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Scanderoon, or the city of Escander, and by the Greeks Alex- 

 andretta, the sea-port of the great commercial city of Aleppo. 



The path now lay immediately open to Babylon and the heart 

 of Persia, but Alexander did not, at this period of the war, incline to 

 pursue Darius beyond the Euphrates. He had other projects to be 

 completed before he took entire possession of the vast empire 

 which he seemed to be convinced DESTINY had reserved for him*. 

 The grand scheme already formed within his comprehensive mind 

 of uniting Europe and Asia by the ties of affinity and the bond of 

 commerce, as well as giving a new, an ampler, and an unre- 

 strained, current to that commerce, did not admit of the coast of 

 Phoenice being left unconquered, nor the existence of TYRE, its 

 capital where it had long centred, in its ancient glory, if at all. In 

 truth, Alexander justly considered himself as only a state-prisoner 

 in a vast empire, while a powerful Phoenician fleet, always at 

 the beck of the Persian monarch, sailed triumphantly on the ocean ; 

 and, having as yet no navy of any importance, he was resolved to 

 crush that abundant source of the Persian power at the fountain- 

 head, by the utter humiliation, if not the annihilation, of Tyre. 

 Regulating his conduct, therefore, by the above sound political 

 maxim, and considering subjugated Asia itself as little better than a 

 magnificent prison -f- until he should be fully master of its maritime 

 regions, he marched, towards the close of the year 333 before 



* Such was Alexander's and such was his historian, Arrian's, idea; but a Christian historian, 

 however he may occasionally accommodate himself to a Pagan mode of expression, would be 

 criminal if he did not add that THE POWER, who rules the destiny of man, HE who setteth 

 up and putteth down kingdoms, had himself ordained Alexander, (Daniel, viii. 1-8,) the 

 mighty HE-GOAT with one horn, to be the subverter of the Persian empire. When he had 

 finished his allotted task, this AVATAR, (if we may so denominate him,) for his impiety and 

 intemperance, was cut off. Mark, sceptic, and be dumb ! 



t As France in fact is, though far from a magnificent one, to its tyrannical rulers, at 

 the present day, (1796.) 



