thus difdaining no toil as too humble, while he acknow ledged no enterprise as too vast for his capacious mind.

"The premature death of Alexander was lamented by many, who feized not what is truly moft lamentable in his story. His cam. paigns and battles have been defcribed, but the more characteristic glories of his reign are fhewn to us by parcels, without that clear reprefentation of the whole, which can alone give to each distinctive feature its full beauty and brilliancy. His tranfactions in Babylon were indeed intimately connected with his useful and magnificent establishments on the Indus and Jaxartes; with his operations in the forefts of Hyrcania, and the contiguous iron mines of Mar. giana; and with the projected elongations of his empire to the outlying emporiums of Ethiopia and Tarteffus. His afcendancy over the whole, he fhould feem to have deemed neceffary to the beft improvement of the parts: but in confequence of this ambitious reasoning, how multifarious foever his exertions, their ends were fimple and definite; to enliven arts and industry, to introduce mutually beneficial intercourse, to harmonize inftitutions and manners. On the stock of conveniency or neceffity, he ftu died to engraft the refinements of elegance, and the charms of focial pleafure. Commerce was to be cultivated, not merely as the procurefs of fuperfluous luxuries, but that the interchange of commodities might produce a reciprocation of fentiment and affection; and that the free, equal, and unobstructed communication among men of different countries might remove thofe local prejudices which prevented them from viewing each other as brethren *.

"With a view to this liberal policy, the famous nuptials were celebrated (ten thoufand in a fingle day) between Greeks and Barbarians; the Afiatics of diftinction were carefully difci plined not merely in the arms, but in the arts and attainments of their European conquerors; and as various colonies of Europeans had established themselves in Afia and Africa, other colonies in return were to be tranfported from thofe quarters of the world, and accommodated with fecure fettlements in EuJope +. The fame generous fpirit pervaded all his arrangements, military, financial, and political. In the judicious diftribution of his troops, his garrifons ferved the useful purpose of staples or factories. Impofts were moderate, and his collectors amena,

*To perceive the full merit of Alexander in this particu lar, our fancy muft transport us to ancient times. In thofe ages the Greeks treated all other nations as Barbarians: the Romans denoted a stranger and an enemy by one and the fame word; (Ciero de Offic. 1. i. c. 12.) local antipa hies ftill more bitter pre vailed, as we have feen, in Afia and Africa."

"Diodorus, 1. xviii. f. 4."

ble

ble to the laws on the smallest violation of juftice. He allowed no people to tyrannize over another, and least of all his own haughty Macedonians, thereby restoring that equality and con fidence which is the vital fpring of both productive and commer cial induftry. Before this fpring had been broken by the defpo tifm of nations over nations, we have feen the wonderful exer tions of the Babylonians and Egyptians for the extenfion of agriculture, and the fingular inftitutions by which the Egyptian priests endeavoured to wean their fubjects from a paftoral and wandering life. Hiftory is full of the labours of Alexander towards the fame end, even during the progrefs of his conquefts*; an end of the utmost importance, fince the preponderancy of barbarous Nomades has ever proved the greatest bane both of Afia and Africa.

"By the arrangements which he made, and the ftyle of war which he introduced, the central and civilized nations of the Eaft, remained fecure for nearly a century after him, against the fierce rovers of either the northern or fouthern deferts. This advantage peculiar to that period of time, together with the extent and contiguity of his dominions, entitled him to form plans of inimitable boldness. We have feen the vaft multiplicity of his refources and auxiliaries. But the greatest refource of all was in his own mind. To attain perfonal excellence, no exertion feemed laborious; to promote excellence in others, no attention and no expence was fpared. In one gratuity he bestowed eight hundred talents towards the improvement of natural history +: a fum that bore no inconfiderable proportion to the annual pay of the army, with which he had atchieved his conquefts. On another occafion he fent ten thoufand talents into Greece, to defray the repairs of temples and other public edifices . Alive to every kind of honourable talent, he entered with deep intereft into the competitions of painters and muficians, fhowering libe. rality on thofe to whom the prize of merit had been adjudged, even contrary to his own wifhes; and the man who difplayed fuch munificence in matters lefs immediately connected with his favourite purposes, could not be expected to be lefs eager in fhar pening the dexterity of engineers, architects, fhip-builders, and all thofe agents or inftruments by which his great royal works were to be effected. During the fervour of youth and the career of victory, he fo nicely difcriminated between impoffibilities and mere difficulties, that none of his undertakings failed, nor were any of his projects likely to prove abortive. Upon this confi. deration, chiefly, his philofophical hiftorian, warmed by an en.

"Strabo, 1. xi. Pliny, 1. xi. and Plutarch in Alexand.” "Athenæus, 1. ix. p. 398."

"Plutarch in Alexand."

3

"Plutarch in Alexand." thufiafm

thufiafm of reafon, exclaims that Alexander was fent into the world by fome peculiar providence, a man like to none other, and whom both actions and defigns became, that would become none befides *." Vol. I. p. 195.

Such is the very high encomium which this hiftorian is inclined to bestow on the Macedonian conqueror, grounded tipon the facts and deductions of which we have here exhi bited a connected fummary; although by the author himself, they are detailed partly in the firft, and partly in the fifth fections of his preliminary effay. The praife, though high, is doubtlefs merited in many particulars; for Alexander was not an oppreffive but a magnanimous conqueror. He fought for glory, and not for fpoil; and was ever folicitous to impart to vanquished nations the benefits of a better state of fociety than that which they had before enjoyed; and to fubject them to his fway by inclination rather than by terror. At the fame time his talents and his virtues were obscured by m my alloys, which the prefent author has not fufficiently taken into account, in eftinating his character. His love of glory frequently degenerated into a childifh vanity, unwor thy the dignity of a hero. His generofity bordered on profufion; and his friendship, though warm, was frequently too weak to withstand the fudden gufts of his refentment. Above all, his love of pleafure, and pronenefs to debauch, have fixed a flain on his reputation, which all his mighty atchievements are unable to efface. It was this that occafioned the murder of Clitus, the burning of Perfepolis; and, in the end, his own untimely death, which confidering the period at which it happened, and the events by which it was followed, might well be confidered as one of the greatest calamities by which the world has been vifited.

It is the object of the 2d, 3d, and 4th fcctions of Dr. Gillies's preliminary effay, to examine how far Alexander's plans were original, in the concerns of foreign and domeftic policy, or how far he was guided by the example of his precurfors in empire. To accomplish this, he reviews at confiderable length the various dynafties which had previ oufly held fway in Afia, and whofe military or civil tranfactions had materially affected the great continent of the an cient world. He divides the conquerors who had fucceffively ruled in the Eaft before the Macedonian invafion into two claffes; thofe who were converfant with arts, letters, and commerce, who built cities, and promoted civilization;

Arrian, 1. vii. fub fin."

and

and those who exhibited traces of nothing but groffnefs, ignorance, and barbarifin. The firft clafs he confines to the ancient Affyrians and Egyptians; the fecond comprehends the Scythians, as well as the ancient Medes and Perfians, whom he gives good reafons for confidering as conquerors of a barbarous rather than a civilized character.

To ascertain in the fulleft manner the fuperiority of Alexander's views over the policy of any of thefe once victorious dynasties, Dr. Gillies details in fucceffion the remarkable events of the hiftory of each. He traces the fucceffive and destructive irruptions of the various Scythian hordes, by which the fair face of Afia was repeatedly laid wafte, He sketches the history of Media and Perfia in ancient ages. He explores the annals of Egypt, illuftrates its geography, and examines thofe ftupendous monuments of art by which it has been diftinguished from all other nations. The hif tory of Affyria next paffes under review; and the author affiduously exerts himfelf in endeavouring to reconcile the jarring accounts of ancient hiftorians, refpecting the extent and power of this far-famed empire; and in combining the records of its monarchs, preferved in facred writ, with the tranfactions detailed in profane hiftory. We cannot, however, undertake to expatiate on this part of Dr. Gillies's preliminary effay, but halten to the body of the work itself.

Dr. Gillies having concluded his effay with an account of the particulars of the death of Alexander, which was accafioned by a fever excited in confequence of a debauch, opens his hiftory with an account of the heirs in his family. The Greek hiftorians reprefent Alexander as having died childlefs, by which we are to underftand, that they did not confider any of his children as legitimate: he had, however, at the time of his death a fon named Hercules, then in his fifth year, by a Syrian captive named Barcina; and Roxana, a Bactrian lady, whom he had publicly efpoufed, was fix months advanced in her pregnancy. The collaterals of his family confifted of his full fifter, Cleopatra, his half brother Philip Arrhidæus; and his half fifter Cyuna, who with her daughter Eurydice, fought like Amazons in the ranks of the Macedonian army.

The teftament of Alexander, if ever it exifted, was not to be found at his death, having, according to fome authorities, been depofited in the city of Rhodes, whence his fucceffors took care that it fhould never be recovered. Philip Arrhidæus, whofe defcent naturally pointed him out as the new emperor, or at leaft the regent of the empire till

the

the refult of Roxana's pregnancy fhould be known, was a prince of a weak understanding, and an unambitious temper, who had followed the Macedonian camp without bearing any command, or ever taking part in any important tranf action. Thus was a profpect opened to the ambition and rapacity of Alexander's generals, already inured to the perils of war, and the fweets of conqueft; and who began to cabal for power as foon as the melancholy tidings of their mafter's diffolution were publicly made known.

Of thefe, three were closely allied to the royal blood, viz. Perdiccas, Leonnatus, and Ptolemy; the firft a daring and ambitious character, the fecond, frivolous though bold; the third, cautious and politic, as well as refolute and enterprifing. Befides thefe, there were, according to Dr. Gillies, ten other generals of high pretenfions, who, from the glory of their exploits, and the high rank which they held in Alexander's fervice, could not be expected eafily to acknowledge a fuperior: but of these feven only were then prefent in Babylon. To deliberate concerning both the fucceffion and adminiftration, a council of the principal officers was called in the palace, the day after Alexander's death; and each came accompanied by his principal adherents, as if prepared for the conteft, which was immediately to enfue. Perdiccas's character, ftill more than his rank, entitled him to act the chief part on this folemn occafion.

Meanwhile, however, the troops of the phalanx, impatient of delay, had thrown open the gates of the hall of audience, and proclaimed as king the brother of Alexander, Philip Arrhidaus. The affembly was thrown into commotion and every chief, fupported by his partizans, endeavoured to promote his own private views. After a tumultuous debate, it was declared by the affembly, "that Perdiccas and Leonnatus, the former of whom had been placed by Alexander at the head of the Companions, and the latter at that of the Life-guards, fhould be appointed joint regents of the kingdom; and that in all things the intention of their late monarch might be complied with, Perdiccas, as entrusted with his fignet, was named firft in the commiffion." The phalanx, however, continuing to fupport the caufe of Ar rhidaus, a new arrangement was foon found neceffary. Arrhidæus, and the new born fon of Roxana, were declared coheirs of the empire, and Perdiccas was named sole regent, or protector; his rival Leonnatus having been prevailed on to refign into his hands his fhare of fupreme

power.

Perdiccas