ALEMETH
138
ALEXANDER
His unnatural parents exposed him, soon after his birth, near the church of St. Jean le Rond, and hence his Christian name. After he became eminent, his father recognised him and gave him a pension. In childhood he displayed great precocity of talent, and in 1730 he entered the College Mazarin, where he had a Jansenist tutor, studied mathematics and philosophy, and wrote a commentary on the Epistle to the Romans. After leaving college he attempted to study medicine, and afterward law; but rinding his turn for mathe- matics all-powerful, he determined to live on his small pension of 1200 francs a year and devote himself to free studies. At twenty-three he was admitted a mem- ber of the Academy of Sciences, and in 1741 he pub- lished his "Treatise on Dynamics," which was fol- lowed by successive publications in mathematical science, all of the first rank, but which do not fall within our province to notice. About 1750 he joined with Diderot in the Encyclopcedk, to which he com- municated many articles, and also the preliminary "Discourse." In 1754 he became a member of the French Academy; and in 1759 he published his Ele- ments of Philosophy. After the peace of 1763 D'Alem- bert was invited by Frederick the Great to fill the office of president of the Academy of Berlin, and tho empress of Russia had also solicited him to superin- tend the education of her children. Having refused, however, both these appointments, he was, in 1772, nominated perpetual secretary to the French Academy, a position in which he wrote seventy eloges of deceased members. In the latter part of his life he was at- tacked with calculus, and died of that disease in his sixty-sixth year. His miscellaneous writings are col- lected in CEuvrcs litteraires, edited by Bastien (Paris, 1805, 18 vols. 8vo ; new ed. Paris, 1821, 5 vols. 8vo, the best). As a philosopher, D'Alembert was a disci- ple of Locke, and carried out his principles to their ul- timate conclusion in scepticism and materialism. He never wrote as vulgarhy or violently against Chris- tianity as Voltaire, but he was quite as far gone in unbelief. As to the existence of God, he thought the "probabilities" were in favor of Theism ; as to Chris- tianity, he thought the "probabilities" were against Revelation. — Hoefer, PAog. Generale, i, 783; Tenne- mann, Manual Hist, of Philosophy, § 379.
Ale'meth, the name of two persons, and also of a place ; of two forms in the original.
1. (Heb. Ale'meth, TX&V, in pause Ala'meth, nX&S, covering, otherwise adolescence ; Sept. 'E\i)tp.'t3 v. r/EX/^fStju, Vulg. Almath, Auth. Vers. "Alameth.") The last named of the nine sons of Becher the son of Benjamin (1 Chron. vii, 8), B.C. post 1856.
2. (Ileb. same as preced. ; Sept. VaXsped and r«X«- fiad, v. r. SaXaijuoS', Vulg. Ala?nath.) The first named of the two sons of Jehoadah or Jarah, son of Ahaz, of the posterity of King Saul (1 Chron. viii, 36 ; ix, 42), B.C. post 1037.
3. (Heb. Alle'meth, PlttkS, but other copies same as the foregoing, with which the signif. agrees ; Sept. rnX>nit3 v. r. r«Xtjua'3, Vulg. Almath.) A sacerdotal city of the tribe of Benjamin (1 Chron. vi, 60) ; doubt- less the same elsewhere (Josh, xxi, 18) called Almon (q. v.).
Aleph. See Ai.niA.
Aleppo. See Helbon.
Ales, or Alesius, Alexander, a Lutheran di- vine, born at Edinburgh 1500, and educated at St. An- drew's, where lie afterward became canon. Employ- ed to influence Patrick Hamilton (q. v.) to recant, he was so impressed by Hamilton's arguments, and by his constancy at the stake, that he embraced the reformed doctrines himself. In 1532 he went to Germany, and visited Luther and Melancthon, with whom he became intimate. In 1534 he came to England on the invita- tion of Cranmei, and was appointed professor of theol-
ogy at Cambridge. Cranmer employed him in trans- lating the English liturgy into Latin. In 1540 he re- turned to Germany, and was professor first at Frank- fort-on-the-Oder and afterward at Leipsic, where he died 1565. In the Synergestic controversy (q. v.) he maintained the necessity of good works. His principal works are, 1. De necessitate et merito bonorum operum (1560) : — 2. Commentarii in Evangelium Joannis, et in utramque Epistolam ad Timotheum: — 3. Eupositio in Psalmos Davidis : — 4. De Justifcatione, contra Osian- drum: — 5. DeSancta Trinitate, cum confutatione erroris Valentini : — 6. Eespo7isio ad triginta et duos art&ulos theologorum Loveniensum. Also a Latin work on the right of the laity to read the Scriptures in the vernac- ular tongue, and a defence of that work against Coch- laeus.— Hook, Eccl. Biog. i, 130 ; Burnet, Hist, of Ref- ormation, i, 345 ; ii, 247 ; Proctor on Common Prayer, 65, 66.
Alexan'der CA\i'£av?(iov., man-defnder, a title often bestowed by Homer upon Paris, son of Priam, and hence a frequent Grecian name), the name of sev- eral men mentioned or involved in Biblical histor}", or in the Apocrypha and Josephus.
1. The third of the name, surnamed The Great, son (by Olympias) and successor of Philip, king of Macedon. He is not expressly named in the Bible, but he is denoted in the prophecies of Daniel by a leopard with four wings, signifying his great strength, and the unusual rapidity of his conquests (eh. vii, 6); also by a one-horned he-goat, running over the earth so swiftly as not to touch it, attacking a ram with two horns, overthrowing him, and trampling him under foot, without any being able to rescue him (viii, 4-7). The he-goat prefigured Alexander; the ram Darius Codomannus, the last of the Persian kings. In the statue beheld by Nebuchadnezzar in a dream (ii, 39), the belly of brass was the emblem of Alexander, and the legs of iron designated his successors (Lengerke, Dan. p. 95 sq.). He is often mentioned in the books of the Maccabees (Wernsdorf, Dejidc libror. Mace. p. 40 sq.) ; and his career is detailed hy the historians Arrian, Plutarch, and Quintus Curtius (Droysen, Gesch. Alex. d. Gr. Berl. 1833, Hamb. 1837).