[ 333 ] 

 reign, and in July of the year before Christ three hundred and J ul > 



lit tore ClirUl, 



twenty-four. It is, indeed, a sudden and terrible reverse of fortune ; 

 and the fact itself of his premature death, as well as the circum- 

 stances that led to it, afford an apportunity for those awful reflec- 

 tions which will properly terminate the final page of a history, 

 devoted, through its whole extent, to uphold the great cause of 

 REVEALED RELIGION, and vindicate the proceedings of PROVI- 

 DENCE : a history, which, on that account, will not fail to give 

 pleasure to the expiring moments of the Author himself, and atone, 

 it is hoped, for a multitude of juvenile errors. 



Something more, however, has been promised, and will be expect- 

 ed, previously to be said, concerning the wonderful man, whose ex- 

 ploits in the field and whose wisdom in the council have so long and 

 with such peculiar interest engaged our attention. Those remarks will 

 be concise, and, as usual, chiefly point to his political character. 



Plutarch, the most intelligent and philosophical of his ancient 

 biographers, and the only one who seems to have entered into the 

 plans of Alexander in all the extent of the projector, has informed 

 us, that, when in his earliest youth, ambassadors arrived at Macedon 

 from Persia, the prince discovered a profundity of observation and a 

 political sagacity far beyond his years. Instead of indulging the 

 inquiries of puerile curiosity concerning the splendor and mag- 

 nificence of the Persian court, the numerous and superb palaces of 

 Darius, the hanging gardens of Babylon, and other general topics of 

 admiration in Asia, he was assiduous to learn the state of the public 

 roads in the Higher Asia, the number and discipline of the troops 

 which that monarch could bring into the field, and the peculiar sta- 

 tion of the Persian monarch in the army when the line of battle 

 was formed. Plutarch justly records this fact as a proof of the early 

 maturity of his understanding and the extent of his designs. Let us 



2 U 2 



