Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/187

 ALEXANDER. i;i deemed, ns Bayle cxprcllcs it, " of all mankind the grcatcd"' prodigy:" but it is both rcafonaMe ami iKvifLiy to m . fume abatement'; in their accounts. Iliscxt. . ., il- luftrious as it could be, his father Philip !ui :id- cd from Hercules, and his mother O!;i:p /.' n , He was born at Pell a the firir year of the io6th Olympiad, the 3981)1 from the building (.f Home, and the '-55 1 '' 1 ' 1 ' t!l " (- the birth of Chrilt. On the night of his birth, the temple of 1 '* 1 ' 1 ' R - piana at Eprufus was fet on fire, and burnt to (he ground :'.[! which latter circumlLnce, laid Ti;jig;us an hidoiian, " - " not to be wondered at, fincethe goddels was f> civ " Olympias's labour, that fnc could not be prcl : ; i hc- " fus to MCtinguifh the fumes." This Cicero praifcs as an acute and elegant faying j but in our opinion, Plutarch a Longinus condemn it, with better rcafon, ai; quaint frigid. At fifteen years of age, / ' 'cr was delivered to the tui- tion of Arittotle. He discovered very early a mighty fj)irit, and lymptoms or that va(t and immoderate anibicion, which was afterwards to make him the fcourge of mankind, and t'..j pert of the world, One day, when it was told him that Philip had gained a battle, inilead of rejoicing he looked mueh chagrined ; and laid, that " if his father went on at this rate, " there would be nothing left for him to do." Upon Phi- Plutarch lip's {hewing fome little wonder, that Alexander did not en-'", vlt ', rvi r>- <- i i Alcmndn. gage in the Olympic games, ' (jive me, laid the youth, " kings for my antagonifts, and I will prefent myfelf at phalus is always mentioned among the exploits of his early age. This remarkable horfe was brought from Thtilaly, and purchafed at a very great price ; but upon trial he was found fa wild and vicious, that neither Philip nor any of his courtiers could mount or marpge him. In fhort, he was upon th" point of being fent back as an intractable and ufelefs beaft, when Alexander, exprefling his grief, that lo noble a creature ihould be rejected and let at nought, merely bccaufc nobody had the dexterity to manage him, was at length per- mitted to try what he could do. Now Alexander had per- ceived, that the frolicfome (pint and wilJnefs of Bucephalus proceeded folely from the fright which the animal had taken at his own ihadow : whereupon, turning his head diree'tly to the fun, and gently approaching him wi'h addrcls and (kill, he threw himfelf at length upon him ; and though Philip at jirlc was extremely diftreiled and alarmed for his Ion, yet when he faw him fafe, and perfectly matter of his ftced, rccc i L hm
 * once." The taming and managing of the famous Buce-