THE ORIENTAL LEGENDS OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.• IN exploring that
wide and fascinating Debatable Land which lies between accurate history and confessed fiction, that world of legend which occupies so large a part in the literature of almost all nations, certain principles should be observed in order to steer a safe course between peevish scepticism and affectionate credulity. The student will do well to bear in mind the maxim of Aristotle, that "there is nothing more probable than that many improbable things have really happened ; " that of Bacon that " a mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure ; " that when a powerful chieftain or ancient nation has become conspicuous for virtue or vice, for good fortune or calamity, many traditions regarding them will become public property, some perhaps utterly untrue, but many based on such a substratum of fact as to render their acceptance easy to be accounted for,
and therefore excusable, even though they may be rejected en bloc by the " higher criticism," whatever that fine phrase may mean ; and that the amount and quality of romantic fiction which will cling about these narratives will be in proportion to the temperament, imaginative or prosaic, of the people among whom they were circulated. Bishop
Butler has acutely pointed out that the probabilities against the truth of the history of Cmsar—and we may add of many other worthies of modern as well as ancient history—are much greater than those in its favour. Dr. Johnson amused his friends by showing how an expert logician could prove that the British conquest of Canada should be deemed unhistorical, and the late Archbishop Whately has involved the sceptic in a dilemma by arguing from an array of im- probabilities that Napoleon never existed at all. It is not impossible that after the lapse of a century or two some "advanced thinker," summoning up a host of im- probabilities, may question the existence of a Dutch Republic in the Transvaal, and edit a bulky volume on the " Jameson Legend," thus verifying the well-known lines,-
" I have stood upon Achilles' tomb,
And heard Troy doubted, time will doubt of Rome."
The work which has suggested these remarks contains several documents translated from the Ethiopian, and evidently with much labour and care, there being in most cases but a single and very modern manuscript, and that so carelessly executed as often to exhibit incoherencies and inconsistencies, many of which, however, the learned editor has obviated by judicious emendations. But the most important of these Ethiopian pamphlets are mere transla- tions, one of the Hellenic work of the pseudo-Calliathenes, and two from the Arabic, and we have several indications that the Ethiopic editors neither cultivated accuracy nor were averse to interpolations. They appear also to have been too regardless of the proper orthography of local and personal names and thoroughly ignorant of geography. We also find facts distorted, and many adventures, some perhaps
• The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great. By B. A. Wallin Budge, F.B.A. London: C. J. Clay and Bons. historical, though exaggerated, and others clearly incredible, really appertaining to heroes of earlier days, grouped around the short and brilliant life of the youthful conqueror from the West. While agreeing with the editor that an unbiassed life of Alexander could not have been expected from a Hellenic pen for some generations after his death, we see no sufficient reason why his tale should not have been -told in the Bedouin tent or the Persian palace when we con- sider the Oriental respect for vigorous personal govern. went and their indifference to independence or constitutional government as long as they are not over-taxed or their superstitions interfered with. Still, the hostility of the Egyptians to Persian rule, their early and amicable acquaint- ance with the Hellenes, colonies of which race had been long settled in the Delta, Alexander's gentleness to the submissive and his toleration of all religious beliefs, would render him a popular hero in the Valley of the Nile, while national vanity and mendacity would engender the legend of his Egyptian parentage. The pupil of Aristotle knew that the Orientals deemed their Kings to be of divine origin, while as a statesman—and his political sagacity has been too much underrated—and anxious to secure the loyalty of his new subjects, he would have been willing to pass as the son of Philip, Ammon, Nectanebus, or any one else, as Philippe Egalite, under the reign of enlightenment and equality, avowed himself the illegitimate son of his re- puted father's coachman. The waxen figures used by the Royal wizard, Nectanebus, when an exile at the Macedonian Court, are often mentioned in the papyri, and appear also in medieval tales of sorcery, while the hawk, which plays a part in the legend, was sacred in the Egyptian ritual. The founder of the Lagid dynasty possessed literary tastes, and had composed a history of the campaigns of Alex- ander; all his successors, worthless as many of them were, -encouraged learning; the founder of the capital soon came to be looked on as the creator, or at least the reviver, of the Empire of the Pharaohs ; Arab, Ethiopian, perhaps even Rab- binical and Indian, traditions were attached to his name ; and the nation which could adore cats and crocodiles could readily believe that Alexander descended to the bottom of the sea in a glass box, where he saw a fish of such length that it took three days to pass him.
The second and third centuries of the Christian era were prolific in forgeries, principally of alleged Gospels and Epistles, executed, however, with a benevolent intention ; and as we are told that one of the Popes, moved by the virtues of Trajan, prayed for his soul until the heathen Emperor was removed to the place of happiness, so it was deemed a pity that the hero of Macedon should have been an idolator. The legends, therefore, culminate in making him a pious Christian, an erudite theologian, "a very perfect, gentle Knight," and quite a Sir Galahad in discretion and purity. Yet the ingenious story-maker forgot that his hero's flirtation with the Ethiopian Queen Candace says but little for his posses- sion of these last virtues, while the account of his successful combat with Portia evinces that the framer of the legend had as little conception of fair play as any Oriental of our own time.
The present writer has on a former occasion reviewed another book on the Alexander legend, and is compelled to confess that he has found nothing in these large collections of tales deserving the attention of those who read either for improvement or amusement. When legends such as those handed down to us in Norse, Teutonic, Roman, or Hellenic literature exhibit a moderate degree of verisimilitude they are well worth study in order that by the aid of sound criticism we may arrive at the solid rock of truth on which they rest; and even when, though totally untrue, they display refined and ennobling sentiments adorned with poetic language and imagery, they furnish not only a harmless but a profitable relaxation, and often awaken the soul to acts of valour and self-devotion; but the grotesque, trivial, and im- possible legends of the East should be relegated to that 2imbus nugarum which Ariosto's Knight found somewhere in the moon or its vicinity. Justice, nevertheless, compels us to bear testimony to the learning, industry, and critical sagacity of the editor, and to express our earnest hopes that further explorations may bring to light some specimens of Egyptian or Ethiopic lore really worthy of his diligence and acumen.
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