the city soon
became large, and wealthy, and powerful. It was intended as a
commercial post, and the wisdom and sagacity which Alexander
manifested in the selection of the site, is shown by the fact that the
city rose immediately to the rank of the great seat of trade and
commerce for all those shores, and has continued to hold that rank now
for twenty centuries.

There was an island near the coast, opposite the city, called the
island of Pharos. They built a most magnificent light-house upon one
extremity of this island, which was considered, in those days, one of
the wonders of the world. It was said to be five hundred feet high.
This may have been an exaggeration. At any rate, it was celebrated
throughout the world in its day, and its existence and its greatness
made an impression on the human mind which has not yet been effaced.
Pharos is the name for light-house, in many languages, to the present
day.

In building the city of Alexandria, Alexander laid aside, for a time,
his natural and proper character, and assumed a mode of action in
strong contrast with the ordinary course of his life. He was,
throughout most of his career, a destroyer. He roamed over the world
to interrupt commerce, to break in upon and disturb the peaceful
pursuits of industry, to batter down city walls, and burn dwellings,
and kill men. This is the true vocation of a hero and a conqueror; but
at the mouth of the Nile Alexander laid aside this character. He
turned his energies to the work of planning means to do good. He
constructed a port; he built warehouses; he provided accommodations
and protection for merchants and artisans. The nations exchanged their
commodities far more easily and extensively in consequence of these
facilities, and the means of comfort and enjoyment were multiplied and
increased in thousands and thousands of huts in the great cities of
Egypt, and in the rural districts along the banks of the Nile. The
good, too, which he thus commenced, has perpetuated itself. Alexandria
has continued to fulfill its beneficent function for two thousand
years. It is the only monument of his greatness which remains. Every
thing else which he accomplished perished when he died. How much
better would it have been for the happiness of mankind, as well as for
his own true fame and glory, if doing good had been the rule of his
life instead of the exception.

CHAPTER IX.

THE GREAT VICTORY.

B.C. 331

Alexander makes Tyre his