The treasures of learning and letters, preserved from the pre-Christian times, as at Samos, Athens, Megara, and Pergamos, quickly found their way (in the early centuries of our Era) from Greece, the fountain source of books and culture, into all those parts of the world with which she was brought into commercial relations and whither the conquests of Alexander had already carried the Greek culture and literature. And so it came to pass that to the cities of the Mediterranean and the Euxine there was a constant flow of books; and, in many of them, extensive libraries were collected and treasured. At a later time, when the making of books had greatly declined in consequence of the enveloping cloud of ignorance, the monks, dignitaries of the Church and even princes, brought a steadfast devotion to the copying of the religious books--especially the Bible--though not neglecting the classic literature. Noble Christian ladies, too, shared in this copying of the Bible as a form of ascetic work providing, as they believed, heavenly merit and the means of subsistence. A Christian sometimes copied for himself a gospel or some letters of evangelists, or even one or more books of the Old Testament; and we are told that wealthy Christians sometimes helped their poorer brethren by providing them with copies. The production of books was mostly but not wholly confined to the early centuries of the Christian Era; it certainly did not extend to any considerable degree beyond the fifth century. It is within the historical facts to say that, from the fifth century on, inclusively, throughout the "Dark Ages" or for nearly a thousand years, the business of making books greatly declined, and was limited largely to books which persons of rank, literary taste, or religious devotion, themselves copied for personal use or gratification, and to books copied in the religious houses. Persons of wealth or position, too, would sometimes employ copyists or men of sedentary habits or scholarly tastes, and even their slaves who were fitted for this occupation, to transcribe such books as could be secured for the purpose. (A slave of this period was often not the dull and degraded bondman which we are accustomed to associate with the designation "slave" but he might be a man in all ways superior to his master.) Among the copyists of the times were educated persons who, by reason of the misfortunes of war, the handicaps of fate, or the hard contingencies of life--such as the loss of possessions or the reverses of fortune--had fallen into a subject condition of servitude and were employed by their masters as secretaries, scribes, and even as personal advisers and trusted friends. Origen, perhaps the greatest Bible scholar of the ancient Church, is said to have been supported by a rich admirer who put a number of slave copyists at his disposal. These copyists were sometimes employed to further the commercial enterprises of their owners also;