in his first battle, might have changed the destiny of the world! His son-in-law Ali asserted, that when the prophet was about to be inhumed, he was found in a situation not very comto the dead. The words of the Roman sovereign might be well applied a this case-" Decet imperatorem stantem having always united the greatest magnanimity with the greatest courage having respected the wife and daughters of Darius when in his power, he did not in any way deserve either to be confined as a madman or hanged as a robber. Rollin asserts, that Alexander took the famous city of Tyre only to oblige the Jews, who hated the Tyrians: it is, however, quite as likely that Alexander had other reasons; for a naval commander would not leave Tyre mistress of the sea, when he was going to attack Egypt. Alexander's friendship and respect for Jerusalem were undoubtedly great; but it should hardly be said that the Jews rare example of fidelity—an example worthy of the only people who at that time had the knowledge of the borrowed; it was the property of the true God, in refusing to furnish Alex Never was the life of a man written more in detail than his; the most minute particulars were regarded as sacred. We have the name and the numbers of all that belonged to him-nine swords, three lances, three bows, seven cuirasses, three bucklers, twelve wives, one white cock, seren horses, two mules, and four camels, set a besides the mare Borac, on which he went to beaven. But this last he had only Gabriel. ander with provisions, because they had It is well known that the Jews took every opporBe-tunity of revolting against their sove sworn fidelity to Darius. One was, that the enjoyment of women All his sayings have been preserved. made him more fervent in prayer. to bave been a great physician; so that fane king. If they imprudently refused is said for not be wanted none of the qualifications for contributions to the conqueror, it was not deceiving mankind. ALEXANDER. with a view to prove themselves the faithful slaves of Darius, since their law expressly ordered them to hold all idola It is no longer allowable to speak of trous nations in abhorrence: their books Alexander, except in order to say something new of him, or to destroy the fables, them, and of reiterated attempts to throw historical, physical, and moral, which off their yoke. If, therefore, they at first have disfigured the history of the only refused the contributions, it was because great man to be found among the con- their rivals, the Samaritans, had paid them are full of execrations pronounced against querors of Asia. After reflecting a little on the life of Darius, though vanquished, was still powAlexander, who, amid the intoxications ful enough to support Jerusalem against of pleasure and conquest, built more Samaria. towns than all the other conquerors of without hesitation, and they believed that Asia destroyed,-after calling to mind then the only people who had the know It is wholly false that the Jews were was, that, young as he world of the ,he turned the com into a new channel, ledge of the true God, as Rollin tells us. The Samaritans worshipped the same it appears very strange that Boileau should God, though in another temple; they had have spoken of him as a robber and a the same Pentateuch as the Jews, and madman. Alexander, having been elected they had it in Tyrian characters, which at Corinth captain general of Greece, and the Jews had lost. The schism between vasions of the Persians, did no more than scale, what the schism between the Greek commissioned as such to avenge the in- 3 Samaria and Jerusalem was, on a small successors. of animadversion, were even any shado of it to be found in the sacred writings but as they do not make the slightes mention of it, we are quite at liberty t see that it is ridiculous. There can be no doubt that Alexande subdued that part of India which lies on this side the Ganges, and was tributary t the Persians. Mr. Holwell, who live for thirty years among the Brahmins o Benares and the neighbouring countries and who learned not only their moder language but also their ancient sacred tongue, assures us, that their annals at test the invasion by Alexander, whon they call Mahadukoit Kounha— grea people could not call him otherwise; in deed, it is hardly to be supposed tha they gave any other name to the kings o Persia. The same annals say, that Älexander entered by the province now called Candahar, and it is probable that there were always some fortresses on that frontier. The hatred was equal on both sides, having the same foundation-Religion. Alexander, having possessed himself of Tyre by means of that famous causeway which is still the admiration of all generals, went to punish Jerusalem, which lay not far out of his way. The Jews, headed by their high priest, came and humbled themselves before him, offering him money-for angry conquerors are not to be appeased without money. Alexander was appeased, and they remained subject to Alexander and to his Such is the true as well as the only probable history of the affair. Rollin repeats a story told about four hundred years after Alexander's expedi-robber, great murderer. These peacefu tion, by that romancing, exaggerating historian, Flavius Josephus, who may be pardoned for having taken every opportunity of setting off his wretched country to the best advantage. Rollin repeats, after Josephus, that Jaddus the highpriest having prostrated himself before Alexander, the prince, seeing the name of Jehovah engraved on a plate of gold at- Alexander afterwards descended the tached to Jaddus's cap, and understand-river Zombodipo, which the Greeks called ing Hebrew perfectly, fell prostrate in his Sind. In the history of Alexander there turn, and paid homage to Jaddus. This is not a single Indian name to be found. excess of civility having astonished Par- The Greeks never called an Asiatic town menio, Alexander told him, that he had or province by their own name. They known Jaddus a long time; that he had dealt in the same manner with the Egypappeared to him, in the same habit and tians. They would have thought it a disthe same cap, ten years before, when honour to the Greek tongue, had they inhe was meditating the conquest of Asia troduced into it a pronunciation which (a conquest which he had not then even they thought barbarous-if, for instance, thought of); that this same Jaddus had they had not called the city of Moph exhorted him to cross the Hellespont, as- Memphis. suring him that God would march at the head of the Greeks, and that the God of the Jews would give him the victory over the Persians. This old woman's tale makes but a sorry figure in the history of such a man as Alexander. An Ancient History well digested was an undertaking calculated to be of great service to youth; it is to be wished that it had not been in some degree marred by the adoption of such absurdities. The story of Jaddus would be entitled to our respect-it would be beyond the reach Mr. Holwell says, that the Indians never knew either Porus or Taxiles; indeed these are not Indian words. Nevertheless, if we may believe our missionaries, there are still some Indian lords who pretend to have descended from Porus. Perhaps the missionaries have flattered them with this origin until they have adopted it. There is, at least, no country in Europe, in which servility has not invented and vanity received genealogies yet more chimerical. If Flavius Josephus has related a ri dienious fable about Alexander and a Jewish pontiff, Plutarch, who wrote long after Josephus, in his turn seems not to have been sparing in fables concerning this hero. He has even out done Quintus Curtius. Both assert that Alexander, when marching towards India, wished to have himself adored, not only by the Persiaps but also by the Greeks. The question is, what did Alexander, the Persians, the Greeks, Quintus Curtius, and Plutarch, understand by adoring? We must never lose sight of the great rule-Define your terms. If by adoring he meant invoking a man as a divinity-offering to him incense and acrifices-raising to him altars and temples, it is clear that Alexander required nothing of all this. If, being the conqueror and master of the Persians, he chose that they should salute him after the Persian manner; prostrating themselves on certain occasions; treating him, in short, like what he was, a sovereign of Persia, there is nothing in this but what is very reasonable and very common. The members of the French parliament, in their beds of justice, address the king kneeling; the third estate address the states-general kneeling, a cup of wine is presented kneeling, to the king of England; several European sovereigns are served kneeling at their consecration. The Great Mogul, the Emperor of China, and the Emperor of Japan, are always addressed kneeling. The Chinese Colaos of an inferior order bend the knee before the Colaos of a superior order. We adore the Pope, and kiss the toe of his right foot. None of these ceremonies have ever been regarded as adoration in the strict sense of the word, or as a worship like that due to the Divinity. Thus, all that has been said of the pretended adoration exacted by Alexander, is founded on ambiguity. Octavius, surnamed Augustus, really caused himself to be adored in the strictest sense of the word. Temples and altars were raised to him. There were priests of Augustus. Horace positively tells him Jurandisque tuum par nomen ponimus aras. Here was truly a sacrilegious adoration; yet we are not told that it excited discontent. The contradictions in the character of Alexander would be more difficult to reconcile, did we not know that men, especially men called heroes, are often very inconsistent with themselves, and that the life or death of the best citizens, or the fate of a province, has more than once depended on the good or bad digestion of a well or ill advised sovereign. Some But how are we to reconcile improbable facts related in a contradictory manner? Some say that Callisthenes was crucified by order of Alexander for not having acknowledged him to be the son of Jupiter. But the cross was not a mode of execution among the Greeks. Others say that he died long afterwards, of too great corpulency. Athenæus assures us, that he was carried, like a bird, in an iron cage, until he was devoured by vermin. Amongst all these different stories, distinguish the true one if you can. {adventures are supposed by Quintus Curtius to have happened in one town, and by Plutarch in another, the two places being five hundred leagues apart. Alexander, armed and alone, leaped from the top of a wall into a town which he was besieging: according to Quintus Curtius, it was on the borders of Candahar; according to Plutarch near the mouth of the Indus. When he arrived on the Malabar coast, or near the Ganges,—no matter which, it is only nine hundred miles from the one to the other, he gave orders to seize ten of the Indian philosophers, called by the Greeks gymnosophists, who went about as naked as apes; to those he proposed ridiculous questions, promising them very seriously that he who gave the worst answers should be hanged the first, and the rest in due order. This reminds us of Nebuchadonosor, who would abso lutely put his Magi to death, if they did not divine one of his dreams which he had forgotten; and of the Caliph of the Thousand and One Nights, who was to strangle his wife as soon as she had finished her story. But it is Plutarch who relates this nonsense; therefore it must be respected, for he was a Greek. the wonders of the world, has also ceased to exist. The city was always very flourishing under the Ptolemies and the Romans. It did not decline under the Arabs, nor did the Mamelukes or the Turks, who successively conquered it, together with the rest of Egypt, suffer it to go to decay.' It preserved some portion of its greatness Hope opened a new route to the Indies, and once more gave a new direction to the commerce of the world, which Alexander had previously changed, and which had been changed several times before Alexander. This latter story is entitled to the same credit with that of the poisoning of Alex-until the passage of the Cape of Good ander by Aristotle; for Plutarch tells us, that somebody had heard one Agnotemis say, that he had heard Antigonus say, that Aristotle sent a bottle of water from Nonacris, a town in Arcadia, which water was so extremely cold, that they who drank it instantly died; that Antipater sent this water in a horn; that it arrived at Babylon quite fresh; that Alexander { drank of it; and that, at the end of six days, he died of a continued fever. The Alexandrians were remarkable, under all their successive denominations, for industry united with levity; for love of novelty, accompanied by a close application to commerce, and to all the arts that make commerce flourish; and for a contentious and quarrelsome spirit, joined to cowardice, superstition, and debauchery Plutarch has, it is true, some doubts respecting this anecdote. All that we can be quite certain of is, that Alexander, at the age of twenty-four, had conquered-all which never changed. Persia by three battles; that his genius was as great as his valour; that he changed the face of Asia, Greece, and Egypt, and gave a new direction to the commerce of the world; and that Boileau should have been more sparing of his ridicule, since it is not very likely that Boileau would have done more in as short a time. ALEXANDRIA. The city was peopled with Egyptians, Jews, and Turks, all of whom, though poor at first, enriched themselves by traffic. Opulence introduced the cultivation } of the fine arts, with a taste for literature, and consequently for disputation. The Jews built a magnificent temple, and translated their books into Greek, which had become the language of the country. So great were the animosities among the native Egyptians, the Greeks, MORE than twenty towns have borne the Jews, and the Christians, that they the name of Alexandria, all built by were continually accusing one another to Alexander and his captains, who became the governor, to the no small advantage so many kings. These towns are so many of his revenue. There were even frequent monuments of glory, far superior to the and bloody seditions, in one of which, in statues which servility afterwards erected the reign of Caligula, the Jews, who to power; but the only one of them exaggerate every thing, assert that reliwhich attracted the attention of the worldgious and commercial jealousy united, by its greatness and its wealth, was that cost them fifty thousand men, whom the which became the capital of Egypt. Alexandrians murdered. This is now but a heap of ruins; for it is well known that one half of the city has been re-built on another site, near the sea. The light-house, formerly one of Christianity, which the Origens, Clements and others had established and rendered admirable by their lives, degenerated into a mere spirit of party. The glass; others manufacture paper; they seem to be, and indeed are of all trades: not even the gout in their feet and hands can reduce them to entire inactivity; the very blind work. Money is a God which the Christians, Jews, and all men, adore alike." Christians adopted the manners of the ALGIERS. THE principal object of this Dictionary is philosophy. It is not, therefore, as geographers that we speak of Algiers, but for the purpose of remarking, that the first design of Louis XIV. when he took the reins of government, was to deliver Christian Europe from the continual depredations of the Barbary corsairs. This Which may be rendered thusproject was an indication of a great mind. "My dear Servian, I have seen that He wished to pursue every road to glory. Egypt of which you have spoken so It is somewhat astonishing that, with the highly; I know it thoroughly. It is a spirit of order which he showed in his light, uncertain, fickle nation. The wor-court, in his finances, and in the conduct shippers of Serapis turn Christians, and of state affairs, he had a sort of relish for they who are at the head of the religion ancient chivalry, which led him to the of CHRIST devote themselves to Serapis. performance of generous and brilliant There is no chief of the Rabbis, no Sa-actions, even approaching to the romantic. maritan, no Christian priest, who is not It is certain that Louis inherited from his an astrologer, a diviner, a pander. When mother a deal of that Spanish gallantry, the Greek Patriarch comes into Egypt, at once noble and delicate, with much of some press him to worship Serapis, others that greatness of soul-that passion for to adore CHRIST. They are very sedi- glory-that lofty pride, so conspicuous in tious, very vain, and very quarrelsome. old romances. He talked of fighting the The city is commercial, opulent, and po- emperor Leopold, like a knight seeking pulous. No one is idle. Some make adventures. The erection of the pyramid |