in fact, on its very foundation, was erected a church in honor of
the "noble army of martyrs," who had never existed.

This we learn from the historian Gibbon, who says that, after this
library was destroyed, "the appearance of the empty shelves excited the
regret and indignation of every spectator, whose mind was not totally
darkened by religious prejudice."[440:2]

The destruction of this library was almost the death-blow to
free-thought--wherever Christianity ruled--for more than a thousand
years.

The death-blow was soon to be struck, however, which was done by _Saint
Cyril_, who succeeded _Theophilus_ as Bishop of Alexandria.

_Hypatia_, the daughter of Theon, the mathematician, endeavored to
continue the old-time instructions. Each day before her academy stood a
long train of chariots; her lecture-room was crowded with the wealth and
fashion of _Alexandria_. They came to listen to her discourses on those
questions which man in all ages has asked, but which have never yet been
answered: "What am I? Where am I? What can I know?"

Hypatia and Cyril; philosophy and bigotry; they cannot exist together.
As Hypatia repaired to her academy, she was assaulted by (Saint) Cyril's
mob--_a mob of many monks_. Stripped naked in the street, she was
dragged into a _church_, and there killed _by the club of Peter the
Reader_. The corpse was cut to pieces, the flesh was scraped from the
bones with shells, and the remnants cast into a fire. _For this
frightful crime Cyril was never called to account. It seemed to be
admitted that the end sanctified the means. So ended Greek philosophy in
Alexandria_, so came to an untimely close the learning that the
Ptolemies had done so much to promote.

The fate of Hypatia was a warning to all who would cultivate profane
knowledge. _Henceforth there was to be no freedom for human thought.
Every one must think as ecclesiastical authority ordered him_; A. D.
414. In Athens itself philosophy awaited its doom. Justinian at length
prohibited its teaching and caused all its schools in that city to be
closed.[441:1]

After this followed the long and dreary _dark ages_, but the _sun of
science_, that bright and glorious luminary, was destined to rise again.

The history of this great Alexandrian library is one of the keys which
unlock the door, and exposes to our view the manner in which the Hindoo
incarnate god