Nectanebus out of Egypt, and committed the like
ravages in that country; afterwards he marched
into Judea, where he took Jericho, and sent a great
number of Jews into captivity. The Persians had
a great dislike to the religion of the Phoenicians and
the Egyptians; this was one reason for destroying
their books, of which Eusebius (De Preparat.
Evang.) says, they had a great number."

These losses, apparently, did not interfere with the
progress of the art in more western countries. Professor
Rollin in his "Ancient History," 1823, remarks:

"Ptolemy Soter, King of Egypt B. C. 285, had
been careful to improve himself in public literature,
as was evident by his compiling the life of
Alexander, which was greatly esteemed by the ancients,
but is now entirely lost. In order to encourage
the cultivation of the sciences, which he
much admired, he founded an academy at Alexandria,
called the Museum, where a society of learned
men devoted themselves to philosophic studies, and
the improvement of all other sciences, almost in the
same manner as those of London and Paris. For
this purpose, he began by giving them a library,
which was prodigiously increased by his successors.

"His son Philadelphus left a hundred thousand
volumes in it at the time of his death, and the succeeding
princes of that race enlarged it still more, till at