editions of the classics as for the literature of the day, the small rolls came into use."[66] The method of collecting books (as well as the multiplication of smaller rolls from a single larger roll by transcription) tended also to the enlargement of the Alexandrian Library. We are informed by tradition that, in addition to the _purchase_ of rolls, the books taken by the authorities from Greeks and other foreigners coming into Egypt were sent to the Library and there copied by the scribes in its employ. The copies thus made were delivered to the owners of the books, while the originals from which the copies were made were deposited in the Library. If this tradition is to be credited, then, how absolutely beyond estimate was the importance of the Alexandrian Library as the chief and the almost exclusive depository of original manuscripts of both sacred and classic literature--and for a long period of time. And if this was the fact, then it is highly probable that the original copies of the New Testament, or of books thereof, and of the Old Testament entire, were translated into the Greek during this period of literary activity in Alexandria in order to meet the needs: First, of the Greek-speaking Jews--later, of the Greek-speaking apostles and Christian teachers and disciples; and that these books were among the treasures of this most famous Library of the ancient world, or, indeed, of all time. On the authority of Tertullian, who lived in the first quarter of the third century, and of Chrysostom, who lived in the last half of the fourth century, the original Septuagint Version of the Old Testament scriptures--reputed to have been made near Alexandria in the third century B. C.--and, probably, with it autograph copies of the whole or parts of the New Testament were deposited in the Library at Alexandria. [It may not be without its interest while referring to the large number of books treasured in the Alexandrian Library to mention, parenthetically, the number of volumes contained in some of the leading libraries of the United States and of the world: