to prove a centre of culture for its neighbourhood. ‘Plain living and high thinking' was the rule of their cloisters, and a rule, for the most part well kept, down to the very end of their existence, making them for many a long century the salt of the earth in England, the influence which preserved for us religion, literature, art, and science, all that shines out most brightly in the personality of Alfred. It may well be that to Alfred we owe the principle which was formally embodied in the laws of his successors, and which still differentiates the Anglican Church from every other religious body, that every English clergyman should be entitled to ex-officio rank as a gentleman. Every parish priest was reckoned a 'thane,' a word which, originally signifying the attendant on a military chief, early became equivalent to 'gentleman,' as the word 'esquire,' by precisely the same development, has done since. § 7. And, while thus providing for the education of his people, Alfred was eaten up by anxiety for his own mental progress. Ever would he complain . . that he was ignorant in Divine wisdom and in the liberal Arts,' and even declare himself unable to read (ie. in the scholarly sense of the word), though he had gained some knowledge of almost every book in the world.' And, as lights to lighten him onwards,' he gathered round him a galaxy of the best intellects of the day, not only from his own dominions, but from neighbouring lands. Amongst these was Asser, a monk of St. David's, who somewhat unwillingly was brought to leave his native land for Saxony,' but who, when once under Alfred's spell, became the most devoted of adherents, and who has left us the most vivid picture of his hero and ours. The King rewarded his devotion by preferment after preferment, giving him at twilight one Christmas Eve' the two monasteries of Amesbury and Banwell, 'with a silken pall of great price, and as much incense as a strong man might carry'; and finally making him Bishop of Exeter. § 8. It was in 885 that Asser first became an inmate of Alfred's Court and in 893 he wrote his biography. He has all the charm of a Boswell in his naïve simplicity, and the straightforward self-satisfaction which mingles with his heroworship. Take, for example, the following anecdote : ་ § 9. In this year [887] did Alfred, King of the AngloSaxons, first begin, by Divine inspiration, on one and the selfsame day, the venerable feast of St. Martin, both to read and to interpret. But that I may explain this more fully . . . I will relate the cause. It came to pass on a certain day we were both sitting in the King's chamber, conversing on all kinds of subjects, as was our wont. And it chanced that I recited to him a quotation [testimonium] from a certain book. He listened attentively with all his ears, and pondered it deeply in his heart. Then suddenly showing me a book which he carried in his bosom, wherein were written the Daily Courses and Psalms and Prayers which he had read from his youth up, he bade me write therein that same quotation. Hearing this, and perceiving his willing wit and his devout eagerness for Divine wisdom, then gave I (though silently) boundless thanks to Almighty God, raising my hands towards heaven, that He had implanted in my King's heart such devotion to wisdom. § 10. But I could not find any empty space in the book wherein to write the quotation, for it was already quite full of many a matter; wherefore I made some small tarrying, chiefly thereby to stir up the bright intelligence of the King. . And when he urged me to make haste and write it speedily, I said unto him, "Wilt thou that I should write it on a separate leaf? For it is not certain but that we may yet find another such extract, or even more, than may please you. And should that so be, we shall be glad to have kept them separate." "Try that plan," he replied. Then gladly did I haste to make ready a fresh sheet [quaternio] at the beginning, whereon I wrote the extract even as he bade. And that selfsame day I wrote also on that sheet no less than three more quotations at his bidding, even as I had foretold. And every day after, as we talked, did we find other like passages, till the sheet grew wholly full. § II. 'Even as a busy bee rangeth far and wide, searching through the wilds [gronnios], even so did he ever eagerly get together many a flower of the Divine Scriptures, with which he filled to overflowing the cells of his heart . . . and set them in one book, as he might, one with another, by no regular plan, till it grew by degrees to the size of a Psalter. And this volume he called his Encheiridion, or Manual, or Handbook, because he kept it hard at hand both night and day, and drew therefrom, as he would say, no small comfort.' CHAPTER X. Alfred's publications-'The Consolations of Boethius'-Bede's 'History of the Anglican Church'-Orosius' 'History of the World '-Its purpose'Flowerets from St. Augustine'-Gregory's 'Pastoral Care.' SI did Alfred keep the comfort of his gathered NOR to have been published, as we learn from William of Malmesbury, though, unhappily, no copy of it is now known. And the amount of literary work which he produced is truly marvellous. He was continually bringing out book after book; and the above-named authority tells us that when he died he was engaged on yet another—a translation into English of the Psalter. In theology he translated and edited St. Gregory's 'Pastoral Care,' and a selection which he called Flowrets from St. Augustine'; in philosophy, 'The Consolations of Boethius'; in history, Orosius and Bede, the two leading authorities of the day on the subject in its general and English aspects respectively; besides re-editing the Anglo-Saxon( Chronicle, with amplifications which turn it from a mere dry record of names and dates to a living historical work. § 2. This way of dealing with his subject-matter is characteristic of Alfred. He invariably, even in his translations, made the work his own. As he says in his preface to Boethius, 'Sometimes he set word by word, sometimes meaning by meaning,' this latter phrase including exceedingly free handling of his author, to whose moralizings (especially in their metrical portions) he constantly gives an entirely new turn. In Boethius, Christian though he was, we find strangely little reference to the Christian sources of consolation. But to Alfred Christianity is everything, and he never fails to supply this lack in every poem that he renders. 3. Take, for example, the ode with which Boethius conIcludes his third book: 'Felix, qui potuit boni Terræ solvere vincula.' [Blest is the man who hath the power Blest, who hath power of this sad earth To loose the binding chain.] These opening lines, which might have been written by a pagan philosopher, are thus expanded and Christianized by Alfred : 'Lo! of all upon earth Is the happiest he Who hath heart to behold That clearest of waters That welleth in Heaven With light from the Highest : - Who eke from himself All swartness, all mist, All the murk of his mood, To scatter hath might. 'With God and His grace By tales of old time Thy thought will we teach, The highway to Heaven, That loved Native Land, Own Home of our souls.' After this exordium, Alfred proceeds to give a free prose translation, inserting such expressions as 'Well-a-way,' of the beautiful poem of Boethius on Orpheus, and deduces (at greater length) the same moral as the author; viz., that he who would Vlead his soul from darkness to light must never cast a longing eye backwards. § 4. The tragic story of Boethius is now almost forgotten, but for many centuries he was held as the most noteworthy of all exemplars of patience under unmerited adversity. Chaucer, near the end of the Middle Ages, as Alfred near their beginning, thinks it worth while to translate his 'Consolations of Philosophy' into English;-a task which, apart from its connection with their great names, no writer would nowadays care to enter |