75

132

same time, such false testimony is often of extreme
value. You must know, then, if you
do not already know it, that after the death
of Alexander, Ptolemy Philadephus founded
the Alexandrian library, and some
of his successors became bitten with a
perfect mania for perfecting that library,
and spent enormous sums upon it, just
as we see that bibliomaniacs do to this day.
Only they exercized the force of their
soldiery to increase the library by means
of downright robbery, when purchases could
not be made. The natural consequence of this
was that there sprang up a regular business
of forging books, on the one hand, and a

132

same time, such false testimony is often of extreme
value. You must know, then, if you
do no already know it, that after the death
of Alexander, Ptolemy Philadephus founded
the Alexandrian library, and some
of his successors became bitten with a
perfect mania for perfecting that library,
and spent enormous sums upon it, just
as we see that bibliomaniacs do to this day.
Only they exercized the force of their
soldiery to increase the library by means
of downright robbery, when purchases could
not be made. The natural consequence of this
was that there sprang up a regular business
of forging books, on the one hand, and a