herself is said to have prepared. The tumult and confusion was such as might be expected from so fatal an event: some of the Macedonians crowded round the fallen king with officious and ineffectual care, while others pursued Pausanias. Among these were Perdiccas, Attalus, and Leonatus; the first, who excelled in swiftness, came up to the assassin, where he was just preparing to mount his horse; but being, by his precipitation, entangled in some vines, a violent effort to extricate the foot brought him suddenly to the ground.

178. As he prepared to rise, Perdiccas was upon him, and with his companions, soon despatched him by the repeated wounds which their fury inflicted. His body was immediately hung on a gibbet; but in the morning appeared crowned with a golden diadem; the only means by which Olympias could now express her implacable resentment. In a few days, indeed, she took a further occasion of publishing her triumph and exultation in her husband's fall, by paying the same funeral honours to Pausanias, which were prepared for Philip; both bodies were burnt on the same pile, and the ashes of both deposited in the same tomb.

179. She is even said to have prevailed on the Macedonians to pay annual honours to Pausanias; as if she feared that the share she had taken in the death of Philip, should not be sufficiently known to the world. She consecrated to Apollo the dagger which had been the instrument of the fatal deed, inscribed with the name Myrtalis; the name she had borne when their loves first began.

180. Thus died Philip, whose virtues and vices were directed and proportioned to his ambition. His most shining and exalted qualities were influenced in a great measure by his love of power, and even the most exceptionable parts of his conduct were principally determined by their conveniency and expediency. If he was unjust, he was like Cæsar, unjust for the sake of empire. If he gloried of the success acquired by his virtues and his intellectual accomplishments, rather than in that which the force of arms could gain, the reason which he himself assigned, points out his true principle-" In the former case," said he," the glory is entirely mine; in the other, my generals and soldiers have their share."

181. The news of Philip's death was a joyful surprise in Greece, and particularly in Athens, where the people crowned themselves with garlands, and decreed a crown to Pausanias. They sacrificed to the gods for their deliverance, and sung songs of triumph, as if Philip had been slain by them in battle. But this excess of joy did ill become them. It was looked upon as an ungenerous and unmanly insult upon the ashes of a murdered

prince, and of one whom they just before had revered and crouched to in the most abject manner.

182. These immoderate transports were raised in them by Demosthenes, who having the first intelligence of Philip's death, went into the assembly unusually gay and cheerful, with a chaplet on his head, and in a rich habit, though it was then but the seventh day after the death of his daughter. From this circum stance, Plutarch, at the same time that he condemns the beha viour of the Athenians in general upon this occasion, takes an opportunity to justify Demosthenes, and extols him as a patriot for not suffering his domestic afflictions to interfere with the good fortune of the commonwealth. But he certainly might have acted the part of a good citizen with more decency, and not have given up to insult, what was due to good manners.

CHAPTER XIV.

From the Birth of Alexander, to his setting out for Asia.

A. M. 3648.

1. ALEXANDER, the son of Philip, ascended the throne upon the death of his father, and took possession of a kingdom rendered ante J. C. 356. flourishing and powerful by the policy of the preceding reign.

2. He came into the world the very day the celebrated temple of Diana at Ephesus was burnt; upon which occasion the report goes, that Hegasius the historian was heard to say, "That it was no wonder the temple was burnt, as Diana was that day employed at the delivery of Olympia, to facilitate the birth of Alexander."

3. The passion which prevailed most in Alexander, even from his tender years, was ambition, and an ardent desire of glory, but not for every species of glory. Philip, like a sophist, valued himself upon his eloquence, and the beauty of his style, and had the vanity to have engraved on his coins the several victories he had won at the Olympic games in the chariot race.

4. But it was not after such empty honours that his son aspired. His friends asked him one day, whether he would not be present at the games above mentioned in order to dispute the prize bestowed on that occasion? for he was very swift of foot. He answered that he would contend in them, provided kings were to be his antagonists.

5. Every time news was brought him that his father had taken some city, or gained some great battle, Alexander, so far from sharing in the general joy, used to say in a plaintive tone of-voice, to the young persons that were brought up with him,

። Friends, my father will possess himself of every thing, and leave nothing for me to do."

6. One day some ambassadors from the king of Persia being arrived at court during Philip's absence, Alexander gave them so kind and so polite a reception, and regaled them in so noble and generous a manner, as charmed them all; but that which most surprised them was, the good sense and judgment he discovered, in the several conversations they had with him.

7. He did not propose to them any thing that was trifling, and like one of his age; such for instance as inquiring about the so much boasted gardens suspended in the air; the riches and magnificence of the palace and court of the king of Persia, which excited the admiration of the whole world; the famous golden plantaintree; and that golden vine, the grapes of which were of emeralds, carbuncles, rubies, and all sorts of precious stones, under which the Persian monarch was said frequently to give audience.

8. Alexander, I say, asked them questions of a quite different nature; inquiring which was the road to Upper Asia; the distance of the several places; in which the strength and power of the king of Persia consisted; in what part of the battle he fought; how he behaved towards his enemies, and in what manner he governed his subjects. These ambassadors admired him all the while; and perceiving, even at that time, how great he might one day become, they observed in a few words, the difference they found between Alexander and Artaxerxes, by saying one to another, "This young prince is great, and ours is rich: that man must be vastly insignificant who has no other merit than his riches.

9. So ripe a judgment in this young prince, was owing entirely to the good education which had been given him. Several preceptors were appointed to teach him all such arts and sciences as are generally bestowed on the heir to a great kingdom; and the chief of these was Leonidas, a person of the most severe morals, and a relation to the queen. This Leonidas, in their journies together, used frequently to look into the trunks where his bed and clothes were laid, in order to see if Olympias, his mother, had not put something superfluous into them, which might administer to delicacy and luxury.

10. But the greatest service Philip did his son, was appointing Aristotle his preceptor, the most famous and the most learned philosopher of his age, whom he entrusted with the whole care o his education. One of the reasons which prompted Philip to choose him a master of so conspicuous reputation and merit, was, as he himself tells us, that his son might avoid committing a great many faults, of which he himself had been guilty.

11. Philip was sensible how great a treasure he possessed in

the person of Aristotle; for which reason he settled a very gen teel stipend upon him, and afterwards rewarded his pains and care in an infinitely more glorious manner; for having destroyed and laid waste the city of Satygra, the native place of that philosopher, he rebuilt it purely out of affection for him; reinstated the inhabitants who had fled from it, or were made slaves; and gave them a fine park in the neighbourhood of Satygra, as a place for their studies and assemblies. Even in Plutarch's time, the stone seats which Aristotle had placed there were standing; as also spacious vistas, under which those who walked were shaded from the sun beams.

12. Alexander likewise discovered no less esteem for his master, whom he believed himself bound to love as much as it he had been his father; declaring that he was indebted to the one for living, and to the other for living well. The progress of the pupil was equal to the care and abilities of the preceptor. He grew vastly fond of philosophy, and learned the several parts of it, but in a manner suitable to his birth.

13. Aristotle endeavoured to improve his judgment, by laying down sure and certain rules, by which he might distinguish just and solid reasoning from what is but speciously so; and by accustoming him to separate in discourse all such parts as only dazzle, from those which are truly solid, and constitute its whole value. Alexander applied himself chiefly to morality, which is properly the science of kings, because it is the knowledge of mankind, and of their duties. This he made his serious and profound study; and considered it even at that time as the foundation of prudence and wise policy.

14. The greatest master of rhetoric that antiquity could ever boast, and who has left so excellent a treatise on that subject, took care to make that science part of his pupil's education; and we find that Alexander, even in the midst of his conquests, was often very urgent with Aristotle to send him a treatise on that subject. To this we owe the work entitled Alexander's Rhetoric; in the beginning of which Aristotle proves to him the vast advantages a prince may reap from eloquence; as it gives him the greatest ascendant over the minds of men, which he ought to acquire as well by his wisdom as authority.

15. Some answers and letters of Alexander, which are still extant, show that he possessed, in its greatest perfection, that strong, that manly eloquence, which abounds with sense and ideas; and which is so entirely free from superfluous expressions, that every single word has its meaning, which, properly speaking, is the eloquence of kings. His esteem, or rather his passion for Homer, shows not only with what vigour and success he applied

to polite literature, but the judicious use he made of it, and the solid advantages he proposed to himself from it.

16. He was not prompted to peruse this poet merely out of curiosity, or to unbend his mind, or from a great fondness for poetry; but his view in studying this admirable writer, was to borrow such sentiments from him as were worthy a great king and conqueror; courage, intrepidity, magnanimity, temperance, prudence, the art of commanding well in war and peace. The verse which pleased him most in Homer, was that where Agamemnon is represented as a good king and a brave warrior.

17. After this it is no wonder that Alexander should have so high an esteem for this poet. Thus when, after the battle of Arbela, the Macedonians found, among the spoils of Darius, a gold box, enriched with precious stones, in which the excellent perfumes used by that prince were put; Alexander, who was quite covered with dust, and regardless of essences and perfumes, ordered that this box should be employed to no other use than to hold Homer's poems; which he believed the most perfect, the most precise production of the human mind. He admired particularly the Iliad, which he called the best provision for a warrior.

18. He always had with him that edition of Homer, which Aristotle had revised and corrected, and to which the title of "The Edition of the Box" was given; and he laid it with his sword every night under his pillow. Fond, even to excess of every kind of glory, he was displeased with Aristotle his master, for having published in his absence, certain metaphysical pieces, which he himself desired to possess only; and even at the time when he was employed in the conquest of Asia, and the pursuit of Darius, he wrote to him a letter which is still extant, wherein he complains upon that very account.

19. Alexander says in it, "That he had much rather surpass the rest of men in the knowledge of sublime and excellent things, than in the greatness and extent of his powers." He in like manner requested Aristotle not to show the treatise of rhetoric above mentioned to any person but himself. He had also a taste for the whole circle of arts, but in such a manner as became a prince; that is, he knew the value and usefulness of them. Music, painting, sculpture, architecture flourished in his reign ; because they found him both a skilful judge and generous protector; who was able to distinguish and to reward merit.

20. But he despised certain trifling feats of dexterity, that were of no use. Some Macedonians admired very much a man, who employed himself very attentively in throwing small peas through the eye of a needle, which he would do at a considerable distance, and without once missing. Alexander seeing him at