Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

ALEXANDER FALLS SICK. 29
seen these wondrous things he gave orders for
them to be demoHshed and destroyed. Now when
Aristotle his teacher heard this he ordered him
not to lay waste or destroy any of them what-
soever, saying, "He Who hath made these things
"is able both to help and to advance, or to ob-
"struct by their means him that maketh himself
"subject unto Him"; but Alexander hearkened not Alexander
unto him, and he gave orders to demolish them,t''hesrwon-
and so destroyed them. '!"'.°"''
.' things.
And it came to pass that after this Alexander
kept his strength but a short time before destruction
came upon him, for a mighty fever laid hold He faiis sick.
upon him and he perished thereby. And he wrote
a letter of consolation, and sent it to his mother
[Olympias] [p. 168] by his scribe Rahaman. Then
he commanded [his soldiers] to carry him to
Alexandria after the writing of this letter of con-
solation, which ran thus:— "In the Name of God,
"the Merciful the Gracious.'"
Behold, now, the men of knowledge and under-
standing in the city of Alexandria are divided in
their opinions about what was given to him, and Alexandrian
they have studied carefully the writings' which ^jexander."
they had in their hands which spake of all his
acts and deeds in the Greek, and Roman, and
Coptic, and Berber, and Arabic languages, and those
who after them have learned to make investigations
on the subject of him and his work, and about
' Strike out oo^^^ : ^ Read hoo^ih^^ ••
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