ECCENTRIC BIOGRAPHY. ABELARD (PETER), a celebrated doctor of the eleventh century, was born at Palais, near Nantz, in Britany, in 1079. He studied logic and metaphysics with great eagerness, and soon became a powerful disputant. He then applied to the study of divinity, and afterwards became a professor of philosophy: Fulbert, a wealthy canon, admired his talents, and took him into his house as a boarder, on condition that he should teach his niece, Heloise, the sciences. Abelard, anxious to enjoy all the sweets of life, acceded to the terms, and began to give lessons to the young lady; but he was so enamoured with the person and accomplishments of his scholar, that his lectures turned principally on the science of love. He now grew very indifferent about his public functions, and spent most of his time in composing amour ous ous verses. Heloise becoming pregnant, Abelard sent her to a sister of his in Britany, where she was delivered of a son, named Astrolabius. Fulbert, being informed of these particulars, turned Abelard out of doors. To soften the canon's rage, he offered to marry Heloise privately. The uncle was pleased with this proposal, but strange as it may appear, the niece wished rather to be the mistress than the wife of Abelard. At length, however, she consented to a private marriage; but she never would acknowledge it, and often solemnly protested that she was still unmarried. Her husband therefore sent her to the monastery of Argenteuil, where, at his desire, she put on a religious habit, but not the veil. The relations of Heloise, considering this as a second piece of treachery in Abelard, hired ruffians to emasculate him, who forced themselves into his chamber by night, and performed the task they had undertaken. This infamous treatment induced him to turn, monk in the abbey of St. Dennis, in order to conceal his confusion. He afterwards retired to a solitude in the diocese of Troyes, and there built an oratory, which he named the Paraclete, where many pupils resorted to him. In 1140, several propositions in his works were condemned as heretical; but at the request of the venerable Peter, abbot of Clugney, who had received him into his monastery, he escaped almost with impunity. After a life of extraordinary vicissitudes, Abelard died in the priory of St. Marcellus, near Chalons, April 21, 1142, in the 63d year of his age. age. The body was sent to Heloise, who deposited it in the Paraclete. The names of these two celebrated lovers are eternized by the epistles of Pope, and other poets. Heloise died in 1663, and was buried in the Paraclete. In 1780, the abbess, Madame de Roney, ordered their bones to be placed in a leaden coffin, and deposited under the altar. A monument of black marble with a suitable inscription was placed also over the spot. ALEXANDER the GREAT, was the son of Philip, king of Macedon, by his wife Olimpias, and born at Pella, the first year of the 106th Olympiad. At the age of fifteen years, he was delivered "to the tuition of Aristotle, and even then displayed an immoderate spirit of ambition; for being informed one day, that the king had obtained a great victory, he seemed uneasy, and said, "If his father went on at that rate, he would leave him nothing to do." At another time, when Philip expressed his surprize that he did not engage in the Olympic games, the youth replied, "Give me kings for my antagonists and I will instantly engage." At an early age he broke in his famous horse Bucephalus, which neither Philip nor any of his court could manage. On this occasion his father exclaimed, "O my son, thou must seek a kingdom elsewhere, for Macedon will not contain thee." At the death of his father, when he was twenty years of age, he ascended the throne of Macedon, and was chosen generalissimo in the intended expedition against Persia; but the Greeks deserting him, he resolved upon B 2 |