When that was still admits of some difficulty. Pliny says that Varro writes it came not into general use till after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander; yet it is plain from Anacreon[5], Alcæus, Æschylus, and the comic poets, that it was known in their time. Plato and Aristotle speak of it also, so do Herodotus and Theophrastus[6]. We also know it was of old in use among the Ionians, who probably brought it in very early days directly from Egypt. Numa, too, who lived 300 years before Alexander, is said to have left a number of books wrote on the papyrus, which a long time after his death were found at Rome. All this might very well be; the writers of those early ages were but few, and those that then were, had all of them, more or less, connection by their learning with Egypt; it was to them only Egypt was known, and if they learned to write there, it was not improbable, that from thence too they adopted the materials most commodious for writing upon. With Aristotle began the first arrangement of a library. Alexander’s conquest, and the building of Alexandria, laid open Egypt, its trade and learning, to the world. Papyrus then, or the paper made from it, was the only materials made use of for writing upon. A violent desire of amassing books, and a library, immediately followed, which we may safely attribute to the example set by Aristotle. The Ptolemies, and the kings of Pergamus, contended who should make the largest collection. The Ptolemies, masters of Egypt and of the papyrus, availed themselves of this monopoly to hinder the multiplication of books in Greece. The other princes probably smuggled this plant, and propagated it wherever it would grow out of Egypt. And Eumenes king of Pergamus set about bringing to perfection the manufacture of parchment, which, long before, the Ionians had used from the scarcity of paper; for whatever resemblance there might be in names, or whatever may be inferred from them, writing upon skins or parchment was much more ancient than any city or state in Greece and in use probably before Greece was inhabited. The Jews we know made use of it in the earliest ages. At this very time which we are now speaking of, we learn from Josephus[7], that the elders, by order of the high priest, carried a copy of the law to Ptolemy Philadelphus in letters of gold upon skins, the pieces of which were so artfully put together that the joinings did not appear.