vernacular to him. Of the modern languages he had mas- 

 tered French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, and 

 Coptic, and how many others, is not certainly known ; but 

 after having got so many, a new acquisition of a cognate 

 tongue was to him a matter of a few^ weeks or days. One 

 who knew him as well perhaps as any living person, informs 

 the writer of this that, as a matter of literary recreation, Mr. 

 Alexander was every year exploring some new field in this 

 department of learning, and that it would he "easier to enu- 

 merate the languages he had not studied, than those with 

 which he was familiar."' 



But, as his eminent colleague the Rev. Dr. Hodge says of 

 him, notwithstanding these wonderful attainments, "his power 

 of acquiring languages was the very smallest of his gifts." 

 His intellectual pov*^er was as general as it was great. He 

 was great in everything he understood, and great in all his 

 faculties. "The greatest man," says Dr. Hodge, "whom I 

 have ever known : all whose powers and attainments were 

 consecrated to the cause of truth and of Christ." A high 

 compliment, truly, coming as it does from one who himself 

 occupies the front rank amongst the scholars of the age. 



As an author he is best known by his elaborate commenta- 

 ries on various portions of the Scriptures, which readily gained 

 for him a high reputation among the learned of the Old 

 World, as well as of the New. He was a profound biblical 

 critic. The vast stores of Germany in this department were 

 perfectly at his command, as well as every other repository of 

 the labors of his predecessors or contemporaries. Indeed, the 

 only exception we have ever heard mentioned to his commen- 

 taries, is that they are too learned, — that there is an exube- 

 rance which amounts to prodigality. His store of antiquarian, 

 historic, and biblical knowledge, was wonderful. 



What was a most valuable accompaniment of his passion 

 for acquisition in the fields of learning, was his remarkable 

 memory. The tenacity of this faculty with him, too, extended 

 to everything, — not merely to leading ideas or historical 

 facts, but to words and names, — and that even where there 

 seemed to be no special call for its exercise. As an instance 



