The Story of King Alfred

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Appleton, 1905 - 187 pages
 

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Page 132 - Keep ye the Law — be swift in all obedience — Clear the land of evil, drive the road and bridge the ford. Make ye sure to each his own That he reap where he hath sown ; By the peace among Our peoples let men know we serve the Lord!
Page 142 - I considered all this I remembered also how I saw before it had been all ravaged and burnt, how the churches throughout the whole of England stood filled with treasures and books, and there was also a great multitude of God's servants, but they had very little knowleclg'e of the books, for they could not understand anything of them because they were not written in their own language.
Page 158 - On a certain day we were both of us sitting in the king's chamber, talking on all kinds of subjects, as usual, and it happened that I read to him a quotation out of a certain book. He heard it attentively with both his ears, and addressed me with a thoughtful mind, showing me at the same moment a book which he carried in his bosom, wherein the daily courses and psalms, and prayers which he had read in his youth, were written, and he commanded me to write the same quotation in that book.
Page 143 - I had learnt it as I could best understand it, and as I could most clearly interpret it, I translated it into English...
Page 139 - But those things which I met with, either of the days of Ine, my kinsman, or of Offa, King of the Mercians, or of JEthelbryht, who first among the English race received baptism, those which seemed to me the Tightest, those I have gathered together, and rejected the others.
Page 50 - He was loved by his father and mother, and even by all the people, above all his brothers, and was educated altogether at the court of the king. As he advanced through the years of infancy and youth, his form appeared more comely than that of his brothers; in look, in speech, and in manners he was more graceful than they. His noble nature implanted in him from his cradle a love of wisdom above all things...
Page 142 - England that there were very few on this side of the Humber who could understand their rituals in English, or translate a letter from Latin into English; and I believe that there were not many beyond the Humber. There were so few of them that I cannot remember a single one south of the Thames when I came to the throne.
Page 143 - ... if we have tranquillity enough, that is, that all the youth now in England of free men, who are rich enough to be able to devote themselves to it, be set to learn as long as they are not fit for any other occupation, until that they are well able to read English writing : and let those be afterwards taught more in the Latin language who are to continue learning and be promoted to a higher rank.
Page 98 - Aller, near Athelney, and there king Alfred, receiving him as his son by adoption, raised him up from the holy laver of baptism on the eighth day, at a royal villa named Wedmore,* where the holy chrism was poured upon him.f After his baptism he remained twelve nights with the king, who, with all his nobles, gave him many fine houses.
Page 32 - War was no sooner over than the warrior settled down into the farmer, and the home of the peasant churl rose beside the heap of goblinhaunted stones that marked the site of the villa he had burned.

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