of the influence, for two hundred years and more, of the "Pilgrim's Progress"! What could man desire better than for all these years to be a champion of religious liberty and the sturdy individualism which has done so much for the national character and the national history? It is a great ambition-there can be none greater; the glories that a State can offer the honour, the distinction, the wealth are insignificant before such an achievement. Let me be permitted to entertain the ambition, even though it is not destined to be fulfilled.

In the name, then, of everything that is dear to us and profitable to us; in the name of godliness, patience, resolution, frankness, wisdom, and self-sacrifice, let us endeavour to make Alfred better known to his great-grandchildren. We are all his great-grandchildren. Our an

cestors of a thousand years ago numbered all the people of Wessex, Kent, and Sussex, and among them the royal line of Cerdic, with Alfred as the common great-grandfather.

W. B.

II. THE AUTHORITIES

It may be asked at the outset, how we know all these things about Alfred. The sources of our information are many, but the things they tell us are few. First and foremost, there is the "Life of Alfred," by Asser, formerly Bishop of Sherborne. This document, about which there has been much discussion, was the work of a Welsh scholar and ecclesiastic, who was invited

by Alfred to join him at his Court to read aloud to him and to advise him in matters literary. Asser's work appears to have been mutilated and altered, or added to, in many places, but the greater part was always, undoubtedly, as we have it at the present day. There are many "undesigned coincidences" which prove the genuineness of the work. Thus, Asser was a descendant of the old British race, so goes out of his way to inform his readers of the British names of certain places. He tells us that the island of Thanet was called Ruim; that the village of Snotingaham is called by them Tigguocobane; that Wilton is situated near the ancient Guilon; and that Thornscetan is Durngueis. It is not likely that a forged document would take the trouble to invent these details. Moreover, there is little, except in one or two passages evidently interpolated and easily detected, which contains legend or tradition. The "Life" is a contemporary document left unfinished some five or six years before the king's death; the autobiographical parts bear every possible mark of truth; while, scattered here and there, are passages of irrepressible personal admiration and affection.

Thus Asser says

Alfred would avail himself of every opportunity to procure coadjutors in his good designs, to aid him in his strivings after wisdom, that he might attain to what he aimed at; and, like a prudent bird, which, rising in summer with the early morning from her beloved nest, steers her rapid flight through the uncertain tracks of ether, and descends

on the manifold and varied flowers of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, essaying that which pleases most, that she may bear it to her home, so did he direct his eyes afar, and seek without that which he had not within, namely, in his own kingdom."

And again

"Thus, like a most productive bee, he flew here and there, asking questions as he went, until he had eagerly and unceasingly collected many various flowers of Divine Scriptures, with which he thickly stored the cells of his mind."

These passages are hardly such as a writer at second hand, or the writer of a forged biography would set down. They have a spontaneous and personal air. From the beginning to the end, indeed, of the document the loyalty of Asser is conspicuous. It is no mere lip-worship that he offers; his love for Alfred is based upon years of the closest personal relations, in which the king's character, his greatness, his disinterested. labours, his modesty, his wisdom, his many noble qualities, have become gradually revealed to his private secretary. We could not have chosen a better biographer, though we might wish for more details, a continuation to the end, and a more carefully arranged Life.

Apart from these points, it is very strong testimony to the truth of this document that it is quoted copiously by the earlier chroniclers, especially Florence of Worcester, who died in 1118, and wrote somewhere about 1100, or two hundred years after Asser. Of course, a great deal may happen in two hundred years. At the

same time, the period 900 A.D. to 1100 A.D. can hardly be called one of great literary activity, nor was it a period in which, for no apparent motive, a forged document such as the "Life of King Alfred" was likely to be produced.

Had a pretended Life of Alfred been foisted upon the world, it would have been stuffed with fable, legend, and the attribution of works with which the king had no concern. Alfred speedily became the subject of song and of tradition. In the so-called "Proverbs of King Alfred," there occurs a song-

ALFRED.

"Englene Herd [England's Shepherd]
Englene Darling.

In Enkelonde he was king:

Alfred he was in Enkelonde a king

Wel swythe strong.

He was king and cleric,

Full well he loved God's work:

He was wise in his word,

And war [wary] in his work.
He was the wisest man

That was in England."

There is, next in importance to Asser's "Life," the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. This document was begun about the year 890; it was used, or consulted, by Asser, who wrote in 893. Its interest becomes really important when it arrives at the reign of Alfred himself. The work is, for the most part, what it purports to be, a mere chronicle, without much comment, of the principal events in each year, often losing, as is the

B

way with such chronicles, the proportion of things, keeping silence where we most desire information, and narrating things with which we are not concerned. It is, however, a record of the highest importance to the students of the age.

The historians and chroniclers who came later are valuable as repeating and enlarging the earlier brief statements.

Lastly, there are the writings of Alfred himself: his translations, his additions, enlargements, and observations, his contributions to geography, his exhortations and introductions, his code of law, and his will. These things furnish many details of the greatest importance in recovering and restoring the Wessex of King Alfred's time.

The facts, I repeat, are scanty. No Life of Alfred can be produced at the present day which adds anything to the facts already known. There is, however, a method of writing biography which may enlarge the work indefinitely. It is to reproduce things which belong to the time rather than the subject. The method has many dangers. For instance, when it is said that Alfred, as a boy, eagerly listened to the poetry of his native tongue, the biographer may go on to quote page after page of this poetry. In this way a biography may be swollen to the dimensions of an encyclopædia. Again, the subject may be treated by means of separate essays, each presenting the latest results of research. This method has been pursued in Bowker's "Alfred," in which the highest authorities, such