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CHAPTER II
The Alexandrian Library, of which Philadelphus was the founder and the chief benefactor. The variety and number of books in it. Burned, and restored.
THOUGH other libraries of Egypt are little known, we learn that that of Ptolemy Philadelphus was famous and highly renowned. He was the son of Ptolemy Lagus, second of the name and of the line of the Greek kings of Egypt. Being a patron of the arts and sciences he was, of course, a lover of books, and founded the great library of Alexandria, aided by the instruction and example, perhaps even by the very books themselves, of Aristotle. For Aristotle, as I shall
