"When waned the star of Greece was there no cry, To rouse her people from their lethargy? Was there no sentry on the Parthenon-- No watch-fire on the field of Marathon, When science left the Athenian city's gate, To seek protection from a nameless fate? The sluggish sentry slept--no cry was heard No hands the glimm'ring watch-fire's embers stirr'd. Fair science unmolested left the land, That she had nurtured with maternal hand; And wandered forth some genial spot to find, Where she might rear her altar to the mind. "Long thro' the darken'd ages of a world, Back to primeval chaos rudely hurled, She journey'd on amid the gath'ring gloom, A spectre form emerging from the tomb. Earth had no resting place--no worshipper-- No dove returned with olive branch to her: Her lamp burned dimly, yet its flick'ring light, Guided the wanderer thro' the lengthen'd night. Oft in her weary search, she paused the while, To catch one gleam of hope--one favour'd smile; But the dim mists of ignorance still threw, Their blighting influence o'er the famish'd few, Who deigned to look upon that lustrous eye, Which pierced the ages of futurity. "For ten long centuries she groped her way, Through gloom, and darkness, ruin and decay; Yet came at last the morning's rosy light, A thousand echoes hail'd the glorious sight-- Joy thrill'd the universe--one iningled cry Of exultation, pealed along the sky! Science came forth in richer robes arrayed She trod a pathway ne'er before essayed; Up the steep mount of fame she fleetly pressed, And hung her trophies on its gilded crest." CHAPTER IV. CLASSICAL INK AND ITS EXODUS (CONTINUED). DESTRUCTION OF THE PERGAMUS LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA-- SOME OBSERVATIONS BY SIR THOMAS ASTLE --COMPARISON OF HIS STATEMENTS WITH THOSE OF PROFESSOR ANTHON RELATIVE TO FRAGMENTS OF ANTIQUITY WHICH REMAIN--AUTHENTICITY OF THEM NOT DISTURBED IF THEY ARE OF PROPER AGE --TAYLOR'S VIEWS ON THIS SUBJECT. THE storming of Alexandria and the destruction of the Pergamus library, composed largely of ink-written volumes, by the Saracens, A. D. 642, has already been reverted to. Astle observes: "Thus perished by fanatical madness, the inestimable Alexandrian library, which is said to have contained at that time upwards of five hundred thousand volumes; and from this period, barbarity and ignorance prevailed for several centuries. In Italy and all over the west of Europe learning was in a measure extinguished, except some small remains which were preserved in Constantinople. "Theodosious, the younger, was very assiduous in augmenting this library, by whom, in the latter end of the fourth century, it was enlarged to one hundred thousand volumes, above one-half of which were burnt in the fifth century by the Emperor Leo the First, so famous for his hatred to images.