3p8 The Difcoverv, Settlement, and Commerce Book I. 
to fpeak of the Foundation of Alexandria *, and ptirfued 
fteadily to the very Day of his Death, as appears by his 
attending,' when he was fo near it, to the journal of Ne- 
archus y whole V oyage had fo dofe a Relation to his grand 
Befign. As,' in laying op£n this Syftem of Policy, 1 have 
followed evidently the Minutes of this great Monarch, the 
Reader can entertain no doubt of. the Truth of what I fay. 
Indeed I might have collected much of what is here de- 
livered from other Steps of his Conduct ; but then my Con- 
jectures might have been difputed ; whereas now, I have 
given unqueftionable Authority for every Tittle I have 
advanced, 
19. Plutarch , in his two learned Orations on the For- 
tune and Virtue of Alexander the Great, has given us 
abundance of fine Thoughts on thefe Subjects •, and many 
of our modern Writers have, with infinite Induftry, col- 
lected, from his Life, all the different Indications of his 
Virtues, and of his Vices. I mult confefs, that I do not 
think the true Character of Alexander can be this way 
reached •, for his Virtues and Vices were molt of them con- 
ftitutional, and appeared accidentally, as they were by 
different Occafions ftruck out. His foie Principle of 
ACtion, his ruling and fovereign PafTion, was the Conquelt 
of the known World ; from a Notion, that, under his 
Direction, Mankind might be new-modelled, and his Em- 
pire fo conftituted, as to maintain and fupport itfelf. In 
all human Probability, he originally either derived this 
Notion from the LeCtures of Arijlotle , or gathered it from 
the Works of Homer. But, however he came by it, there 
is no Queftion to be made, that he had formed an Idea of 
this Empire before he quitted Macedon and this is the 
true Senfe of the Anfwer he made one of his Captains 
when he divided all Things amongft them, What he kept 
for himfelf ? Hope, returned he ; that is, the Hope of 
this Empire, the very Thought of which made him regard 
his hereditary Kingdom, and all his former Conquelts, as 
nothing a . 
It was this that induced him to reject all the Propo- 
rtions made him of Peace for, according to his Scheme, 
there could be no Peace, till he was Mailer of all. This led 
him to deftroy the City cf Tyre, that he might put an End 
to their Monopoly of Trade, which was diredtly oppofite 
to the Syftem he had formed, and was endeavouring to 
carry into Execution. It was this that induced him to 
ftay fo long in Egypt, which has been cenfured by fo many 
Writers ; becaule they did not enter into his Plan, or 
conceive the ultimate View of all his Conquefts. It was 
this that led him to the hazardous Expedition to the 
Temple of Jupiter Ammon, and the foie Reafon why he 
affe&ed to be thought the Son of that God, from a No- 
tion, that the Sovereign of theUniverfe fhould not be 
confidered as the Offspring of a Man b . 
By degrees, however, this grew upon him •, and what 
at firft was a Principle of Policy, at laft became a Foible. 
He found his Macedonians , whenever they were out of 
Humour, ready to rally him on that SubjeCt ; and this was 
a Raillery he could not bear, becaufe he really believed it 
neceffary to the Support of his Defigns ; and therefore he 
took feveral Methods of inculcating this into them not 
that he ever propofed they fhould believe it, but that they 
might be filent on this Head, and leave it to fuch as had a 
Capacity for Fables. But he erred egregioufiy, when he 
imagined it would pafs upon the Indians , who were really 
too fubtile for him in that Point, and turned the Fable 
upon himfelf c . 
It was this that induced him to comply with the Man- 
ners of the Perjians, a thing detefted by his Macedonians , 
becaufe they did not underhand it •, for he did not fall into 
this from a Spirit of Luxury, or from a Defire of leading 
the fame effeminate Life, which the Perfian Monarchs had 
done •, but with a View to conciliate the Affections of his 
new Subjects, and becaufe he thought the Perfian Manners 
more agreeable to his Syftem, than thofe of the Mace- 
donians. The Truth of this may be fully fhewn from two 
ACtions of his Life, which moft Writers have related with- 
out Reflection, as if they had been ACts of Paffion, or of 
Madnefs. He felefted thirty young Men, of the greateft 
Families in Perjia , to whom he gave the Title of Epigoni , 
i. e. his Children , and allowed them the Honour of fainting 
him j which threw the Macedonians into that violent Muti- 
ny, when he actually disbanded them, upon which they {pent- 
two Days and a Night in Tears before his Tent, till at 
laft he was reconciled to them *, and, upon this Reconci- 
liation, he wept himfelf, and, with great Tendernefs, told 
them, they were all his Kinfmen, and allowed as many, of 
the private Men, as pleafed, to kifs him - which plainly 
fhewed, that his former Inftitution was not the EfteCfc of 
Pride, but of Policy •, and did all that was in his Power to 
make them conceive and enter into his Sentiments, that 
there might be an End of thefe peevifh Dilputes for the 
future. But after this, when Cajfander , the Son of Ami- 
pat er, who was juft come from Greece , had Audience of 
him at Babylon , and could not help laughing when he faw 
the Perjians adore him, this threw Alexander into fuch a 
Tranfport of Paffion, that, taking him faft by the Hair, he 
beat his Head againft the Wall ^ not that he really de- 
lighted in thefe Honours, fo much from Vanity, as from 
a Perfuafion, that keeping up this Decorum was abfo- 
lutely neceffary to his new Character d . 
To fay the Truth, if there was a Difference between the 
King of Macedon , and his Subjects, there was as wide a 
Difference between the Monarch of that little Country, 
and the Sovereign of the World. 
But to conclude, though there were other Conquerors, as 
well as Alexander, who had Notions of becoming Lords 
of the Univerfe, yet in this he was Angular *, viz. that he' 
entered into the Spirit of the Character, and fincerely and 
earneftly endeavoured to behave as it would become fuch a 
Monarch to do. He threw off all Partiality for this 
Country, or that Family, *, and as he affeCted to rule Man- 
kind, fo he made the Intereft of Mankind his Care. When 
he built Alexandria in Egypt , he intended to make it the 
Centre of Commerce ; he caft his Eyes upon Babylon, for 
the Seat of Government-, and feems to have referved Greece 
for the Theatre of Arts and Sciences, which he thought 
were beft underftood by the Athenians : And thus he in- 
tended to have made one Part of the World ufeftil to the 
other ; and, by infpiring the Greeks with the Love of Com- • 
merce, and the Barbarians, as they were then ftiled, with i 
an Inclination for the Greek Literature, and behaving with 1 
equal Kindnefs to all Nations, when their Affairs led them 1 
to his Court, he thought to have blended the human £ 
Species in fuch a manner, as to have worn off their nar- ■ 
row Principles, and to have infpired them, by degrees, i 
with Sentiments like his own e . 
It was this that made him fo defirous of fearching out : 
new Countries ; not that he would fpoil and plunder the 
Inhabitants ; for his Army, when it had conquered the : 
Indies, were in Debt ; but that, by acquiring new Sub] efts, j 
he might make a greater Number of Men happy. To ; 
fum up all in a Word, other great Conquerors have had E 
the Poffeffion of the World in View, as well as he ; but 3 
Alexander was the only Prince that ever thought of ac- ■: 
quiring a Title to that Poffeffion, by making it the In- ■ 
tereft of all Men, that he fhould govern and command 1 
them. 
20. It is not to be doubted, that the Conquefts made by j 
Alexander were long remembered, tho’ they were not j 
long maintained, in the Indies •, for, upon the firft Divifion 3 
of Alexander s Dominions, his Captains, who could fcarce : 
agree in any thing elfe, were unanimous in their Refolution 1 
of giving up thefe Provinces to Taxiles and Poms, becaufe J 
they knew not how to keep them f . Plutarch reports, on 
the Credit of feme Writers, who compofed Memoirs of ; 
Alexander's Life, that long after his Deceale, the Indmn ■ 
Princes came to facrifice on the prodigious Altars he left 
behind him. This however, does not feem probable, but 
looks like a Greek Ficftion, fince no Author of unqueftion- 
able Credit ever reported, that the antient Indians facrificed 2 
at all, at leaft in the Senfe of the Greeks: For, to fay the < 
Truth, that was repugnant to their religious Principles g . 
a Diodor. Sicul. lib. xvii Arrian. Curt, 
Siciil. puint. Curt. Jujlinex Trogo. 
b Plutarch, in Ale xandro. 
e Plutarch . in Alexandro. 
c Seethe Letter of Dindamis , p. 393. d Diodor, j 
f Diodor. Sicul. lib. xviii. 8 Plutarch, in Alexandra. 
But. 
