HE GREAT, king of Macedonia. His father Philip laid the plan of that extensive empire, which his son afterwards completed. Philip, having made himself master of Greece, began to cast his eyes upon Persia, with a view to retaliate upon that haughty empire the injuries of former times. It was the popular topic of the day. But this prince was cut off in the midst of his enterprise. Such, however, was the influence of Alexander in the assembly of the Grecian states, that he was created general of their combined forces in the room of his father. Having made every needful preparation, at the head of a veteran army he invaded Asia. The lieutenants of Darius, who was then king of Persia, opposed him at the river Granicus, where Alexander obtained a complete victory, after which he pursued his march through Asia. At Issus, near Scanderoon, he was met by Darius in person, at the head of a prodigious army. Here he obtained a second victory; and took the camp of Darius, together with his family, whom he treated with the utmost humanity. Contrary to all the maxims of war, instead of pursuing Darius, he made an excursion into Egypt; and, as far as appears, through no better motives than those of vanity. Here he was acknowledged to be the son of Jupiter Ammon. In the mean time Darius recruited his strength, and got together an army superior to what he brought into the plain of Issus.

Alexander having finished his Egyptian expedition, traversed Asia, and passed the Euphrates. At Arbela, a town in Assyria, he met Darius. Here a decisive battle was fought, which put all Persia into the hands of Alexander. His ambition not being satisfied with the conquest of that vast country, he projected an expedition into India. Here he met with great opposition from Porus, a gallant prince, whom in the end he reduced. Beyond the Ganges lay a country still unsubdued. He notified it to his army, that he proposed to pass the river. But these veterans, haralled with their fatigues, and seeing no end of their labour, mutinied, and refused to march farther. The disappointed chief was therefore obliged to return. At Babylon he proposed to receive ambassadors, appoint governors, and settle his vast monarchy; but his excellencies put an end to his life in the midst of his designs, and in the flower of his age.

The character of this hero is so familiar to everybody, that it is almost needless labour to draw it. All the world knows, says Mr Bayle, that it was equally composed of very great virtues and very great vices. He had no mediocrity in any thing but his stature: in his other properties, whether good or bad, he was all extremes. His ambition rose even to madness. His father was not at all mistaken in supposing the bounds of Macedon too small for his son: for how could Macedon bound the ambition of a man, who reekoned the whole world too small a dominion? He wept at hearing the philosopher Anaxarchus say, that there was an infinite number of worlds: his tears were owing to his despair of conquering them all, since he had not yet been able to conquer one. Livy, in a short digression, has attempted to inquire into the events which might have happened, if Alexander, after the conquest of Asia, had brought his arms into Italy? Doubtless things might have taken a very different turn with him; and all the grand projects, which succeeded so well against an eliminated Persian monarch, might easily have miscarried if he had had to do with rough hardy Roman armies. And yet the vast aims of this mighty conqueror, if seen under another point of view, may appear to have been confined in a very narrow compass; since, as we are told, the utmost wish of that great heart, for which the whole earth was not big enough, was, after all, to be praised by the Athenians: for it is related, that the difficulties which he encountered in order to pass the Hydaspes, forced him to cry out, "O Athenians, could you believe to what dangers I expose myself for the sake of being celebrated by you?" But Bayle affirms, that this was quite consistent with the vast unbounded extent of his ambition, as he wanted to make all future time his own, and be an object of admiration to the latest posterity; yet did not expect this from the conquest of worlds, but from books. He was perfectly in the right, says Bayle; "for if Greece had not furnished him with good writers, he would long ago have been as much forgotten as the kings who reigned in Macedon before Amphitryon."

Alexander has been praised upon the score of continency, yet his life could not surely be quite regular in that respect. Indeed, the fire of his early youth appeared so cold towards women, that his mother sus- Alexander pected him to be impotent; and, to satisfy herself in this point, did, with the consent of Philip, procure a very handsome courtezan to lie with him, whose caresses, however, were all to no purpose. His behaviour afterwards to the Persian captives shows him to have had a great command over himself in this particular. The wife of Darius was a finished beauty; her daughters likewise were all beauties; yet this young prince, who had them in his power, not only bestowed on them all the honours due to their high rank, but managed their reputation with the utmost delicacy. They were kept as in a cloister concealed from the world, and secured from the reach of every dishonourable (not only attack, but) imputation. He did not give the least handle to scandal, either by his visits, his looks, or his words: and for other Persian dames his prisoners, equally beautiful in face and shape, he contented himself with saying gaily, that they gave indeed much pain to his eyes. The Amazon Thalestris could not obtain from him a compliance with her gallant request till after a delay of thirteen days. In the mean time, what are we to conclude from his cauling his favourite mistres Pancaste to be drawn naked by Apelles, though it is true he gave her to the painter, who fell in love with her? What of that immoderate love of boys, which Athenaeus relates of him? What of that prodigious number of wives and concubines which he kept?

His excellencies with regard to wine were notorious, and beyond all imagination; and he committed, when drunk, a thousand extravagancies. It was owing to wine, that he killed Clitus who saved his life, and burnt Persepolis, one of the most beautiful cities of the East; he did this last indeed at the instigation of the courtezan Thais; but this circumstance made it only the more heinous. It is generally believed, that he died by drinking immoderately: and even Plutarch, who affects to contradict it, owns that he did nothing but drink the whole day he was taken ill.

In short, to sum up the character of this prince, we cannot be of opinion, that his good qualities did in anywise compensate for his bad ones. Heroes make a noise: their actions glare, and strike the senses forcibly; while the infinite destruction and misery they occasion lie more in the shade, and out of sight. One good legislator is worth all the heroes that ever did or will exist. See Macedon.