XX PREFACE TO SECOND SECTION 
In the observations upon Alexandria, some 
additional remarks will be found concerning the 
Soros of Alexander the Great, so fortunately added 
to the trophies of our victories in Egypt, in the 
very moment when it was clandestinely con- 
veying to Paris. Since the original publication 
of the Testimonies respecting this most interest- 
ing monument, the Editors of the Edinburgh 
Encyclopedia have considered the evidence as 
decisive ; and have, by means of their valuable 
work, given it a passport to the notice of post- 
erity, which the writings of the author were 
little likely to afford. Occasionally, indeed, it 
has been urged, that some unknown personage, 
belonging to the British Museum, does not coi^ 
cur in the opinion thus maintained concerning 
this remarkable relic. The author has been 
sometimes asked, Why it is not called the Soros 
of Alexander, m the Catalogue of Antiquities put 
into the hands of strangers who visit that stately 
repository ? How shall he venture to answer so 
formidable an interrogation? May he not also 
propose another, equally redoubtable ? it is this : 
Why has even the historical evidence, touching 
its discovery, been so unaccountably omitted ? 
Wherefore has the circumstance been withheld 
from notice, that the Arabs held it in traditio- 
nary veneration, as the Tomb of Alexander? 
