and afterward was a tutor there. He was installed pastor of the Presbyterian church at Charlotte Court House, Va., in 1827, and of the First Church of Trenton, N. J., in 1829. He was professor of Belles Lettres and Latin in Princeton College, 1833 to 1844, pastor of the Duane Street Church, New York, 1844 to 1849, and professor of ecclesiastical history, Church government, and sacred rhetoric in Princeton Seminary, 1849-51. When the Duane Street Church in New York was reorganized as the Fifth Avenue Church at the corner of Nineteenth Street, he again became its pastor and continued to be until his death, at Red Sweet Springs, Va., July 31, 1859. Among his many works are volumes of sermons: Plain Words to a Young Communicant (1854), Thoughts on Preaching (1804), The American Mechanic and Workingman (New York, 1847, 2 volumes), and a biography of his father (1854).
ALEXANDER, John Henry (1812-67). An American scientist, born at Annapolis, Md., and educated at St. John's College there. He was connected with the Maryland geological survey, and did much toward opening the coal fields of that State. He published, in 1840, a History of the Metallurgy of Iron. He was active in establishing a uniform standard of weights and measures throughout the United States, and published a Universal Dictionary of Weights and Measures (1850). He also strove for an international coinage between Great Britain and the United States. He was professor of physics for two years in St. James College, Md., and held a similar position at the University of Pennsylvania. Consult: Hilgard, Biographical Memoir of John H. Alexander (Washington, 1877); National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs, Volume I. ( Washington, 1866).
ALEXANDER, John White. (1856—). An American portrait and figure painter, born in Allegheny City, Pa. He was a pupil at the Royal Academy in Munich, and also studied under Frank Duveneck, with whom he went to Italy. Returning to New York in 1881, he soon attained the highest rank as a figure and portrait painter. Besides numerous portraits in European and American collections, his works include the portrait of Walt Whitman (Metropolitan Museum, New York), "The Pot of Basil" (Boston Museum), "In the Café" (Philadelphia Academy). "La Femme Rose" (Carnegie Gallery, Pittsburg), "The Green Bow" (Luxembourg, Paris), and six large mural decorations in the Congressional Library. Washington. It is the decorative quality in his works which first arrests attention; they have a quality of distinction and a marked effect of chiaroscuro.
ALEXANDER, Joseph Addison (1809-60). One of the most eminent American biblical scholars. He was the son of Dr. Archibald Alexander, and was born in Philadelphia, April 24, 1809. He was a pupil of his father, graduated at Princeton College in 1826, was adjunct professor there of ancient languages and literature from 1830 to 1833, instructor, associate professor, and professor of Oriental and biblical literature in Princeton Seminary from 1833 to 1850; of Church history and government from 1851 to 1860, of New Testament literature and biblical Greek in 1859 and 1860. Among his published writings are commentaries on The Psalms (New York, 1850, 3 volumes); Isaiah (1846-47, 2 volumes); Matthew (1860); Mark (1858); Acts (1856); all drawn largely from German sources. He was an admired preacher (Sermons, 1860, 2 volumes). He died at Princeton, N. J., Jan. 28. 1860. Consult his Life by H. C. Alexander (New York, 1869, 2 volumes).
ALEXANDER, Legend of. A famous but
largely fictitious account of the adventures of
Alexander the Great, which was the basis of many
romantic works in the Middle Ages. It origin-
ated probably at Alexandria, in Egypt. The his-
torical narrative of Callisthenes (q.v. ) having
been lost, there appeared about 200 A.D. under his
name (sometimes referred to as the pseudo-Cal-
listhenes) a Greek story, which represented Alex-
ander as really the son of Nectanebus, the last
king of Egypt, and credited him with a fabulous
series of exploits in connection with his actual
conquests. This was translated into Latin early
in the fourth century by Julius Valerius. His
version was subsequently abridged, particularly
in the account called Historia de Pro'.liis, by
Archbishop Leo, about the end of the tenth cen-
tury. About the twelfth century, the period of
the Chansons de geste of the cycle of Charle-
magne, several French poems were built upon the
Alexander Legend: the earliest was that of Al-
beric of Besancon, of which only the beginning is
extant; the best known is the great Chanson
d'Alexandre, by Lambert li Cors and Alexandre
de Bernay. The twelve-syllable lines in which
this was written gave its name to the Alexan-
drine verse. The Alexander of the Middle Ages
was essentially a mediæval knight depicted in
the manner of the romancer's own ideals. He became one of the "nine worthies," and one of the four "kings" in the game of cards. More or less original versions of the legend appear in poems of nearly every European country, and even in the Orient, where the story of the pseudo-Callisthenes was rendered into Syrian and Armenian as early as the fifth century. Some of the Slavic forms of the tale go back through Byzantium to this Eastern version. Of those in Western Europe, most notable after the French poems are perhaps those in German by Lamprecht, who translated that of Alberic, and by Rudolph of Hohenems, of the thirteenth century. An old English version of Julius Valerius is the poem called King Alisaunder. Consult: Paul Meyer, Alexandre le Grand, histoire de la légende d'Alexandre dans les pays romains (Paris, 1886); Spiegel, Die Alexandersage bei den Orientalen (Leipzig, 1851).
ALEXANDER, Mrs. See Hector, Annie.
ALEXANDER, Samuel (1859—). An English philosopher and educator, born at Sydney, N. S. W. He was educated at the University of Melbourne and at Balliol College, Oxford; was appointed scholar of Balliol in 1878 and was Fellow of Lincoln College from 1882 to 1893. In 1893 he was appointed to the chair of philosophy in Owens College (Victoria University). In addition to frequent important contributions to the International Journal of Ethics, to Mind, and other technical periodicals, he has written Moral Order and Progress (London, 1889).
ALEXANDER, Stephen (1806-83). An American astronomer. He was born at Schenectady, N. Y., and was educated at Union College and Princeton Theological Seminary. He re-
