nothing should be taken away, or injured, that was in the churches. Soon after that, on the third day, they went out of the city of their own accord. There was not a single house burnt by their order.21 This sacking of Rome, however, afforded the Romans a pretence for accusing Christianity of being the cause of the affliction and ruin, which had befallen the empire. These heathens asserted that Christianity had been injurious rather than beneficial to mankind, alleging, that, before the coming of Christ, the world was blessed with peace and prosperity; but that, since they had changed their old religion for Christianity, victory had entirely forsaken the Romans, and both their glory and empire had declined; for, the gods, filled with indignation to see their worship neglected, and their altars abandoned, had visited the world with those plagues and desolations, which were still on the increase. 22 S. Augustine wrote his celebrated treatise, "The city of God," to shew the absurdity of this assertion, and to prove, by historical facts, how much the world had been ameliorated by revelation. This work, in defence of Christianity, appears to have been immediately commenced by S. Augustine: it is full of matter and profound erudition. It naturally occupied much of his thoughts, and was a subject of discussion with his friends, especially with Orosius. A man, so full of zeal as Orosius, would soon enter warmly into the subject, and he was readily induced, at the request of his friend, to write a work to prove from the facts of general history, what S. Augustine had shewn from the history of the Church-the city of God-that the preaching of peace on earth and good will toward men' could never be the cause of increasing the misery of mankind. This is the origin of the compendious History of the world by Orosius. It is written, on Christian principles, as a defence or an apology of Christianity. The tone pervading the work is that of a Christian, impressed with a proper sense of justice and humanity, deprecating ambition, conquest and glory, gained at the expense of human blood and human happiness. This History of Orosius was undertaken at the request of S. Augustine and dedicated " to him. Orosius commenced writing about A. D. 410, when Honorius was emperor of the West, and when S. Augustine had finished ten books of his City of God." 21 See this translation of King Alfred's Orosius, b. VI, c. 38, § 1. 22 Mosheim's Eccl. Hist., Cent. V, Pt 1, c. II, § 2. 23 Præceptis tuis parui, beatissime pater Augustine. Haver. p. 1. Totum tuum [est], quod ex te ad te redit, opus meum. I». p. 3. 24 Hanc historiam conscripsit Orosius, nimirum post Romam captam sub Honorio Imperatore, anno Christi CCCCX. Quum ergo Augustinus jam decimum de Civitate Dei perfecisset, atque jam undecimum conscriberet, tum Orosius noster hæc scribere aggressus Part of it was composed in Africa," and it was probably finished about A. D. 416, at which date the work closes. The highest authorities continued to speak, in the strongest terms, in favour of this History. From many others, one only is here quoted. Pope Gelasius the First, in a council of seventy bishops, held at Rome in A. D. 494, praised Orosius as a most learned man, who had, with wonderful brevity," written a work against heathen perversions. The reputation of this History was so great, in the time of King Alfred, that he determined to transfer the substance of it from the original Latin into Anglo-Saxon, for the benefit of his subjects; but in doing this, he often imitated rather than translated, and frequently added new illustrative clauses, and sentences of his own, and occasionally new paragraphs. At other times, he abridged what appeared to him less important, and passed over what was not to his purpose. Thus, by omitting the last four chapters of the fifth book, and the first three with a few others in the sixth, the king brought the substance of the fifth and sixth books of the original Latin, into the fifth book of his Anglo-Saxon work. Alfred's sixth book is, therefore, the seventh of Orosius, in which most of the chapters are much abridged, and the last three omitted. Alfred did not think the dedication and the first chapter of Orosius adapted for his subjects, he did not therefore insert them; but he still kept up a unity of design in his work, as will appear from the following short sketch of it. In book I, he gives a geographical description of the whole **world, then known, with a summary of general history from the earliest period to the building of Rome, A. M. 3251, and B. C. 753-Book II, after a reference to the creation, and the four great empires, describes the foundation of Rome, the wars of the Romans and Sabines, the affairs of Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes, Leonidas, etc. and concludes with the capture of Rome by the Gauls, A. M. 3608, and B. C. 396-Book III speaks of the affairs of the Lacedæmonians, Persians, Romans, Gauls, Carthaginians, Latins, Mæcedonians, etc. and ends with the death of Seleucus about the year A. M. 3714, and B. C. 290-Book IV contains the history of Rome from the wars of Pyrrhus to the fall of Carthage, A. M. 3853, and B. C. 151.-Book V, including the Vth and VIth books of Orosius, comprises the period from the taking of Corinth to the birth of our SAVIOUR, A. M. 4004.-Book VI,-the VIIth of Oroest. Fabricius. Haver, p. 4, note 24.—SEE, also, this edition of Alfred's Orosius, B. VI, c. 37, § 1. 25 Nunc me Africa excepit. Haver. 1. V. c. II, p. 288. 26 Orosium, virum eruditissimum, collaudamus, quia valde necessaria adversus paganorum calumnias ordinavit, miraque brevitate contexuit. Haver. p. XXVIII.-Dupin, Tom. III, Pt II, p. 175, and 180. sius, recapitulates the succession of the four great empires, and continues the history of Rome from the accession of Tiberius Cæsar, A. D. 14 to A. D. 416, A. M. 4420, including an account of the greatest event of the age, the taking and sacking of Rome by Alaric in A. D. 410. In the first book especially, Alfred introduced much new matter and added considerably to the geography of Europe. These geographical additions prove that he had recourse to original sourses for information. He then left his author and stated, from the best authorities of his age, all the particulars of Europe, that he could collect, filling up the chasm between the time of Orosius, the commencement of the fifth century, and his own, the end of the ninth century. This is the only geography of Europe, written by a contemporary, and giving the position of the Germanic nations, so early as the ninth century. Besides this geography of Europe, composed by Alfred, the king inserts the very interesting voyages of Ohthere a Norwegian navigator and of Wulfstan. Ohthere, wishing to search out how far the land lay due north, or whether any man dwelt to the north," " sailed by the coast of Norway round the North Cape into the White-Sea; 2 and afterwards into the Baltic." 28 Wulfstan's voyage was confined to the Baltic." These voyages were written by the king, from the relation of these intrepid navigators; for, in the narration, Wulfstan uses a pronoun of the first person plural. "1 31 The simplicity of the narration bears the impress of truth, the former beginning thus :-" Ohthere told his lord, King Alfred, that he dwelt north-most of all the northmen." "Ohthere was a man of great wealth," and his strict adherence to truth in his narrative may be concluded, from his refusing to vouch for any thing, of which he could not bear personal testimony. He says: "The Biarmians told him many stories both about their own land, and about the countries, which were around them; but he knew not what was true, because he did not see it himself.34 These important additions and separate essays of King Alfred, are very interesting, as his original composition; and valuable, because they contain information relative to the geography of Europe, not otherwise to be obtained, and because they are authentic pictures of the manners and of the political condition of a great part of the north, in the ninth century. The following literal English translation, from the Anglo-Saxon of King Alfred, 27. See b. I. c. 1, § 13. 28. 31. Id. § 20. 32. Id. § 14-17. 29. Id. § 18, 19. 33. Id. § 15. 30. Id. § 20-23 31. Id. § 14. is, therefore, not a mere translation of what Alfred selected from If then new views be given, or old opinions advanced, apparent- ETWALL, UTTOXETER, JOSEPH BOSWORTH. CONTENTS.' BOOK I. Here beginneth the book, which men call OROSIUS. 2 CHAPTER I. How our elders divided all the globe into three parts, § 1, 5.- 1 The original Latin work of Orosius has no part of this Table of Contents; the whole 2 What is placed between the brackets is not in Anglo-Saxon: it is inserted to complete GERMANIA, 11.-of the East Franks, Bavarians, Bohemians, Frisians, Danes, Angles, Old-Saxons, etc. § 12.-The first voyage of Ohthere 13.-of the Biarmians § 14.-Ohthere a rich man, § 15.-of the country of the Northmen, § 16.—Of Sweden, § 17.— Öhthere's second voyage, § 18. He sails into the Baltic, § 19.— Wulfstan's voyage, $20.-Customs of the Esthonian cerning the dead, § 21.-Horse races, § 22. Of keeping the dead, § 23.- Of Greece, § 24.-Of Italy, § 25.-Of Gallia Belgica, & Spain, § 27.-Of Britain, § 28.-Extent of AFRIC 31.-Of Byzantium, Carthage, Numidia, § 32.-Islands in the MEDITERRANEAN, § 33.-The Cyclades or Dodekanista, § 34.-Of Sicily, § 35.-Of Sardinia, § 36.—Of Corsica, § 37.—The Balearic How Ninus, king of Assyria, first began to reign over the men How the fire from heaven burnt up the land, on which the two How the inhabitants of Candia and Scarpanto fought with each How the righteous man, Joseph, saved the people of Egypt from the seven year's great famine by his wisdom; and how they afterwards, according to his appointment, gave every year the fifth How in Achaia, there was a great flood in the days of king How Moses led the people of Israel from Egypt over the Red How, in one night, there were fifty men slain in Egypt by |