164 ALEXANDRIAN COPY-ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL. ANDRINUS; a manuscript, now in the British museum, of great importance in biblical criticism. It is on parchment, with uncial letters, without breathings and accents, written, probably, in the latter half of the 6th century, and contains, in 4 vols. folio, the whole Greek Bible (the Old Testament according to the Septuagint), together with the letters of the bishop Clement, of Rome. A large part of the Gospel of St. Matthew and of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, as well as a portion of the Gospel of St. John, are wanting. The text of the Gospels is different from that of the other books. The patriarch of Constantinople, Cyrillus Lucaris, who, in 1628, sent this manuscript as a present to Charles I, said he had received it from Egypt; and it is evident, from other circumstances, that it was written there. But it cannot be decided, with certainty, whether it came from Alexandria (whence its name). John Ernest Grabe follows it in his edition of the Septuagint (Oxford, 1707-20, fol., 4 vols.) Dr. Woide published the New Testament from this copy, (London, fol., 1786), with types cast for the purpose, line for line, with intervals between the words, as in the manuscript itself. The copy is so perfect a resemblance of the original, that t may supply its place. Henry Hervey Baber undertook a similar edition of the Old Testament, London, 1816, fol. This famous manuscript belonged, in 1098, to the library of the patriarch of Alexandria. The text of this manuscript is of the greatest importance in the criticism of the Epistles of the New Testament; in the Gospels it is evidently worse. The 3 first divisions contain the Alexandrian translation of the Old Testament; the 4th, the New Testament in the original language. ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL. When the flourishing period of Greek poetry was past, study was called in to supply what nature no longer furnished. Alexandria in Egypt was made the seat of learning, by the Ptolemies, admirers of the arts, from whence this age of literature took the name of the Alexandrian. Ptolemy Philadelphus founded the famous library of Alexandria, the largest and most valuable one of antiquity, which attracted many scholars from all countries; and also the museum, which may justly be considered the first academy of sciences and arts. (See Alexandria.) The grammarians and poets are the most important among the scholars of Alexandria. These grammarians were philologists and literati, who exlained things as well as words, and may be considered a kind of encyclopedists. Such were Zenodotus the Ephesian, who established the first grammar school in Alexandria, Eratosthenes of Cyrene, Aristophanes of Byzantium, Aristarchus of Samothrace, Crates of Mallus, Dionysius the Thracian, Apollonius the sophist, and Zoïlus. Their merit is to have collected, examined, reviewed and preserved the existing monuments of intellectual culture. To the poets belong Apollonius the Rhodian, Lycophron, Aratus, Nicander, Euphorion, Callimachus, Theocritus, Philetas, Phanocles, Timon the Phliasian, Scymnus, Dionysius, and 7 tragic poets, who were called the A. Pleiads. The A. age of literature differed entirely, in spirit and character, from the preceding. Great attention was paid to the study of languages; correctness, purity and elegance were cultivated; and several writers of this period excel in these respects. But that which no study can give, the spirit which filled the earlier poetry of the Greeks, is not to be found in most of their works. Greater art in composition took its place; criticism was now to perform what genius had accomplished before. But this was impossible. Genius was the gift of only a few, and they soared far above their contemporaries. The rest did what may be done by criticism and study; but their works are tame, without soul and life, and those of their disciples, of course, still more so. Perceiving the want of originality, but appreciating its value, and striving after it, they arrived the sooner at the point where poetry is lost. Their crit icism degenerated into a disposition to find fault, and their art into subtilty. They seized on what was strange and new, and endeavored to adorn it by learning. The larger part of the Alexandrians, commonly grammarians and poets at the same time, are stiff and laborious versifiers, without genius.-Besides the A. school of poetry, one of philosophy is also spoken of, but the expression is not to be understood too strictly. Their distinguishing character arises from this circumstance, that, in Alexandria, the eastern and western philosophy met, and an effort took place to unite the two systems, for which reason the A. philosophers have often been called Eclectics. This name, however, is not applicable to all. The new Platonists form a distinguished series of philosophers, who, renouncing the scepticism of the new academy, endeavored to reconcile the philosophy of Plato with that of the East. The Jew Philo of Alexandria (q. v.) belongs to the carlier new Platonists. Plato and Aristotle were diligently interpreted and compared in the 1st and 2d centuries after Christ. Ammonius the Peripatetic belongs here, the teacher of Plutarch of Charonea. But the real new Platonic school of Alexandria was established at the close of the 2d century after Christ, by Ammonius of Alexandria (about 193 A. D.), whose disciples were Plotinus and Origen. (See Platonists, New.) Being, for the most part, Orientals, formed by the study of Greek learning, their writings are strikingly characterized, e. g. those of Ammonius Saccas, Plotinus, Iamblicus, Porphyrius, by a strange mixture of Asiatic and European elements, which had become amalgamated in Alexandria, owing to the mingling of the eastern and western races in its population, as well as to its situation and commercial intercourse. Their philosophy had a great influence on the manner in which Christianity was received and taught in Egypt. The principal Gnostic systems had their origin in Alexandria. (See Gnosis.) The principal teachers of the Christian catechetical schools (q. v.), which had risen and flourished together with the eclectic philosophy, had imbibed the spirit of this philosophy. The most violent religious controversies disturbed the A. church, until the orthodox tenets were established in it by Athanasius, in the controversy with the Arians.-Among the scholars of Alexandria are to be found great mathematicians, as Euclid, the father of scientific geometry; Apollonius of Perga in Pamphylia, whose work on conic sections still exists; Nicomachus, the first scientific arithmetician;-astronomers, who employed the Egyptian hieroglyphics for marking the northern hemisphere, and fixed the images and names (still in use) of the constellations, who left astronomical writings (e. g. the Phænomena of Aratus, a didactic poem, the Sphærica of Menelaus, the astronomical works of Eratosthenes, and especially the Magna Syntaxis of the geographer Ptolemy), and made improvements in the theory of the calendar, which were afterwards adopted into the Julian calendar;-natural philosophers, anatomists, as Herophilus and Erasistratus;-physicians and surgeons, as Demosthenes Philalethes, who wrote the first work on the diseases of the eye; Zopyrus and Cratevas, who improved the art of pharmacy and invented antidotes;-instructers in the art of medicine, to whom Asclepiades, Soranus and Galen owed their education;-medical theorists and empirics, of the sect founded by Phili- ALEXANDRINE, or ALEXANDRIAN; the A needless Alexandrine ends the song, It corresponds, in our language, to the ALEXIANS. (See Fraternities.) ALEXIS-BATH; a watering-place in 166 ALEXIS PETROVITSCH-ALFIERI. Feb., 1718; and, when he discovered that A. was paving the way to succeed to the crown, he not only caused all the participators in his project to be punished capitally or otherwise, but had A. also condemned to death, and the sentence read to him, as pronounced unanimously by 144 judges. Although he was soon afterwards pardoned, yet the fright and anxiety which he had experienced, affected him so much, that he died in the course of 4 days, June 26, O. S. 1718. He left a daughter, and a son, afterwards the emperor Peter II. The account of Büsching, that general Weide decapitated A. in prison, is without any authority. ALFIERI, Vittorio, count, was born at Asti, in Piedmont, in 1749, of a rich and distinguished family. His early education was very defective, like that of most men of his rank and country at that time. His uncle and guardian sent him to Turin, whose academy he left as ignorant and unformed as when he entered it. He then joined a provincial regiment, which was only called together for a few days during the year. He afterwards travelled over Italy, France, England and Holland; returned and commenced the study of history, but, soon disgusted with this pursuit, commenced his travels anew, and wandered for nearly 3 years, continually restless and unsatisfied. He left the military service, and led, for a long time, an inactive life, until ennui drove him to write dramatic poetry. His first attempt was crowned with undeserved success; and he determined, at the age of 27 years, to devote all his efforts to the single object of becoming a tragic poet. Sensible of his deficiencies, he went to work zealously to acquire the rudiments of knowledge. He first studied Latin and Tuscan, for which purpose he went to Tuscany. In this journey he became acquainted with the countess of Albany (q. v.), the consort of the English pretender, and a daughter of the noble family of Stolberg, to whom he soon became deeply attached. From this time, he strove with restless zeal to acquire distinction as a poet, in order to be worthy of her, whose esteem and love had such value in his eyes. In order to continue his labors wholly free and independent, he broke the last tie which bound him to his country. He bestowed his fortune on his sister, reserving only a moderate income for himself, and henceforth lived alternately at Florence and Rome. Here he composed 14 tragedies, to which he afterwards added some others, although con trary to his own inclination. The unfor tunate situation of his beloved friend often disturbed him, but the death of her husband at length put an end to her troubles, and enabled her to marry A. Henceforth A. lived with her alternately in Alsace and in Paris, unceasingly busied with composition, and the arrangement and publication of his works (by Didot and Beaumarchais). When the disturbances in France began, he quitted the country, and went to England. Embarrassed by the constant fall of assignats, he went back to Paris, angry at seeing the cause of freedom dishonored by unworthy hands, and unable, from the state of his feelings, to continue his intellectual labors. This torture of mind he endured till the end of Aug. 1792, when he fled from Paris, and escaped the horrors of the ensuing September. He lost his books, and the greatest part of the complete edition of his tragedies, published by Didot, in 5 vols. Afterwards, he lived with his inseparable companion at Florence, resumed his usual labors, wrote his satires and 6 comedies, and, in his last years, studied the Greek language; with the Greek poetry he did not become acquainted till his course was nearly finished. He died in the midst of these labors, Oct. 8, 1803. He was buried in the church of Santa Croce, at Florence, between Machiavelli and Michael Angelo, where a beautiful monument by Canova covers his remains.-A. has distin guished himself as a dramatic poet in three different departments. He has written 6 comedies, 21 tragedies, and a tramelogedia, so called. All these works are to be looked upon as the efforts of a great spirit employed out of its proper sphere of action. Disgusted with idleness, and desirous to distinguish himself, A. became a poet. It was wholly impossible, for one who seldom contented himself with performing half of any design, to propose to himself a moderate degree of excellence in that which he had made the business of his life. He expressed his hope that his high exertions would associate his name with those of all the great poets that Italy had possessed. His noble ef forts disarm the severity of criticism. He was worthy to attain what he could not attain. Above the degeneracy of his contemporaries, cherishing, too, a deep abhorrence of despotism, and possessed of a proud, free and passionate heart, A. was animated with a political rather than a poetical spirit. In the midst of a debased people, he wished to inspire the ALFIERI-ALGARDI. spiritless with strength, courage and freedom of thought; but he disdained the arts of persuasion. He purposely threw aside all ornament, and wished to attain his end by loftiness of thought, strong brevity, and manly earnestness; but he forgot, that, in doing this, he must throw off the peculiar characteristics of a poet. His tragedies are abrupt and stiff; the plots simple, even to barrenness; the verse hard and unpleasing; and the language devoid of that attractive splendor, by which the poet stirs the inmost soul of man. Nevertheless, he is the first tragic writer of Italy, and has served as a model for those who have followed him.-If, in his youth, the genius of A. was too stiff for tragedy, he must, of necessity, fail when he attempted comedy in his old age, long after the sweet deceptions of life had vanished. His comedies, like his former works, had a serious, and, generally, a political aim; they are barren of invention; their plots are without interest; the characters, as in his tragedies, only general sketches, without individuality. They are, therefore, far inferior to his tragedies, and, indeed, are not worthy of his lofty spirit. We consider A.'s Abel the most successful of all his dramatic works. This he called a tramelogedia,-a name as novel as the work itself. He invented this species of drama intermediate between the tragedy and opera, and intended to have written 6 pieces in this form. His genius, which was the most successful when least restrained, here found its proper sphere, and if the species can stand before the critic, then the invention and execution of Abel make it, without doubt, a fine poetic work. Besides his dramas, A. has written an epic poem in 4 cantos, several lyrical pieces, 16 satires, and poetical translations from Terence, Virgil, and some portions of Eschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes. After his death appeared the Misogallo, a monument of his hatred towards the French; and his autobiography, a striking exhibition of his character. His complete works appeared at Padua and Brescia in 1809 and 1810, 37 vols. ALGE, in botany; one of the seven ALFRED THE GREAT, king of England (born 849, died 900), ascended the throne families of plants, into which Linnæus of England 872, at a time when the distributed the whole vegetable kingdom. Danes, or Normans, who were formidable They are defined to be plants, of which to the Saxons as early as the year 787, the roots, leaf and stem are all one. Unhad extended their conquests and devas- der this description are comprehended tations very widely over the country. A.'s all the sea-weeds, and some other aquatic efforts against them were at first unsuc- plants. A. are also one of the Linnæan cessful, and he concluded some treaties orders of the class cryptogamia. which were not kept on their side. He ALGARDI, Alexander, a sculptor, de rived his origin from a family of high standing in Bologna. He was educated in the academy of Lodovico Caracci, and went, when 20 years old, to Mantua. The attempt to imitate, in sculpture, the famous pictures of Giulio Romano, in the palace del T, was sufficient to give his genius a wrong direction, since the excellences of these pictures are directly opposed to those of sculpture. In 1625, he went to Venice, and thence to Rome. The duke of Mantua had recommended him to cardinal Ludovisi, nephew of pope Gregory XV, who was intent on renewing the magnificence of the gardens of Sallust. Here A. was employed in restoring mutilated antiques (e. g. a Mercury), and in preparing original works. Here he became acquainted with his countryman Domenichino. The statue of St. Magdalen, for the church of St. Silvestre, on the Quirinal, was his first great work. Cardinals and princes now availed themselves of his talents, and the French court wished him to come to Paris; but the prince Pamfili succeeded in retaining him in Rome, where he died, June 10, 1654, 52 years old, and was buried in the church St. Giovanni de Bolognesi. His Flight of Atila, a basso-relievo in marble with figures of the size of life, over the altar of St. Leo, in St. Peter's church, is his most renowned work. But, with all the excellences of this work, an inclination to give to sculpture the effect of painting is observable. This was owing to the influence of the school of Caracci on him. His God of sleep, of nero antico, in the villa Borghese, has often been taken for an antique. The basso-relievo of the Flight of Atila has often been engraved. It may be seen in Cicognara's Storia della Scoltura. ALGAROTTI, Francesco, count; born at Venice, 1712; an Italian writer, who united the study of the sciences with a cultivated taste for the fine arts. He studied at Rome, Venice and Bologna. He was a distinguished connoisseur in the fine arts, and excelled in mathematics, astronomy and natural philosophy. He had predilection for this last science, as well as for anatomy, and devoted himself to them. He was acquainted with the Latin and Greek tongues, and paid great attention to the Tuscan style and language. He visited France, England, Russia, Germany, Switzerland, and all the important towns of Italy. The last ten years of his life he spent in his own country. When 21 years old, he wrote, at Paris, the greatest part of his Neutoni anismo per le Dame, 1737, after the model of Fontenelle's Plurality of Worlds, and thereby laid the foundation of his fame. Until 1739, A. lived alternately in Paris, at Cirey, with the marchioness du Chatelet, and in London. At that time he made a journey to Petersburg with lord Baltimore. On his return, he visited Frederic II, then crown-prince, and residing at Rheinsburg. The prince was so much pleased with him, that, after his ascension to the throne, he invited him to live with him, and raised him to the rank of count. He was not less esteemed by Augustus III, king of Poland, who conferred on him the office of privy counsellor. A. now lived alternately at Berlin and Dresden, but particularly in the former place, after receiving from Frederic, in 1747, the order of merit and the office of chamber. lain. In 1754, he returned to his own country, where he resided first at Venice, afterwards at Bologna, and, after 1762, at Pisa. Here he died of a consumption, 1764, after suffering long from hypochondria. He himself formed the design of the monument, which Frederic II caused to be erected over his grave, in the court of the campo santo, at Pisa. He was called, in the inscription, with reference to his Congresso di Citera, and his Neutoni anismo, a rival of Ovid, and a scholar of Newton. A.'s knowledge was extensive and thorough in many departments. In painting and architecture, he was one of the best critics in Europe. Many artists were formed under his direction. drew and etched with much skill. In his works, which embrace a great variety of subjects, he shows much wit and acuteness. His poems, though not of a very high order, are pleasing, and his letters are considered among the finest in the Italian language. The latest collection of his works appeared at Venice, from 1791 to 1794, 17 vols. He ALGEBRA is a general method of resolving mathematical problems by means of equations, or it is a method of performing the calculations of all sorts of quantities by means of general signs or characters. Some authors define algebra as the art of resolving mathematical problems; but this is the idea of analysis, or the analytic art in general, rather than of algebra, which is only one species of it. In the application of algebra to the resolution of problems, we must first translate the problem out of common into algebraic language, by expressing all the conditions and quantities, both known and unknown, by their proper characters, |