ALEXANDRIA ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL. 



105 



district of Columbia, and county of Alexandria, on 

 the S. bank of the Potomac, six miles S. of Washing- 

 ton, 115 N. of Richmond ; Ion. 77 4' W. ; lat. 38 49' 

 N. : pop., in 1800, 4,196; in 1810, 7,227 ; in 1820, 

 8,218 ; blacks, 2,603 : houses, in 1817, 1,385. 

 Among the public buildings are a court-house, a 

 jail, an alms-house, a theatre, a market-house, and 

 eight houses of public worship The situation of 

 Alexandria is considerably elevated, with easy and 

 gradual descents to the river, which is neatly 

 \vliarfed for about half the length of the city, with 

 water sufficient for the largest merchant ships. The 

 streets intersect each other at right angles, and a 

 great part of them are neatly paved. The city is 

 favourably situated for commerce, nearly at the head 

 of the tide-water of the Potomac, having an exten- 

 sive and fertile back country, and carries on a con- 

 siderable trade, chiefly in flour. A. expects to 

 derive much benefit from the intended canal from 

 Ohio to Washington. 



ALEXANDRIA, the name of a thriving village in 

 Scotland, situated in Dumbartonshire, on the west 

 bank of the river Leven. 



ALEXANDRIAN COPY, or CODEX ALEXANDRINUS ; 

 a manuscript, now in the British museum, of great 

 importance in biblical criticism. It is on parchment, 

 with uncial letters, without breathings and accents, 

 written, probably, in the latter half of the sixth 

 century, and contains, in four vols. folio the whole 

 Greek Bible (the Old Testament according to the 

 Septuagint), together with the letters of the bishop 

 Clement, of Rome. A large part of the Gospel of 

 St Matthew and of the Second Epistle to the Corin- 

 thians, as well as a portion of the Gospel of St John, 

 are wanting. The text of the Gospels is different 

 from that of the other books. The patriarch of 

 Constantinople, Cyrillus Lucaris, who, in 1628, sent 

 this manuscript as a present to Charles I., said he 

 had received it from Egypt ; and it is evident, from 

 other circumstances, that it was written there. But 

 it cannot be decided, with certainty, whether it came 

 from Alexandria (whence its name). John Ernest 

 Grabe follows it in his edition of the Septuagint 

 (Oxford, 1707-20, fol., four vols.) Dr Woide pub- 

 lished the New Testament from this copy, (London, 

 fol., 1786), with types cast for the purpose, line for 

 line, with intervals between the words, as in the 

 manuscript itself. The copy is so perfect a resem- 

 blance of the original, that it may supply its place. 

 Henry Hervey Baber undertook a similar edition of 

 the Old Testament, London, 1816, fol. This fa- 

 mous manuscript belonged, in 1098, to the library of 

 the patriarch of Alexandria. The text of this manu- 

 script is of the greatest importance in the criticism 

 of the Epistles of the New Testament ; in the Gos- 

 pels it is evidently worse. The three first divisions 

 contain the Alexandrian translation of the, Old 

 Testament ; the fourth, the New Testament in the 

 original language. 



ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL. When the flourishing pe- 

 riod of Greek poetry was past, study was called in 

 to supply what nature no longer furnished. Alex- 

 andria in Egypt was made the seat of learning, by 

 the Ptolemies, admirers of the arts, from whence 

 this age of literature took the name of the Alexan- 

 drian, Ptolemy Philadelphia founded the famous 

 library of Alexandria, the largest and most valuable 

 one of antiquity, which attracted many scholars from 

 all countries ; and also the museum, which may 

 justly be considered the first academy of sciences and 

 arts. (See Alexandria.) The grammarians and 

 poets are the most important among the scholars of 

 Alexandria. These grammarians were philologists 

 and literati, who explained things as well as words, 

 and may be considered a kind of encyclopedists. 



Such were Zenodotus the Ephesian, who established 

 the first grammar-school in Alexandria, Eratosthenes 

 of Cyrene, Aristophanes of Byzantium, Aristarchus 

 of Samothrace, Crates of Mallus, Dionysius the 

 Thracian, Apollonius the sophist, and Zoilus. Their 

 merit is to have collected, examined, reviewed, anil 

 preserved the existing monuments of intellectual 

 culture. To the poets belong Apollonius the Rho- 

 dian, Lycophron, Aratus, Nicander, Euphorion, Cal- 

 limachus, Theocritus, Philetas, Phanocles, Timon 

 the Phliasian, Scymnus, Dionysius, and seven tragic 

 poets, who were called the A. Pleiads. The A. age 

 of literature differed entirely, in spirit and character, 

 from the preceding. Great attention was paid to 

 the study of languages ; correctness, purity, and 

 elegance were cultivated ; and several writers of this 

 period excel in these respects. But that which no 

 study can give, the spirit which filled the earlier 

 poetry of the Greeks, is not to be found in most of 

 their works. Greater art in composition took its 

 place; criticism was now to perform what genius 

 liad accomplished before. But this was impossible. 

 Genius was the gift of only a few, and they soared 

 far above their contemporaries. The rest did what 

 may be done by criticism and study ; but their works 

 are tame, without soul and life, and those of their 

 disciples, of course, still more so. Perceiving the 

 want of originality, but appreciating its value, and 

 striving after it, they arrived the sooner at the point 

 where poetry is lost. Their criticism degenerated 

 into a disposition to find fault, and their art into sub- 

 tilty. They seized on what was strange and new, 

 and endeavoured to adorn it by learning. The larger 

 part of the Alexandrians, commonly grammarians 

 and poets at the same time, are stiff and laborious 

 versifiers, without genius. Besides the A. school of 

 poetry, one of philosophy is also spoken of, but the 

 expression is not to be understood too strictly. Their 

 distinguishing character arises from this circumstance, 

 that, in Alexandria, the eastern and western philo- 

 sophy met, and an effort took place to unite the two 

 systems, for which reason the A. philosophers have 

 often been called Eclectics. This name, however, 

 is not applicable to all. The new Platonists form a 

 distinguished series of philosophers, who, renouncing 

 the scepticism of the new academy, endeavoured to 

 reconcile the philosophy of Plato with that of the 

 East. The Jew Philo of Alexandria (q. v.) belongs 

 to the earlier new Platonists. Plato and Aristotle 

 were diligently interpreted and compared in the first 

 and second centuries after Christ. Ammonius the 

 Peripatetic belongs here, the teacher of Plutarch of 

 Chaeronea. But the real new Platonic school of 

 Alexandria was established at the close of the second 

 century after Christ, by Ammonius of Alexandria 

 (about 193 A. D.), whose disciples were Plotinus and 

 Origen. (See Platonists, Neiv.) Being, for the 

 most part, Orientals, formed by the study of Greek, 

 learning, their writings are strikingly characterized, 

 e. g. those of Ammonius Saccas, Plotinus, lambli- 

 cus, Porphyrius, by a strange mixture of Asiatic and 

 European elements, which had become amalgamated 

 in Alexandria, owing to the mingling of the eastern 

 and western races in its population, as well as to its 

 situation and commercial intercourse. Their philo- 

 sophy had a great influence on tlw manner in which 

 Christianity was received and taught in Egypt. The 

 principal Gnostic systems had their origin in Alex- 

 andria. (See Gnosis.) The principal teachers of the 

 Christian catechetical schools (q. v.), which had risen 

 and flourished together with the eclectic philosophy, 

 had imbibed the spirit of this philosophy^ The most 

 violent religious controversies disturbed the A. 

 church, until the orthodox tenets we -re established in 

 it by Atlianasius, in the controversy with the Ariars. 



