The district around Alexandria consists of a long narrow strip of land, bounded on one side by the Mediterranean, and on the other by the Lake Mareotis. At the time of the French invasion in 1801, this lake was dry; but the British troops, during the siege of Alexandria, by cutting a passage through the narrow neck of land that separates it from Lake Aboukir or Madieh, let in the sea, and restored the bed of the Mareotis to the dominion of the water. The immediate territory of Alexandria, thus limited by the sea and the lake, extends from the tower of the Arabs, which is west of the town, to Cape Aboukir east of it: the width of this tract near the city may be seen from the accompanying plan, The whole of this district is a continuous chain of calcareous rock and sand, without good water, and almost without vegetation.

There are two ports. The old port is at the extremity of an extensive roadstead, the entrance to which lies across a chain of rocks stretching from Cape Marabout on the main land to the Cape of Fig Trees, which is the western extremity of the island of Pharos. There are three passes into the road, the deepest of which will admit frigates, and probably vessels of the line. The port itself, which is at the eastern extremity of the roadstead, is sheltered from the violent winds that blow between N.W. and N.E. by the high coast of the island of Pharos. The anchorage is good, and the port might be made one of the most convenient in the world. The new port has also a line of rocks stretching across the entrance, and it is further exposed to the violent north and north-east winds which sometimes render it impracticable to anchor there. It is also very shallow in many parts, owing both to natural rocks and to sand and rubbish which have been thrown into it. The currents of the sea also sometimes bring sand; and the constant decomposition of the calcareous rock, which in some part lines it, contributes still further to choke it up. It is stated in the public prints that the present Pasha is going to lay out a large sum in improving the ports of Alexandria. The passage into the new port is about 650 feet east of the Diamond Rock, and the fort of the Pharos. This fort is also a light-house, and is connected with the island Pharos by an artificial dyke, made in part of ancient granite columns laid transversely. The island of Pharos itself consists of a saline arid soil and dazzling white calcareous rock: it is bordered with reefs, especially on the west side. The Arabs calls it Roudah el Tyn, or Garden of Fig Trees, because this fruit is successfully cultivated on this otherwise barren spot. The island shows many traces of ancient building, such as we know existed under the Greek dynasty and the Roman empire.

The modern town occupies the neck of land between the two ports, which was originally intended merely to form a communication with the Pharos: but in consequence of the continual increase which it receives, it has gradually become the chief inhabited part. Such quays and jettees as there are on the two ports, are, in a great measure, formed of the materials of old Alexandria. The mosques, the public warehouses, and even the private dwellings contain fragments of granite, marble, and other stones, which clearly indicate that they once belonged to ancient edifices. The streets are narrow, and unpaved, full of dust in dry weather and of mud when it rains: the houses, both internally and externally, present no great attractions, and the general appearance is, to a European, dreary and monotonous. The town contains a great number of mosques, and some public buildings, such as the custom-house, new palace, marine arsenal, and the fortifications. The mosque called that of the Thousand and One Pillars is the chief ecclesiastical building. Alexandria is still a place of considerable trade, being the chief port by which the products of Egypt are exchanged for those of the various countries of Europe. Most of the European nations have a consul resident at Alexandria. The population, at the time of the French evacuation in 1801, was only about 7000: at present it is said to amount to above 25,000. In the bazaars may be seen a motley population, composed of Turks, Egyptians, Arabs, Greeks, Jews, and the various natives of Europe that trade with Alexandria. In 1827, 605 ships entered the port, and 622 cleared out; in 1828 there were 891 arrivals, and 865 departures. The particular arrivals of the latter year will give a better idea of the trade of Alexandria :—

Austrian, Danish, English,

The rise of the sea at Alexandria is not regular; the greatest elevation is due to the winds that blow between the points of west and north-east, and even this does not amount to more than from nineteen to twenty-five inches. The climate of Alexandria is in general pretty good, though the occasional visitations of the plague in modern times have given rise to a contrary opinion; but the ravages of epidemics are perhaps to be attributed more to the character and habits of the people than to the climate. The winter, during which there is a great deal of rain, is the most unhealthy season: the French army lost 1650 men during the months of December, 1798, and January and February, 1799. Alexandria communicates with the Rosetta branch of the Nile at Foua by means of a canal, called the Mahmoudy, constructed under the present governor Mohammed Ali. This canal was restored and completed in 1820 by the labour of 150,000 Fellahs, of whom it is said that 20,000 died of fatigue. The whole length of the canal is about forty miles, but it is already much injured by deposits of mud, and can only be navigated when the waters of the Nile are high.

As the town has no fresh water, the inhabitants are obliged to have recourse to the cisterns which are annually filled partly by the winter rains, and partly by water brought from the canal. [See ABERCROMBY.]

ALEXANDRI'A, ANCIENT, Owes its origin to Alexander the Great, who, during his visit to Egypt, (B.c. 332,) gave orders to erect this city between the sea and the Mareotic Lake. The architect was Dinocrates, a Macedonian. A large part, but not the whole of it, was contained within the present walls, which are chiefly the work of the Arabs. One main long street, thirty stadia in length, ran through the city from the eastern extremity to the Necropolis at the western, and this was intersected by another main street, ten stadia in length, running nearly north, in a direction from the Mareotic Lake. The object of this arrangement was to give the city the benefit of ventilation from the north winds. The main land and the island of Pharos were connected by a dyke, called the Heptastadium, in which, at each end, there was a passage for vessels from one port to the other. Over these passages there were also bridges; and we are told that water was conveyed along the dyke to the island of Pharos, though we do not understand how this was managed, unless the bridges must have been very high. On the rocks now occupied by the present Pharos, a magnificent light-house was constructed by Sostratus of Cnidus, in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus (B.c. 283): its height is stated, though probably with much exaggeration, to have been 400 feet. The point opposite to the Pharos was called Lochias; and as the Lochias itself was prolonged towards the Pharos along some rocks, on which the Pharillon now stands, this prolongation received the name of Acro-Lochias, or the Point of Lochias. In advancing from Lochias towards the obelisks, we traverse the ground where stood the palaces of the Ptolemies, the theatre, and various temples. The port bounded by the two promontories, by the northeast part of the city, and the Heptastadium, was called the Great Port. The other port was called Eunostus (safe return): it contained also a small port called Kibotos, or the Chest,' because the entrance could be completely closed; no traces of it, as far as we can learn, can be made out. A canal which united the lake with port Eunostus terminated in or near port Kibotos, and was nearly the S.W. limit of the city. Still farther S.W. was the Necropolis, (city of the dead,) or great cemetery of Alexandria. This city in its full extent was divided into several quarters, but we cannot assign either the names or the exact limits of each. The court end, otherwise called Bruchion (B) comprised the part between the Lochias, the site of the Obelisks, and the eastern or Rosetta gate (C). It contained also the Museum. The Rhacotis (R) bordered on port Eunostus, and contained the great temple of Serapis, which, after the

establishment of Christianity, was for a long time a grievous offence to the Christians. Theophilus, the patriarch of Alexandria, obtained permission from the emperor Theodosius (A.D. 390) to destroy this edifice; and no one could accuse him of executing the commission imperfectly.A place called Soma, (the body,) in the quarter of the palaces, contained the tomb of Alexander the Great. Besides the canal which united the port Eunostus with the lake, there was also a canal from the lake to the town of Canopus, situated near the mouth of the western branch of the Nile. By means of this canal the city was supplied with river water, which was kept in cisterns. These were so numerous that a Roman writer tells us, (De Bello Alexandrino, cap. V.) ' nearly all Alexandria was undermined, and furnished with subterranean aqueducts to convey the Nile water to private houses, where after a short time it became purified. Innumerable traces of such constructions are found on the site of old Alexandria.

The city was embellished by the Ptolemies with the spoils of the ancient towns of Egypt, and for several centuries continued to receive accessions and improvements. At one time it was the rival of Rome in size, and the first commercial city of the earth. It became, what Tyre had been before, the point of exchange for the eastern and western world, but with a commerce more widely extended after the conquests of the Macedonians had laid open the eastern world to Greek enterprise. Diodorus, who visited Alexandria just before the downfall of the empire of the Ptolemies, says, that the registers showed a population of more than 300,000 free citizens.

The enclosure which is surrounded by a double wall flanked with lofty towers, contains the remains of old Alexandria, an almost shapeless mass of rubbish, in which we see fragments of broken columns and capitals, pieces of wall, cisterns half choked up with earth, bits of pottery, glass, and all the signs of complete desolation. There are five gateways or entrances into this enclosure. Of the two granite obelisks, commonly called Cleopatra's Needles, one is still standing; the other is lying near it on the ground. The dimensions of the two are pretty nearly the same. The whole height of the erect obelisk, including the pedestal and the three steps, all of which are covered with earth, is about seventy-nine feet. When the French examined the base of this obelisk, the accumulation of earth around it was about sixteen feet deep. It has suffered considerably, like all the remains, and even the natural rocks, of Alexandria, from the action of the atmosphere: the west side is in the best state of preservation, and the south the worst of all. These two obelisks formed the entrance to the temple or palace of Cæsar, as it is called, though there is no doubt that they were moved from some of the ancient cities

of Egypt by the Ptolemies. Near the two obelisks is part of a tower called the Tower of the Romans, and probably it may be correctly named.

About the centre of the enclosure stands the mosque of St. Athanasius, on the site of a Christian church erected by this patriarch during the fourth century. In this mosque the French discovered the beautiful SARCOPHAGUS of Egyptian breccia, which is now in the British Museum. It was ungenerously required of the French at the capitulation of Alexandria, (1801,) together with other monuments of antiquity, which they had collected with great pains. Near the mosque are the shafts of three colossal pillars of red granite, which are the only remains of a large number that once existed in this part of the city; but it is not possible now to determine to what kind of an edifice they belonged. The cisterns for keeping the Nile water are still in great part preserved. They consist of vaulted chambers supported by columns, which form arcades of two or three stories. (See Plans, &c., Egypte, Antiq., vol. v., pl. 37.) The interior walls are covered with a thick red plaster that is not permeable to water. The level of these cisterns varies, but some of them are from fifteen to eighteen feet below the level of the sea. At the time of the French occupation of Alexandria, there were about 308 of these cisterns known to exist, though many more are doubtless buried beneath the rubbish: the number in use at that time was 207. The only remarkable monument between the wall and the lake is the column commonly called Pompey's Pillar. It stands on a mound of earth about forty feet high, which contains remains of former constructions. The shaft, which consists of a single piece of red granite, is about sixty-seven feet long, and weighs at least 276 tons: the whole height, with the capital, which is in bad taste, and the base and pedestal, which are no better, is about ninety-four feet. According to a Greek inscription on the plinth of the base, on the west side, it appears to have been erected (though perhaps not for the first time) in honour of the Emperor Diocletian by a prefect of Egypt whose name cannot be further deciphered than that it begins with PO. The foundation of this pillar has evidently often been examined, probably with the hope of finding treasures; and it is, perhaps, owing to this disturbance that it is inclined about seven inches to the S.W. Amidst the broken materials around its base we discover the centre stone on which it rests: this is a piece of yellowish breccia, with Egyptian hieroglyphics on it, placed the wrong end upwards.

Having crossed the canal, in going S.W. from the pillar, we come to some catacombs cut in a small elevation of a sandy calcareous stone; and farther south, in the calcareous rock that faces the sea, we find almost countless excavations, in the sides of which niches are cut: these once formed part of the Necropolis, or burial-place of old Alexandria. The most spacious of these, which, like the rest, communicates with the sea by a narrow passage, is about 3830 yards S.W. of the column, and is near the place called by the inappropriate name of Cleopatra's Baths. In the interior we find a great number of chambers and passages cut in the rock in such a style of decoration as proves their Greek origin. Such a monument could only be intended for a king. (See Plates, Egypte, v. 42, for the plan; and Mayer's Views in Egypt.)

The history of this city is as remarkable as its monuments once were. We can here only indicate its great epochs. From B.C. 323 to B.C. 30, when it fell into the hands of the Romans, it was the residence of the Greek kings of Egypt, the resort of commerce, and of many foreign nations, especially Jews; and also the centre of the scientific knowledge of that day. In the campaigns of Julius Cæsar at Alexandria, B.C. 48, the place sustained much damage.

From B.C. 30 to the Arab conquest under Omar, A.D. 640, Alexandria was still a flourishing city under the Roman emperors, and afterwards under the eastern empire. Alexandria early adopted the Christian religion, and became one of the strongholds of the true faith. It was also the theatre on which the Christians showed their most determined hostility to all the works of Pagan art.

In 969, the Fatemite caliphs seized on Egypt and built New Cairo, from which time Alexandria declined still more, and sunk to the rank of a secondary Egyptian city; the discovery of the route round the Cape of Good Hope in 1497, tended still further to diminish the commercial importance of Alexandria.

For more information on the history and antiquities of Alexandria, see Diodorus, lib. xvii. Strabo, tib. xvii. D'Anville, Egypte. Description de l'Egypte, and the plates, vol. v. (Pococke. Niebuhr.)

ALEXANDRIA, a town and port of entry in the United States of North America, in the district of Columbia, on the west or Virginia side of the Potomac, and about 105 miles from the mouth of the river; 38° 49' N. lat. Ships of the line can ascend the river as far as Alexandria, which is the most distant point from the ocean to which vessels of the largest size can be navigated in the United States. The whole voyage from the ocean through the entrance of Chesapeake bay to Alexandria is about 200 miles. Alexandria lies about five miles direct distance S.S.W. of the Capitol at Washington: the communication across the Potomac is kept up by a wooden bridge a mile in length.

The town slopes down to the river with the streets at right angles to one another, and is on the whole pretty well built. It has a court-house, gaol, alms-house, a theatre, market-house, and places of worship. Good wharfs extend along the river about half the length of the city, and allow the largest vessels to come up to them. The chief trade of the place is in flour, a great part of which is brought from the Shenandoah valley of Virginia, and the back part of Pennsylvania. The population of Alexandria in 1800 was 4196; in 1810, 7227; in 1820, 8218, of whom 2603 were blacks. The cana. from the Ohio to Washington, when completed, will probably much increase the trade of this town. (Darby's Geog. of the United States.-Encyclop. Americana, &c.)

Returns of shipping at the port of Alexandria :

ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY, a celebrated collection of books, formed and maintained by the first Ptolemy, king of Egypt, and his successors; and probably the largest which was ever brought together before the invention of printing, It is said to have been founded by Ptolemy Soter, after he had associated his son, Ptolemy Philadelphus, with him on the throne (and therefore between B.C. 285 and 283), in consequence of the suggestions of Demetrius Phalereus, who had seen and profited by public libraries at Athens. Demetrius was appointed superintendent of the new establishment, and busied himself diligently in collecting the literature of all nations, Jewish, Chaldee, Persian, Ethiopian, Egyptian, &c., as well as Greek and Latin. Some authors assert that, before his death, he had brought together 200,000 volumes; but Eusebius says, with more probability, that at the death of Ptolemy Philadelphus, which occurred later, there were but 100,000 volumes in the library. It was situated in the quarter of Alexandria called Bruchion. Philadelphus purchased the library of Aristotle. (Athenæus, b. 1.) Ptolemy Euergetes, who succeeded Philadelphus, and was a warm patron of learning, also took a great pleasure in increasing the library. In the reign of Ptolemy Epiphanes, Eumenes, king of Pergamus, established a rival library. The Egyptian monarch, in a fit of jealousy, forbade the exportation of paper (papyrus) from his dominions; and the invention of parchment, or, perhaps, the improvement of this material (charta Pergamena), was the consequence. (Pliny.) Ptolemy Physcon (or Euergetes II.) was also a great book collector; and is said to have commenced a second library, probably that which was placed in the Serapeion, or temple of Serapis, in a different quarter of the city. It is said that during his reign all books brought into Egypt were seized, and sent to the Museum, as it was called, where they were transcribed, and the copies delivered to the owners, while the originals were detained in the library,-a royal road to the formation of a valuable collection. Almost all the Ptolemies were patrons of learning; and at last the Alexandrian Library is

said to have amounted to 700,000 volumes. It is to be recollected that the rolls (volumina) spoken of contained far less than a printed volume: as, for instance, the Metamorphoses of Ovid, in fifteen books, would make fifteen volumes; and one Didymus is said by Athenæus to have written 3500 volumes. This consideration will bring the number assigned at least within the bounds of credibility.

In the siege of Alexandria by Julius Cæsar, the library in Bruchion was burnt by a fire which spread from the shipping to the town, and 400,000 volumes perished. (Seneca; Orosius, lib. 6.) The library of the Serapeion is said to have been also burnt in this siege; but this has been disputed. If burnt, at least it was very soon re-established; and there is reason to presume that the diligence of the learned men, who frequented and were attached to these establishments, would preserve some part of their contents to aid in the formation of the new library, to which Marc Antony presented, through Cleopatra, the whole collection of Pergamus, amounting to 200,000 volumes. Gibbon (chap. xxviii.) asserts that the old library was totally consumed, ard that this gift was the foundation of the new one, which continued to increase in size and reputation for four centuries, until, at the destruction of the Serapeion by Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria, it was dispersed, A.D. 390. That this was the case we learn from Orosius, who visited the place twenty years afterwards, and saw the empty cases (lib. 6.) Still the library was re-established; and Alexandria continued to flourish as one of the chief seats of literature, till it was conquered by the Arabs, A.D. 640. The library was then burnt, according to the story generally believed, in consequence of the fanatic decision of the Caliph Omar, If these writings of the Greeks agree with the Book of God, they are useless and need not be preserved: if they disagree, they are pernicious and ought to be destroyed.' Accordingly, it is said, they were employed to heat the 4000 baths of the city; and such was their number, that six months were barely sufficient for the consumption of this precious fuel. (Gibbon, chap. li.) Gibbon has employed his ingenuity to discredit this account, which in itself appears by no means improbable. The library was, at all events, dispersed, if not destroyed: it ceased to exist as a public institution.

Connected with the library of Bruchion was a college, or retreat for learned men, called the Museum, where they were maintained at the public expense, in unbroken leisure, and with every facility for the pursuit of knowledge. This establishment was subsequently transferred to the Serapeion, and continued to Hourish till the destruction of the temple by Theophilus. The sciences of mathematics, astronomy, and geography, were especially cultivated: witness the names of Euclid, Apollonius, Eratosthenes; and, in later times, of Ptolemy the geographer. Criticism, philology, and antiquities, were also much studied. Alexandria continued, until its capture by the Saracens, one of the most noted seats of learning in the world. (Acad. des Inscriptions, tom. ix. p. 397; Gibbon, chap. li., and the original authorities quoted in these works.)

ALEXANDRIAN CÓDEX, a celebrated manuscript of the Old and New Testament, in Greek, now preserved in the British Museum. It was sent by Cyrillus Lucaris, patriarch, first of Alexandria, then of Constantinople, to Charles I.; was placed in the royal library in 1628; and continued there until that collection was removed to the British Museum, in 1753. The history of the MS., before its transfer to Charles I., is involved in much uncertainty. For some time the received account was, that it was written in Egypt by a woman named Thecla, in the latter half of the fourth century, and was brought from Alexandria by Cyrillus. This minute specification of name and date rests entirely on two documents affixed to the book itself; one a short note in Arabic, merely stating that, according to tradition, the book was written by the martyr Thecla. The other is a Latin autograph of Cyrillus, of which this is a literal translation. This book of the Old and New Testament, as we have it from tradition, was written by the hand of Thecla, a noble Egyptian woman, about 1300 years ago, a little after the council of Nicaea. The name of Thecla was written at the end of the book: but on the extinction of Christianity in Egypt by the Mohammedans, the books of the Christians were reduced to the same condition. The name, therefore, of Thecla has disappeared and is torn out, but memory and recent tradition preserves it.-Cyrillus, Patriarcha Constanti.' The high character of Cyrillus places

him above the suspicion of intentional fraud: but his statement is vague and unsatisfactory. Why the Mohammedans should spare the book, but tear out the transcriber's name; what is the value of the tradition which asserts the name of Thecla to have been written at the end of the book; how is that Thecla to be identified with the Thecla who lived after the Nicene council, when the existence of three Christian Theclas, two of them martyrs, is noted in the Fathers, and there may have been three thousand-these are questions on which the passage above quoted throws no light, nor can they be answered from external evidence. On the other hand, a passage in the letters of John Rudolph Wetstein, uncle to the celebrated critic of that name, has been brought forward to convict Cyrillus of inaccuracy, if not fraud: in which the writer asserts on the authority of Matthæus Muttis, his instructor in Greek, who had been ordained deacon by Cyrillus, that the patriarch brought the manuscript from one of the monasteries on Mount Athos, well known as a great repository and manufactory of Greek MSS. Now Cyrillus passed some time at Mount Athos before he went to Alexandria, so that he may have brought it originally from Mount Athos, and yet have taken it from Alexandria to Constantinople; and, further, he does not say that he brought it from Alexandria, though his note, above quoted, indicates that it was written, or at least had been deposited in Egypt. This is rendered probable by internal evidence. Moreover, it appears to have been dedicated at some time to the use of the Alexandrian patriarch, if we may trust the following interpretation of an Arabic note at the foot of the first page of Genesis. It is to be observed, however, that the passage is confessedly very hard to be understood, and that a different version was given by Mr. Baber in his notes, from that which he subsequently adopted in the prolegomena of his edition, which runs thus: "This book is dedicated to the patriarchal chamber in the fortified city of Alexandria. Whoso shall take it thence, be he excommunicated, torn forcibly from the church, and

communion of men.

• Athanasius the humble.'

Two patriarchs of this name presided over the church of Alexandria after the Saracen invasion, one at the end of the thirteenth, the other in the fifteenth century, either of whom may have written this. It seems, therefore, that there is no ground for charging Cyrillus with fraud.

The real age and value of this MS. has been much controverted. By some commentators it is said to be the oldest, and most valuable copy of the New Testament in existence: others deny its very remote antiquity, and equally depreciate its merit. Mill and Woide admit the date assigned by Cyrillus. Oudin would bring it down even to the tenth century. Michaelis thinks its date cannot be ascertained within a period of about 200 years, and that it cannot be older than the sixth, nor later than the eighth century. Its authority is as much controverted as its age. Mill believes it to be the most perfect copy existing of the Apostolic text. Wetstein and Michaelis alike speak slightingly of its readings. Griesbach asserts that it follows three different editions: the Byzantine in the Gospels; the Western in the Acts and Catholic Epistles; and the Alexandrine in the Epistles of St. Paul. These points have been minutely discussed by Dr. Woide, formerly librarian of the British Museum, who published a fac-simile of the New Testament, in his preface. As might be expected, he is a staunch advocate of the excellence of his MS. A second edition of the preface (Notitia Codicis Alexandrini) was published by Spohn, who controverted many of Woide's opinions, showed that the MS. was by no means free from blunders of transcription, and reduced both its age and authority to a much lower standard. It has received great attention from biblical critics, and has been collated, among other persons, by Mill, Wetstein, and by Woide, who has given a very copious and complete collection of its variations from the received text as edited by Mill. This is to be found in a cheaper form in Spohn's edition of the Notitia, Lips. 1788.

The MS. is contained in fo volumes, of the shape and size of large quarto, of which the New Testament fills the last. It is written on vellum, in double columns, in uncial or capital letters, without spaces between the words, accents, or marks of aspiration. The letters are round and well formed. Some words are abbreviated, but they are not very numerous. There is a variety in the colour of the ink, and formation of the letters, which indicates that it was not all written by the same hand. The MS, is on the whole in

good condition; but sometimes the ink has eaten through the parchment so as to leave holes, in which, however, the shape of the letters can generally be traced; sometimes the ink itself has scaled off. It has suffered more seriously from the loss of the upper corner of the inner margin, which has been shaven off, why, or by what accident, it is not easy to guess. Sometimes only the margin has suffered, and the text is untouched: sometimes the beginning or end of eight, ten, or more lines is destroyed. The New Testament has been more injured from this cause than the Old. St. Matthew is wanting up to chap. xxv. 6, where it begins with the word EZEPXEZOE: there are also chasms in St. John, from vi. 50, to viii. 52, and in 2 Cor., from iv. 10. to xii. 7.

The New Testament has been more fully described, and more carefully collected than the Old; from which, however, Grabe published his splendid edition of the Old Testament, Oxf. 1717-20. They are uniform in appearance and execution, but the Old Testament seems to be in rather better condition. Here and there a leaf has been partially destroyed; but there are, we believe, no considerable chasms. It contains, besides all the canonical, and most of the apocryphal books found in our editions, the third and fourth books of the Maccabees, the Epistle of Athanasius to Marcellinus, prefixed to the Psalms, and fourteen nymns, the eleventh in honour of the Virgin. Ecclesiasticus, the Song of the Three Children, Susannah, and Bel and the Dragon, do not appear to have formed part of the collection. The New Testament contains the genuine Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, and part of the other which has been attributed to him. This is the only known manuscript in which the genuine Epistle exists. A fac-simile of the Old Testament has been published by the Rev. H. Baber, of the British Museum.

For more minute information, we may refer to Woide's Notitia, especially as edited by Spohn: to Michaelis's Introduction to the New Testament; and the Prolegomena of Mill, Wetstein, Grabe, and Baber.

ALEXANDRINE VERSE, a species of verse so called from having been first employed, according to some authorities, in a French translation, by Alexander de Paris and Lambert Lieon, of a Latin poem called the Alexandriad, according to others in an original work in the former language, on the life of Alexander the Great, composed by these poets in association with Jean le Nivelois and others. After its first introduction, it appears to have fallen for a long time into disuse among the French poets, until it was revived by Jean Antoine de Boeuf (one of the seven called the Pleiades), in the reign of Francis I. The first, however, who attuned the national ear of France to this verse, was the celebrated Ronsard, since whose time it has become the regular heroic verse of the French language; or that in which all their epic, tragic, and other greater poetical works are composed. It consists of twelve syllables, subject to the rule that it shall always be broken into two regular hemistichs, or, in other words, that its sixth syllable shall always terminate a word. The English Alexandrine verse consists in like manner of twelve syllables; but among us it has been rarely used throughout a whole poem. The longest and most remarkable poetical work in our language, written wholly in Alexandrine verse, is Drayton's Polyolbion. In general, it is employed only occasionally in poems written in our usual heroic verse of ten syllables, and never except in the concluding line of the couplet or triplet. In Dryden, by whom it has been used in this manner most frequently, and with the finest effect, it most commonly winds up a triplet-such as that in which Pope has at once described and exemplified the manner of his great predecessor :

Waller was smooth; but Dryden taught to join The varying verse, the full resounding line, The long majestic march, and energy divine. The Alexandrine verse in English also forms the closing line of what is called the Spenserian stanza. Regularly, it ought always, as in French, to be divisible into two hemistichs; but, in the freer spirit of our poetry, this rule is occasionally violated.

ALEXEI MICHAILOWITZ, born at Moskwa in the year 1630, was a son of the Tzar Michailo Feodorowitz Romanow, the first of the house of Romanow that held the sceptre of Russia, and of his second consort Evdokia Lukianowna Streshnew. At the death of his father, July 12, 1645, he succeeded to the crown, and as he was still very

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Two impostors disturbed the tranquillity of Alexei's reign. Both of them chose Poland as their first scene of action. One of them, called Dmitri, pretended to be a son of Otrepiew, (who, by way of distinction, was called the false Dmitri,) and of Marina; he was treated like a prince by Wladislaw, king of Poland, but had to leave that country when the king died. He then went to Sweden, and from thence to Holstein, where he was arrested, delivered up to Russia, and put to death in Moskwa. The other impostor's real name was Timoka Ankudinow. On account of some crimes he left his country, and sought refuge in Poland, where he declared himself to be a son of the late Tzar, Wassili Shuiskoi; but receiving no countenance, he went to Constantinople, where, in order to make himself popular with the Turks, he submitted to the ceremony necessary to become a Mohammedan. Finding even this fruitless, he wandered about in Italy, and having become a Catholic in Rome, he roved through Austria, Hungary, and Transylvania. He next obtained from the Prince Ragotzy a letter of recommendation to the Queen Christina of Sweden, who received him well, and even granted him a considerable pecuniary allowance. Alexei, resenting this, insisted on his being delivered up; but the impostor escaped from Stockholm, and likewise from Revel, although in the latter place he had been put in prison. In Germany, he adopted the Lutheran religion: but at last, at the instance of Russia, he was arrested in Holstein, and in the year 1653 brought to Moskwa, where he was put to death, after suffering

severe torture.

These impostors would hardly deserve notice, were it not for a war which broke out between Russia and Poland in 1654, the real cause of which was the countenance given to these adventurers in Poland. The immediate cause of the war was the protection granted by Russia to certain Cossacks subject to the Poles.

In this war the Polish commander-in-chief, John Radzivil, was completely defeated at Sklovo; the Russians took Smolensko in 1654, and almost the whole of Lithuania was conquered and devastated by them. The Poles, being at this time severely pressed by the Swedes, found it advisable, after two years' war, to agree to an armistice, which was concluded at Nienietz, in November, 1656, Austria being on this occasion the mediator. The Poles agreed to cede the provinces of Smolensko, Tshernigow, and Seweria to the Russians, for a sum of money.

Alexei's second war, which was against Charles Gustav of Sweden, commenced before the armistice with Poland was concluded. After the armistice, Alexei, agreeably to a promise given to the Poles on that occasion, carried on the war with great vigour. The cause of complaint on the part of the Russians was, that Gustav had hindered the operations of their army in Lithuania. The Russians entered Karelia, Ingermania, and Livonia with 120,000 men, and the Knies, Dolgorukoi, took Dörpt, and frightened away the professors of the university. But the Russians were compelled to raise the siege of Riga, after six weeks, (from the 20th of August to the 5th of October, 1656,) with the loss of 14,000 men; owing to the vigorous resistance of the renowned Swedish general, Magnus de la Gardie. In the year following, on the 9th of July, the Russian army, under the command of Matthias Wassiliewitz Ishermetiew, was completely routed by the Swedish general Fritz von Löven at Wolk, and the Russian commander died of his wounds a few days after the battle. A new army of 30,000 men entered Livonia, but, without effecting any thing, was compelled by the plague to march off. This induced Alexei in his turn to agree to an armistice with Sweden, which was signed on the 23rd of April, 1658, and three years after, on the 21st of June, 1661, converted into a treaty of peace at Kardis, by which their former possessions were mutually secured to each party. A peace had also been concluded between Poland and Sweden, in 1660, at Oliva; but before its conclusio.., the war between Russia and Poland had been renewed: this war, too, was occasioned by the Cossacks on the Dnieper, who had revolted from Russia, and sought protection from the Poles. Although the

Immediately after the conclusion of the Polish war, a formidable insurrection broke out among the Don Cossacks. Stenko Razün, a Cossack, resented the death of his brother, who had been executed by order of a Russian general, and seduced his countrymen to revolt: they burnt and devastated the country from the lower Wolga to Jaik, took Astrachan, in 1670, (where Stenko ordered the Woiewod Prosorowskoy to be thrown over the walls,) and several other cities. Hopes were held out to Stenko which prevailed on him to present himself at Moskwa, where he was executed as a traitor and rebel: after this, tranquillity was easily restored among the Cossacks. Alexei's last war was against the Turks. Led by their hetman DOROSENSKY, the Saparogian Cossacks had revolted against the Poles, and made a treaty of alliance with Mohammed IV., receiving from him the province of Ukraine in fief. From this cause naturally arose a war between the Poles and the Turks; and Russia was not slow in interfering. Her ambassador Miloslowskoy was ordered to expostulate in behalf of the Poles, and moreover to demand that Azow, which originally belonged to Russia, and in 1642 had been taken from the Cossacks by the Turks, should again be ceded to Russia. But Mo hammed's success did not dispose him to listen to the de mands of Russia: he took the Polish frontier fortress Kaminieck, conquered the whole of Podolia in less than two months, and alarmed the Russians by the rapidity and success of his operations. The King of Poland, Michael, drew no advantage from the victory over the Tartars gained by Sobiesky at Kaluszo on the 18th of October, 1672, but made a hasty peace which was disgraceful to his country. This peace would have encouraged Mohammed to resist the claims of Russia even if well founded, and of course it emboldened him to resist her claim to Azow; nay, he went farther, he even expected Alexei to cede to him Russian Ukraine. But the King of Poland's peace was rejected by the Polish diet, and Alexei was glad to assist even a constitutional power in renewing hostilities against the formidable Turks. At first he carried on the war with great vigour, but finding the Poles not so ready, as he had expected, to agree to certain ambitious schemes, according to which the crown of Poland was to be settled on his descendants, his zeal abated, and he died, before a peace with the Turks was concluded, on the 10th of February, 1676, in his 46th year. The most impartial and best-informed writers agree in representing Alexei Micháilowitz as a man endowed with more than ordinary talents and a clear understanding: his private character exhibits many amiable traits. Alexei set at large the Danish count, Waldemar Christian Gyldenlöve, who, since the year 1644, had been kept under arrest as a prisoner of state by the Tzar Mich. Feodorowitz. The count being betrothed to one of the daughters of this emperor, Irina Michailowna, and having arrived in Moskwa to celebrate the marriage, he was, contrary to original stipulations, required to change his religion. Upon this he disguised himself and attempted to escape from Moskwa, but was discovered, and kept confined till the Tzar Michael's death.

Alexei Michailowitz did much for the improvement of Russia; agriculture and manufactures were constant objects of his solicitude he invited many foreigners to Russia, especially mechanics, artists, and military men, whom he treated liberally. He ordered many works, particularly on applied mathematics, military science, tactics, fortification,, geography, &c., to be translated into Russian, and when he found that the plates could not be re-engraved in Moskwa, he bought a number of original copies in order to take the plates out of them and insert them in the translations: he enlarged the city of Moskwa and built two of its suburbs. Before his time Russia had hardly any coinage of her own: a small head of a Tzar was usually stamped on foreign coins, which made them Russian and gave them currency; he was the first who coined silver rubles and quarter rubles. He commenced ship building and the construction of harbours in the Euxine and the Caspian, and raised the trade of Astrachan to a flourishing condition. Alexei likewise completely reformed the Russian laws. A committee of Eve was ordered to make abstracts of existing Ukases, of