Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/538

Rh 500 A L E A L E Among the natives of foreign countries transplanted to Alexandria by its founder had been a few Jews. These gradually increased in number, until, about the time of the Christian era, they formed an influential part of the populace of Egypt, inhabited two of the five quarters of the capital, and held high offices in the state. They had been well treated by the Ptolemies, and for some time experienced similar treatment from the Eomans. The new move ment of thought was in great measure due to the presence of this Jewish element. The contact of free Greek speculation with the peculiar Jewish ideas of the transcendence of God, of a special revelation, and of a singular subjective ecstasy, the prophetic state, could not fail to have a strong effect on the mode of thought of the most highly cultured Jews. From many causes they were more than ordinarily open to receive foreign ideas. Their isolated position had been broken in upon by their long residence as a small minority in the midst of an atmo sphere of Greek custom and thought, and in the most highly cultivated city in the world. Their separation from their native country had tended to broaden their views by weakening the strong political convictions which united their destiny and their sacred writings with a definite land. It was a necessary consequence that they should endeavour so far as possible to assimilate their principles to Greek ideas. The two systems were not, they found, in total contradiction ; they had several points in common. This was specially the case with the Platonic writings. There thus arose among the Jews a constantly increasing tendency to modify or widen their doctrines so as to admit of Greek conceptions, and then, with the aid of these concep tions, to systematise their own somewhat vague religious views. In this way philosophy and religion would be united or identified. There is truth in all philosophy, for philosophy is but a mangled reproduction of the sacred record in which all truth is contained. The Scriptures contain all philosophy, but not explicitly ; they require to be interpreted. The system thus developed has a philo sophical aspect, yet never ceases to be essentially Jewish, for the ultimate resort is always to a body of doctrine expressly revealed. Progress in this direction was possible in two ways. First, the pure Greek metaphysical thought rejected a body of truth said to have been revealed to a special people, but retained the idea of revelation to the individual thinker. A doctrine was thus evolved which contained most of the oriental or Jewish theosophical ideas, but in logical sequence and based for the most part on the earlier works of Greek thinkers. Religion was retained, but was explained or had a meaning given by philosophy. To this powerful movement of thought the name Neo-Platonism is given; its chief representatives were Ammonius Saccas, Plotinus, Porphyry, Jamblichus, and Proclus. Second, the introduction of the peculiar Christian dogmas could not fail to produce a lively effect on the Alexandrian thinkers. These dogmas had to be reconciled with philosophy, or the one must yield to and be absorbed by the other. The attempt to solve the pro blem of their mutual relation gave rise to Gnosticism in all its phases, and was the cause of the speculative element in the works of such fathers as Clement of Alexandria and Origen. To the whole of this great movement the title Alexan drian philosophy must be given, although that term is sometimes identified with Neo-Platonism. Of the exact historical origin of it we have no certain notice. Some thinkers are of opinion that even in the Septuagint traces of rationalism can be discovered. (See Frankel, Historisch- kritische Studien zur Septuaginta, 1841.) In Aristobulus (160 B.C.) is found a thoroughgoing attempt to show that early Greek speculations were in harmony with the divine record, because they had been borrowed from it. Traces of allegorical interpretation are also found in him, but no conception of a theosophical system. In the peculiar tenets of the Therapeutae, so far as these can be known, may perhaps be traced another stream of influence, the Neo- Pythagorean. The complete representative of the Jewish religious philosophy was Philo, surnamed Juclseus, who lived at Alexandria during the Christian era. In him are found a complete and elaborate theosophy fusing together religious and metaphysical ideas, a firm conviction that all truth is to be found in the sacred writings, and a constant application to these writings of the principle of allegorical interpretation. His system is a syncretism of Oriental mysticism and Greek metaphysics, and the effort at such a combination from the Jewish side could go no further. After Philo Judteus there remained as possible courses either Neo-Platonism or Gnosticism. Of Alexandrian literature there are notices in histories of Greek literature, as Miiller and Donaldson, or Bern hardy; of Alexandrian philosophy, in general histories of philosophy and of early Christianity. Special works, which, however, devote most attention to the Neo-Platonists, are Matter, Histoire de VEcole d Alexandrie, 2d ed. 3 vols. 1840-44; Simon, Histoire de VEcole d Alexandrie, 2 vols. 1844-45 ; Vacherot, Histoire critique de VEcole d Alex andrie, 3 vols. 1846-51 ; Kingsley, Alexandria and her Schools, 1854 ; Gfrorer, Philo und die Alexandrinische, Theosopliie, 1835; Daehne, Geschicht - Darstellung do Judisch-AlexandriniscJienIleliyionsphilosophie, 2vols. 1834. ALEXANDRINE VERSE, a name given to the leading measure in French poetry. It is the heroic French verse, used in epic narrative, in tragedy, and in the higher comedy. There is some doubt as to the origin of the name; bu1 most probably it is derived from a collection of romances, published early in the 1 3th century, of which Alexander of Macedon was the hero, and in which he was represented, somewhat like our own Arthur, as the pride and crown of chivalry. Before the publication of this work most of the trouvere romances appeared in octo-syllabic verse. The new work, which was henceforth to set the fashion to French literature, was written in lines of twelve syllables, but with a freedom of pause which was afterwards greatly curtailed. The new fashion, however, was not adopted all at once. The metre fell into disuse until the reign of Francis I., when it was revived by Jean Antoine de Bocuf, one of the seven poets known as the Pleiades. It was not he, however, but Ronsard, who made the verse popular, and gave it vogue in France. From his time it became the recognised vehicle for all great poetry, and the regula tion of its pauses became more and more strict. The fol lowing is an example of the verse as used by Racine &quot; Ou suis-je ? qu ai-je fait ? |) que dois-je faire encore ? Quel transport me saisit ? jj quel chagrin me devore ? &quot; Two inexorable laws came to be established with regard to the pauses. The first is, that each line should be divided into two equal parts, the sixth syllable always ending with a word. In the earlier use of this metre, on the contrary, it frequently happened that the sixth and seventh syllables belonged to the same word. The other is, that, except under the most stringent conditions, there should be none of what the French critics call enjcembement, that is, the overlapping of the sense from one line on to the next. Ronsard completely ignored this rule, which was after his time settled by the authority of Malherbe. Such verses as the following by Ronsard would be intolerable in modern French poetry &quot; Cette nymph c royale cst digue qu on lui dresse DCS autels. . . . Les Farques se disoient: Charles, qui doit vcnir Au monde. . ..