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CHAP. VI.

ALFRED's Public Conduct.

VI.

THE Conduct of kings affects the whole nation CHAP. which contemplates it. The fortunes of human nature are in their hands. Virtue and intellect flourish as their conduct is wise and moral; and nations prosper or decline, as the measures of the executive authority are salutary or ignoble.

ALTHOUGH his conduct, in the first part of his reign was objectionable, few sovereigns have shaped their conduct with more regard to the public happiness than Alfred, after his restoration. He seems to have considered his life but as a trust to be used for the benefit of his people; and his plans for their welfare were intelligent and great. His military exertions for the benefit of the nation, and their final successes, have been already commemorated. But although performed by him as necessary duties, they were uncongenial with his heart and mind. These turned, as soon as they were at liberty to pursue their natural bias, to nobler objects than war and bloodshed.

His predominant wish was the mental and moral improvement of his countrymen. His letter to his bishop, prefixed to his translation of Gregory's Pastorals, and already cited', breathes this principle throughout. To communicate to others the knowlege which we possess, he even states to be a religious duty. He laments the ignorance which overspread his land; he desires that all the youth,

1 From p. 17. of this volume.

V.

BOOK who had pecuniary means, should learn to read English; he gently censures former students who had not put their knowledge into a popular form, by translating it into the vernacular tongue; he devotes his own leisure, and he calls upon his literary clergy to devote theirs, to the translating into English the books they possessed. He led the way with taste and judgment in his historical and philosophical translations: he seems to place his glory in the intellectual advancement of his rude countrymen.

His correspondent, the French archbishop, also bears testimony to the same spirit. The translation of Gregory's Pastorals could have no other meaning than to rouse the clergy to labour for the moral emendation of his people; and, at the same time that we surrender this book to disapprobation, for its tendency to enchain the mind, it may be proper to remark, that the principle upon which the king recommended it to his clergy was unquestionably just. We cannot look round the world without perceiving how much the morality of a people depends upon the sagacity, the knowlege, and the virtue of its sacred preceptors. Why has the fair influence of true religion been lessening among us, but because the appointed guardians of our morals were not always careful to acquire the talents, to display the enlarged views, and to exert the conduct which will interest the thoughtless, impress the dissolute, and satisfy the doubting? In every age the world requires, from its moral teachers, example, persuasion, and conviction. The clergy of Alfred were not distinguished for either; and the king knew no other book which at

2 See before, p. 15. of this volume.

VI.

all aimed at educating them, to influence honour- CHAP. ably, as well as to exhort; nor was any other way at that time likely to be more efficacious than to increase the influence of the ecclesiastical order.

In the first days of society, and in its most im proved period, when religion and philosophy have become duly united and firmly seated in the heart, the patriarchal and the priestly character may be often most usefully united; but in the intermediate æras, when so many myriads are ignorant of religion, or indifferent to it, or prejudiced against it, if there be not a well educated, respected, and authorised clergy, it will depart from the young intellect amid the pressure of worldly objects, and become associated with degrading superstitions in the vulgar and older minds. Alfred could not at that time have pursued a wiser or more patriotic object than that of endeavouring to enlighten and improve the ecclesiastical body.

THE School which he established for his nobles3, and the masters which he provided for high and low, who were educated with his son Ethelweard', are proofs of his desire to augment the knowlege of his country.

His invitations to his court of learned foreigners and skilful artisans; his search around his dominions for men of literary attainments; and his munificent patronage to all whose talents came within his notice, concur to demonstrate his laudable anxiety to improve his people.

He lived in an age, when to promote the general welfare was an idea which seldom influenced the

3 Scholæ quam ex multis suæ propriæ gentis nobilibus studiosissime congregaverat. Asser, 67.

4 Cum omnibus pene totius regionis nobilibus infantibus et etiam multis ignobilibus, sub diligenti magistrorum cura traditus est. Asser, 43.

V.

5

BOOK conduct. His plans to benefit his subjects were therefore counteracted by their prejudices and their ignorance. Many of his royal exhortations were not obeyed; even the castles which he advised, or ordered his nobility to build, to protect their own lands, against the Northmen, were reluctantly begun. It often happened that the ravages, which his advice was meant to prevent, occurred before the landholders would obey his foresight. Then, when they had lost their families and property, they mourned their folly with a repentance, says Asser, that could neither restore their slain relations, redeem their captive friends, nor even support themselves with common subsistence."

BUT Alfred was not discouraged by the tardiness of his subjects. By mild expostulation, by reasoning, by gentle flattery, or by express command; or, in case of obstinate disobedience, by severe chastisement, he overcame the pertinacity of vulgar folly; and wisely made his bishops, earls, ministers, and public officers, exert themselves for the common benefit of all his kingdom. Among

other things, he was inflexible in exacting from all a competence for their offices. To produce this he compelled them to study literature. Even they who had been illiterate from their infancy, earls, governors, and ministers, were compelled to learn to read and write, choosing rather to endure the painful toil, than to lose their preferment. If from

5 This is a feature which Asser gives of his contemporaries, "Qui nullum aut parvum voluntarie pro communi regni necessitate vellent subire laborem." p. 58.

6 Asser, 60.

7 Ibid. 59.

8 So I construe the expressions, "Literatoriæ arti studerent." Asser, 71.

VI.

age, or peculiar dulness of intellect, they could CHAP. not be taught themselves, their son or some kinsman, or if none, some freeman or slave, educated for the purpose, was ordered to recite before them Saxon books, both day and night."

His public demeanour was very affable, mixed with decorous pleasantry; he was eager to join in the investigation of things unknown, for the curiosity of his mind was insuppressible.

MANY Francs, Frisians, and other neighbouring nations, willingly came to submit to his authority, both noble and ignoble. He loved them all like his own people, received them honourably, and gave them both money and power."

His bishops and clergy, his nobles and servants, he treated with paternal affection; he was indefatigable in his endeavours to educate such of their children as were in the royal court, in every valuable morality; and he himself did not disdain to assist in their scholastic tuition. 12

bassy to

His embassy to India, to the shrine of St. His EmThomas, is as expressive of his mind and public India spirit as any other action of his life. No other potentate in Europe could in that day have conceived it; because no other had acquired that knowledge which would have interested them in a country so remote and unknown. The embassy displays not only the extent of Alfred's inform

9 Asser, 71. These passages of Asser are very curious.

10 Et maxima et incomparabili contra omnes homines affabilitate atque jocunditate et ignotarum rerum investigationi solerter se jungebat. Asser, 44. 11 Asser, 44.

12 This I presume is the meaning of omnibus bonis moribus instituere et literis imbuere solus die noctuque inter cætera non desinebat. Asser, 44.

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