cording to Q. CURTIUS, he applied himself to the study of Nature, not merely because the pursuit was worthy of a superior, and a capacious mind; but because, in his opinion, it was necessary for the emperor of the whole earth to make himself acquainted with its various products. Hence it was that he cultivated this study with the greater application, as the views of universal empire, and the fulness of his future glory, opened upon his ambitious soul.

ALEXANDER not only encouraged, but did himself pursue, the study of Natural History upon a scale, and at an expense, commensurate with his greatness, and the magnificence of his character. He commanded all those who obtained their subsistence by hunting, fowling, or fishing, throughout the provinces of Greece, and all Asia, and also those who had attained any skill in knowledge of this kind, to be obedient to ARISTOTLE, and bring to him any curious result

of their avocations, or their labours; in order that the Philosopher might be qualified to treat with accuracy on the real nature of animals. Besides which, he allowed that great man the sum of eight hundred talents* to defray the expense of his undertaking. So attached, indeed, was he to this pursuit, that he lavished extraordinary sums of money in attempts to ascertain what could scarcely be deemed adequate to the cost and trouble-more than an hundred years after his death, the huntsmen of Asia were astonished at the spectacle of wild deer in their forests adorned with the golden chains which had been placed round their necks by the Macedonian hero, in order to ascertain the longevity of those animals.

According to ROLLIN, 800 attic talents of gold must have amounted to a sum exceeding two millions sterling of our money!

The consequences of this extraordinary attention and liberality manifested themselves in the immortal works of ARISTOTLE, which became of such general utility, and importance, that, as SMELLIE has justly observed, “to this hour, no systematic view of animated beings has been attempted, the principles of which have not been adopted from ARISTOTLE's history of animals."

Such actions must appear more brilliant from a consideration of the period of the world in which they were performed. In times more pro pitious, how few are the examples that will bear any comparison with them, even amongst those endeavouring after similar fame! After all the parade and boastings of the splendid, and extraordinary, the sensible, and profligate CATHE

* See his Preface to BUFFON's Natural History, General and Particular.

RINE of Russia, in regard to her patronage of the excellent and learned PALLAS, it is notorious that he finally suffered a kind of honourable banishment, by being obliged to draw out the remnant of his days in the unwholesome marshes of the Crimea *.

* From aspersions of this nature, France, alone, seems to claim an honourable exception. I mean as to great national undertakings of a literary or scientific kind. I have just seen a work recently issued from the Imperial press at Paris, under the immediate patronage and inspection of the extraordinary NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE, entitled, "Description de l'Egypte, ou Recueil des Observations et des Recherches qui ont été faites en Egypte, &c. &c. Par les ordres de sa Majesté l'Empereur Napoléon le Grand : à Paris, de l'Imprimerie Impériale. M.D.CCC.IX." A work which far transcends, in the magnificent style of its execution, any thing before seen in Europe. It is indeed worthy of the savans its authors. The circumstance of a numerous army being accompanied, as was that of the French in Egypt, by a body of learned men and philosophers, was indeed a singular and an extraordinary spectacle!

Kings and princes of the present day are indifferent, or generally unmindful, of an indisputable truth," that learning will always flourish most where the amplest rewards are proposed for the industry of the learned; and that the most shining periods in the annals of literature, are the reigns of wise and liberal princes, who know that fine writers are the oracles of the world, from whose testimony every king, statesman, and hero, must expect the censure or approbation of posterity. In the old states of Greece the highest honours were given to poets, philosophers, and orators; and a single city (as an eminent writer' observes), in the memory of one man, produced more numerous and splendid monuments of human genius, than most other nations have afforded in a course of ages +." It was in the true spirit of this opinion that ALEXANDER was

* ASCHAM.

JONES'S Preface to his Persian Grammar.