Egyptian kings, and of their judicious attention to
the improvement of the sciences. Seneca, instead
of allowing it to be such, would have it considered
only as a work resulting from the pride and vanity
of those monarchs, who had amassed such a number
of books, not for their own use, but merely for
pomp and ostentation. This reflection, however,
seems to discover very little sagacity; for is it not
evident beyond contradiction, that none but kings
are capable of founding these magnificent libraries,
which become a necessary treasure to the learned,
and do infinite honour to those states in which they
are established?

"The library of Serapion, did not sustain any
damage, and it was undoubtedly there that Cleopatra
deposited those two hundred thousand volumes
from that of Pergamus, which was presented
to her by Antony. This addition, with other enlargements
that were made from time to time, rendered
the new library of Alexandria more numerous
and considerable than the first; and though it
was ransacked more than once, during the troubles
and revolutions which happened in the Roman empire,
it always retrieved its losses, and recovered
its number of volumes. In this condition it subsisted
for many ages, displaying its treasures to the
learned and curious, till the seventh century, when
it suffered the same fate with its parent, and was
burnt by the Saracens, when they took that city in