CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA.

n

took his expedition into India. The wild sallies SECT.of passion, the indecent excesses of intemperance, I.and the ostentatious display of vanity too frequentin the conduct of this extraordinary man, have sodegraded his character, that the pre-eminence ofhis merit, either as a conqueror, a politician, ora legislator, h^s seldom been justly estimated. Thesubject of my present inquiry leads me to considerhis operations only in one light, but it will enableme to exhibit a striking view of the grandeur andextent of his plans. He seems, soon after his firstsuccesses in Asia, to have formed the idea of estab-lishing an universal monarchy, and aspired to thedominion of the sea, as well as of the land. Fromthe wonderful efforts of the Tyrians in their own.defence, when left without any ally or protector,he conceived a high opinion of the resources ofmaritime power,, and of the wealth to be derivedfrom commerce, especially that with India, whichhe found engrossed by the citizens of Tyre. Witha view to secure this commerce, and to establisha station for it, preferable in many respects tothat of Tyre , as soon as he completed the con-quest of Egypt, he founded a city near one of themouths of the Nile, which he honored with his ownname; and with such admirable discernment was thesituation of it chosen, that Alexandria soon be-came th? greatest trading city of the ancient world;and, notwithstanding many successive revolutions inempire, continued, during eighteen centuries, tobe the chief feat of commerce with India ". Amidst '

” Hist. of America, vol. i. p. zo.