COSMOS, VOL. II - World eBook Library

542 COSMOS.
epoch of the Ptolemies, both by the combined action of external
relations, the foundation and proper endowment of several
large institutions (the Alexandrian Museum and two libraries at
Bruchiuin and Khakotis),* and by the collegiate association of
so many learned men actuated by practical views. This encyclopaedic
species of knowledge facilitated the comparison of
observations and the generalisation of natural views. f The
great scientific institution which owes its origin to the first of
the Ptolemies long enjoyed, amongst other advantages, that
of being able to give a free scope to the differently directed
pursuits of its members, and thus, although founded in a foreign
country, and surrounded by nations of different races, it could
still preserve the characteristics of the Greek acuteness of
mind and a Greek mode of thought.
A few examples must suffice, in accordance with the spirit
and form of the present work, to show how experiments and
observations, under the protecting influence of the Ptolemies,
acquired their appropriate recognition as the true sources of
knowledge regarding celestial and terrestrial phenomena, and
how, in the Alexandrian period, a felicitous generalisation of
views manifested itself conjointly with a laborious accumulation
of knowledge. Although the different Greek schools of
philosophy, when transplanted to Lower Egypt, gave occasion,
by their Oriental degeneration to many mythical hypotheses
regarding nature and natural phenomena, mathematics still
constituted the firmest foundation of the Platonic doctrines
* The library in the Bruchium, which was destroyed in the burning
of the fleet under Julius Csesar, was the more ancient. The library at
Khakotis formed a part of the " Serapeum," where it was connected with
the museum. By the liberality of Antoninus, the collection of books at
Pergamus, was joined to the library of Rhakotis.
j* Vacherot, Histoire critique de I'Ecole d'Alexandrie, 1846, t. i. pp.
v. and 103. The institute of Alexandria, like all academical corporations,
together with the good arising from the concurrence of many
labourers, and from the acquisition of material aids, exercised also some
narrowing and restraining influence, as we find from numerous facts
furnished by antiquity. Adrian appointed his tutor, Vestinus, High
Priest of Alexandria (a sort of minister presiding over the management
of public worship), and at the same time Head of the Museum (or President
of the Academy). (Letronne, Pechcrches pour servir d I'Histoire
de I'Egypte pendant la domination des Grecs et des Remains,
1823, p. 251.)