of nature and fortune. The consequences of so much favourable endowment are not always correspondent; and Alcibiades in particular early began to exhibit strong passions, irregularity of conduct, and that mixture of levity and seriousness which is so often attendant upon lofty qualities and great mental superiority. The anecdotes of his youth, which display the vivacity of his temper and understanding, are very numerous; and as he grew up, his pursuit of pleasure in all its forms was equally conspicuous. Having excited the attention and affection of Socrates, that philosopher took great pains to instruct him, and bend his mind to honourable pursuit; and although not altogether successful, the benefit of his instructions were always traceable. He made his first campaign in the war against Potidæa, in company with Socrates, and, when Alcibiades, after fighting valiantly, fell wounded in the field of battle, he was indebted to the philosopher for the preservation of his life; an obligation which he some years afterwards repaid at the battle of Delium, when in the retreat he covered Socrates, who was on foot, and brought him off safe. In a constitution like that of Athens, it was impossible that a youth of fortune should not early engage in

Persia's heutenant, in a league with Sparta. A relic of his former manners however nearly proved his ruin; for having engaged in an intrigue with the wife of king Agis, the latter became his implacable enemy when it was discovered, and orders were sent to Ionia to procure his death. Apprised of his danger, Alcibiades took refuge with Tissaphernes, and so ingratiated himself with the satrap, that nothing was done without his advice; and he was so adroit as to make the friendship of the Persians an instrument of his own recal to Athens. He would not however return until he had made himself welcome by his services; and accordingly, in conjunction with the other Athenian commanders, he gained several signal victories over the Lacedæmonians, by which they lost Selybria, Byzantium, and various other towns on the Hellespont. He returned in triumph to Athens the following year, where, with the usual versatility of the Athenians, he was received with universal acclamation, solemnly liberated from all the execrations pronounced against him, and made absolute commander of the forces by sea and land. He did not long remain inactive, but put to sea again with a fleet of a hundred ships for the Hellespont, to assist some cities which still held firm

public life; and Alcibiades, who possessed con- to the Athenians. He first proceeded to the siderable eloquence, and whose quickness of isle of Andria, where he gained a victory over

parts peculiarly adapted him for a popular course, soon united the career of ambition to that of pleasure. He began, in opposition to the policy of Nicias, then the most influential man in Athens, to disturb the good understanding which existed between Athens and Lacedamon. He also promoted an expedition against Sicily, much against the wishes of Nicias; and in conjunction with that leader and Lamachous, he was appointed to command it. At this period however an occurrence took place which strongly illustrates the mixed character of this Athenian. On one night all the Hermæ, or half-statues of Mercury, in Athens, were defaced and mutilated; and information was given that this sacrilege was the work of Alcibiades and his dissolute companions, in one of their frequent moments of revelry and intemperance. A capital charge of impiety was therefore laid against him; but, from fear of the army, not until he had departed on the expedition against Sicily, from which he was

the natives; but deeming it necessary to go in person to Caria to raise money, he left the fleet in charge of Antiochus, with orders by no means to hazard an engagement. The Spartan commander, Lysander contrived however to bring on a battle by superior skill, and the Athenian fleet was entirely defeated. Such discontent arose among the fickle Athenians at this disappointment, that although Alcibiades on his return contrived to recover the superiority at sea, the people stripped him of his command; and as it was a maxim with him rather to escape an accusation than defend himself against it, he collected a band of soldiers of fortune, and employed himself in a war against several of the Thracian tribes, from whom he collected considerable booty. By this prudent distrust, he avoided the fate of the ten new commanders whom the Athenians had appointed, several of whom were put to death for the unexpected defeat. While in Thrace, he warned his countrymen of the

ordered home again. He pretended to accom- danger their fleet incurred at Ægos Potamos, pany the messengers back without reluctance, but was not attended to; a neglect the Athebut contrived to escape into the Peloponnesus. nians very soon had most fatal reasons to reHe was in consequence condemned for nonappearance, his property confiscated, and all the priests and priestesses pronounced a solemn execration against him. He had now recourse

pent. Athens being soon after taken by Lysander, Alcibiades thought fit to retire to Bithynia, and subsequently to seek the protection of the Persian satrap, Pharnabazus,

to the Spartans, by whom he was well received, governor of Phrygia, by whom he was kindly and whom he influenced to send succours to the received. In the meantime the sufferings of Syracusans and to declare war against Athens. the Athenians, under the thirty tyrants estaDuring his abode at Sparta, with his usual ad-blished by Lysander, induced them to look for dress, he adopted the Lacedæmonian discipline deliverence to Alcibiades. This manifestation in its utmost rigour, and surpassed the natives proved fatal to him; for the tyrants immediately themselves in the qualities which they most commenced an intrigue with Sparta to procure admired. Passing over into Ionia, he induced his death, and orders were accordingly sent several of the cities to revolt from the Athe- from that unprincipled and iron government to nians, and engaged Tissaphernes, the king of open a negotiation with Pharnabazus to effect ALCOCK (JOHN) bishop of Ely, and founder nist of Cesena, in whose name was written a

of Jesus college, Cambridge, and of the grammar-school at Kingston upon Hull, was a prelate distinguished for his love of learning and of learned men. He was a native of Yorkshire, being born at Beverley in the East Riding of that county. In 1471 he was raised to the see of Rochester, whence he was afterwards translated, first to that of Worcester, and subsequently to Ely. His temporal honours kept pace with his ecclesiastical dignities, the favour of the king, Edward IV, who highly esteemed

description of the plants in the Farnesian garden: "Descriptio Plantarum Horti Farnesiani, Rome, 1625." This account was composed by Peter Castelli, but published under the name of Aldini, because he was superintendent of the garden.-Biog. Univ.

ALDHUN, the first bishop of Durham, A. D.990. Aldhun was bishop of Lindisfarne, or of the Holy Island, in Northumberland; but in consequence of the ravages of the Danes, he removed to Dunelm with his fol

him, conferring on him the presidency of Wales lowers and the body of St Cuthbert, which

Godwin. His mediation was effectual, and peace crowned his efforts in both instances, For his good services he was raised, in 10-46, from his abbey of Tavistock to the see of Worcester, when he undertook a pilgrimage to the holy sepulchre, and is recorded as being the first English bishop who visited Jerusalem from devotional motives. Notwithstanding his piety, however, he seems to have laid himself open to attack on the score of ignorance, as

of which Dr Burney, in his History of Music, speaks very highly, particularly of the speci mens contained in it of the choral music of the sixteenth and seventeeth centuries. -Biog. Brit. ALDHELM, See ADHELM. ALDROVANDUS (ULYSSES) a celebrated natural historian, born at Bologna in 1522, where he was professor of philosophy philos and physic. In the pursuit of his favourite study he became a great traveller, sparing neither trou

well as the more serious fault of trafficking ble nor expense towards its illustration; but

with his preferment; these charges at least were adduced against him on his return to Europe; and the archbishopric of York, which he was then aspiring to, was refused him by the Pope in consequence. Aldred at length by perseverance found means to overcome the scruples of his Holiness, obtained his wish, and was duly installed. In this capacity he assisted, on the death of the Confessor, at the coronation of his successor; but Harold falling in battle, he was again called on to officiate at that of William, on whose head he placed the crown. With this king, Aldred, who understood thoroughly the arts of a courtier, was in great esteem, and enjoyed an influence which he contrived to employ to the increasing the church revenues. So great indeed was his ascendancy over him, that having received some real or supposed affront from a nobleman in his diocese, and the King delaying to punish the offender, in compliance with his request, Aldred went so far as to imprecate a curse upon the head of the sovereign himself, which, upon the promise of receiving ample satisfaction upon the original offender, he was at length with difficulty induced to revoke, and metamorphose into a benediction. Harold and Canute, the grandsons of Godwin, landing at this period in the north of England, the archbishop again set out for the purpose of trying to induce them to discontinue their ravages, but died on the road, some accounts say of grief, on the 11th of September, 1068.-Biog. Brit.

ALDRICH (HENRY) dean of Christ Church, Oxford, 1689: a man of deep erudition, and distinguished also for his love and knowledge of music. To him our cathedrals are indebted for many admirable adaptations of works of the older masters, originally composed for the service of the Romish church, to English words, suited to the Liturgy of the church of England; in addition to which nearly forty origi nal services and anthems of his are still to be found in Tudway's collection. Few pieces are better known in the musical world than his lively round, "Hark, the bonny Christ Church Bells." Independent of his musical abilities, dean Aldrich was a man of high character, great learning, and acknowledged taste in polite literature. His polemical works are remarkable for elegance of style, and acuteness of argument. His system of logic is held in much esteem, and is still the manual consulted in the university of which he was so distinguished a member. At his death, which took

although he succeeded in forming a most su
perb collection of minerals, plants, animals, &c.
his finances were eventually so exhausted that,
in the latter part of his life, he was forced to
take refuge in a public hospital, where he died
in blindness and poverty, in 1605, at the age
of eighty. Previous to his decease, the result
of his labours was published in six folio vo-
lumes, a posthumous continuation of which ap-
peared subsequently upon the same scale. The
natural history of birds and insects, of which
he described an immense variety, was the prin-
cipal subject of the work. Moreri.
ALDUS, see MANUTIUS.

ALEANDER (JEROME). There were two of this name, the first standing in the relation of great uncle to the second. He was a pre late of great learning and ability, and assisted, in the capacity of papal nuncio, at the Diet of Worms, on which occasion his eloquence did much towards procuring the condemnation of the writings of Luther, which were then sentenced to the flames. His services were rewarded, first with the archbishopric of Brindisi, and afterwards with a cardinal's hat, which latter elevation he obtained from Pius III, whose favour, as well as that of his predecessors Alexander VI, Leo X, and Clement VIII, he had contrived to conciliate. His death in February 1542 was occasioned by taking a medicine in which some poisonous ingredient had been mixed by mistake. His great nephew, who was a favourite with pope Urban VIII, inherited the ability of his ancestor, and was eminent as a scholar and an antiquary. The law was his profession, and poetry his recreation. He died of a surfeit in 1631, and was buried by his connexions, the Barberini family, with great splendour.Bayle. Moreri.

His

ALEMAN (MATTHEW) author of the once popular history of "Guzman d'Alfarache, the Spanish rogue." He was born in the neighbourhood of Seville, and during the reign of Philip II was much about the court. novel, which was not composed till towards the latter period of his life, exhibits, with much humour, a curious picture of the manners and morals of the age and country in which he lived. There are few European languages into which it has not been translated. There was another person of the name of Aleman, an archbishop, a cardinal, and eventually a saint, who officiated as president of the council of Basil, and was, for his opposition to Eugenius ver which he had presided upwards of twenty nicated. Nicholas V however reversed the years, a large and valuable collection of music, sentence, and after his death in 1450, con

place in 1710, he bequeathed to the college IV, degraded from the purple, and excommu.

culus," which is greatly indebted to him for its subsequent rapid progress. Other pieces, published at various times, by the two academies of Paris and Berlin, were afterwards collected under the title of Opuscules Mathematiques." D'Alembert also wrote "Recherches sur differens points importans du System du Monde;" which numerous and original productions rank him among the most celebrated mathematicians of the age. In addition to these particular claims, he is also understood to be the projector of that vast undertaking, the able precursor of many more of the same kind, the "Encyclopedie," which great work was begun, in 1750, by himself, Voltaire, Diderot, and others. To D'Alembert the world is indebted for the excellent preliminary discourse, so distinguished at once for just thinking and fine writing. Uniting with the character of an eminent mathematician that of a refined and polished scholar, he displayed his talents in many other literary productions, a list of which will conclude this article: one of these, "On the Destruction of the Jesuits," is peculiarly caustic. His " Elements of Philosophy" also

ferred on him the honours of canonization.-ciple to any given figure, and solved the proNouv. Dict. Hist. blem of the precession of the equinoxes. Ir ALEMBERT (JOHN LE ROND D') an emi- 1752 appeared his treatise on the resistance of nent French philosopher, born at Paris, Nov. fluids; and about the same time he published, 17. 1717. He was the illegimate son of Des- in the Memoirs of the Academy of Berlin, his touches Canon and Madame Tencin, the last of "Researches concerning the Integral Calwhom unfeelingly caused him to be exposed as a foundling near the church from which he was named John Le Rond. Informed of this discreditable fact, his father listened to the voice of nature, took measures for his instruction, and insured for him a suitable independency for life. He received his early education from the Jansenists, in the college of Four Nations, where he showed early marks of genius and capacity; and as he composed in the first year of his philosophical studies a commentary on the epistle of St Paul to the Romans, his teachers flattered themselves with the hopes of maturing another Pascal. With this view the attention of the pupil was directed both towards the mathematics and theology; but his attachment to the former soon absorbed all his faculties, to the complete disappointment of the Jansenist party. The temperament of D'Alembert was strictly philosophical, in every sense of the term; for on his quitting college, desiring nothing more than a quiet retreat, where he might pursue his studies with tranquillity, he took up his residence in the family of a glazier's wife, his nurse. Here he lived with great simplicity of manners produced no small controversy; and the enfor thirty years, and shared his rising advan- mity excited by this work, and the article tages with those whose kind attentions had "Geneva" in the Encyclopedia, was so great, supplied the place of parental affection. With that the king of Prussia, whose flattering nothe quiet humour that so often attends great tice he had previously secured by a dedication calmness of temper, he concealed from these to him of his " Theory of the Winds," offered good people his growing reputation, and him a retreat at Berlin. This offer he how

ever declined, as he had previously done an invitation from Catharine of Russia to superintend the education of her son, the grand duke, with a pension of a hundred thousand livres. In 1772 D'Alembert was elected secretary to the French academy, and continued its history by Pelisson and Olivet, by writing, in the form of panegyrics, or eloges, a history of the members deceased from 1700 to 1771. His influence in the Academy of Sciences, and still more in the French Academy, concurred part of his life; and although called by his

amused himself with the compassion his sedentary occupation excited in his hostess, who told him one day, with infinite pity, that he would never be any thing but a philosopher, whom she went on to describe, as a fool who toils during his life, that people may talk of him after he is dead. In order to enlarge his income, D'Alembert at first turned his thoughts towards the law, and took his degrees. He soon found this profession unsuitable, and next applied to medicine; but his fondness for the mathematics absorbed every other considera- to give him great importance during the latter tion, and he finally abandoned himself entirely to that pursuit, the first fruit of which appeared, enemies the Masarin of literature, in conse

at the early age of twenty-four, in a masterly correction of the errors in Reyneau's "Analyse Demontrée." In 1741 he was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences, and two years afterwards published his celebrated "Treatise on Dynamics," in which he established the principle of an equality each instant between the changes which the motion of a body has undergone, and the forces which have been employed to produce them. The discovery of this principle was followed by that of a new calculus of partial differences, the first application of which appeared in a "DisCourse on the General Theory of the Winds," a treatise that obtained him the prize medal in the academy of Berlin. In the year 1749 he furnished a method of applying his new prin

quence of this influence, it was undeniably acquired by real weight of character, as no one courted patronage or countenance throughout life with more disinterestedness. Gratitude indeed induced him to dedicate two of his works to the Messrs d'Argenson, to one of whom he owed the pension of 1200 livres granted him by Louis XV in 1756; but he made no sacrifice of probity or consistency in so doing, while to worthy men in adversity and under persecution he was a firm and constant friend. His sensibility towards those who had guarded his almost unprotected infancy, has already been recorded; and when his growing fame induced Madame Tencin to inform him of the secret of his birth, he feelingly exclaimed, "AL, Madame, what do you tell me? You are but a step-mother; the glazier's | differens points importans du Systéme du

wife was my real parent." The death of this distinguished man took place October 29, 1783, in the sixty-sixth year of his age, and in the very zenith of his reputation. D'Alembert exhibited the rare mental combination of mathematical genius with an elegant taste for polite literature and great powers of general application. It is not to be denied, that his aversion to superstition and priestcraft led him into the regions of scepticism; and that in consequence of his labours in the Encyclopedia, and his writings against the Jesuits, he is considered one of the most earnest of the band of philosophers who laboured so potently against priestly influence and monkish domination in France. It is unnecessary to advert to the imputations which, in common with Voltaire and others, he has thereby incurred, of producing the Revolution. The justness of these unqualified censures, as party spirit subsides, begins however to be doubted; and while it is, impossible to deny the corruption, misgovernment, and oppression which reigned in France previous to that great

Monde," Paris, 1745-56, 3 vols 4to; 7. "Elemens de Philosophie," Paris, 1759; 8. "Opuscules Mathematiques, ou Memoires sur differens Sujets de Geometrie, de Mechaniques, d'Optiques, d'Astronomie," Paris, 9 vols. 1761 ta 1773; 9. "Elemens de Musique, théorique et pratique, suivant les Principes de M. Rameau," Lyons, 8vo; 10. " De la Destruction des Jesuites," 1765.-Biog. Univ. Dutton's Math Dict.

ALER PAUL; a learned French Jesuit, a native of Luxembourg, who died in 1727. His best known work is the "Gradus ad Parnassum," so long in established use in the public schools of Europe. --Moreri.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT, (king of Macedon) to whom the lead in ancient warlike heroism is universally ascribed, was the son of Philip king of Macedon, by his wife Olympias, daughter of Neoptolemus king of Epirus. The most authentic accounts place his birth in the 106th Olympiad, B. C. 356. It was the good fortune of Alexander to be contemporary, in

convulsion, it is absurd to attribute to philoso-his youth with some of the greatest men in

phical and literary influence a reaction which our Chesterfield clearly foresaw, before such influence had materially operated, and which even Louis XV so far anticipated as to express himself consoled by his conviction, that the disordered national system which he administered would at worst last his own time. The profligacy of the court and noblesse, the gross irregularity and baneful influence of the clergy, the disgusting mixture of levity and fanaticism in the provinces, illustrated every now and then by legal murders, like those of Calas and De Barre; - these, with a degree of misgovernment, oppressive even to wretchedness, and productive of financial disorder which had

Greece, and more especially with Aristotle, who became his tutor, and who in a high degree engaged his esteem. It is presumed that the poems of Homer contributed much to produce his passion for military glory, especiallv as the character of Achilles seems to have been selected by him for a model. He gave several proofs of manly skill and courage, while very young one of which, the breaking in of his fiery courser, Bucephalus, which had mastered every other rider, is mentioned by all his historians as an incident which convinced his father Philip of his future unconquerable spirit. Alexander was much attached to his mother Olympias, and sided with her in the disputes

become utterly unmanageable, may sufficiently which led to her divorce from Philip. The account for the French revolution, without re- | latter however, who had previously intrusted course to the complexion of a literary associ- him with great command, in which he had ation which was as much an effect of national much distinguished himself, especially in the

disorder as the great event so disproportionately connected with it. Corruption and misrule are too much favoured by theories which pertinaciously ascribe the evils produced by them to contingencies and second causes. What is usually called the French philosophy coloured, but did not create, the revolutionary crisis, which clearly originated in a long course of bad government; an observation that pretends not to settle its speculative claims or demerits in other respects. The following is a list of the principal works of D'Alembert, to which is to be added a great number of interesting papers in the Memoirs of the Academies of Paris and Berlin, and his important share in the Encyclopedia: 1. "Traité de Dynamique," Paris, 1743, 1750, 4to; 2. "Traité de l'Equilibre et du Mouvement des Fluides," Paris, 1744, 1770; 3. "Reflexions sur la cause générale des Vents," Paris, 1747, 4to; 4. "Recherches sur la Precession des Equinoxes, et sur la Mutation de l'Axe de la Terre dans le Systeme Newtonien," Paris, 1749, 4to; 5. "Essais d'un nouvelle Théorie du Mouvement des Fluides," Paris, 1752, 4to; 6. "Recherches sur BIOC. DICT.-No. IV.

battle of Chæronea, was reconciled to him, when in full preparation for his march into Asia, as the generalissimo of Greece, against the Persian monarchy. The assassination of the able and ambitious Philip by Pausanias, at that eventful crisis, excited some suspicion against Alexander and Olympias; but, as it was one of his first acts to execute justice upon the murderer, who had also been actuated by revenge for acknowledged ill treatment on the part of Philip, this imputation rests on little beyond surmise. Alexander, who succeeded without opposition, was at this time in his twentieth year; and his youth, in the first instance, excited several of the states of Greece to endeavour to set aside the Macedonian ascendancy. By a sudden march into Thessaly, he however soon overawed the most active; and when, on a report of his death, chiefly at the instigation of Demosthenes and his party, the various states were excited into great commotion, he punished the open revolt of Thebes with a severity which effectually prevented any imitation of its example. Induced to stand a siege, that unhappy city, after

E