tracts. The first were from the Scriptures, others from all subjects. Alfred was delighted with his new talent; and the book became a perpetual companion, in which he declared he had no small recreation.26 To John Erigena, to Grimbald, to Asser, and Plegmund, Alfred himself ascribes his acquisition of the Latin language.27 His desire to improve his people was so ardent, that he had scarcely made the attainment before he was active to make it of public utility. He beheld his subjects ignorant and barbarous, and he wisely judged that he should best amend their condition by informing their minds. Let us hear his own phrases giving voice and perpetuity to his patriotic and intelligent feelings. He first recalls to the mind of his correspondent, Alfred's that even the Anglo-Saxons had once been more preface. learned than he found them. "I wish thee to know that it comes very often into my mind what wise men there were in England, both laymen and ecclesiastics, and how happy those times were to England! how the kings, who then had the government of the people, obeyed God and his messengers how they both preserved their peace, their customs, and their power at home, and increased their territory abroad, and how they prospered both in wisdom and in war! The sacred profession was diligent both to teach and to learn, and in all the offices which they should do to God. Men from 26 Asser, 56, 57. In quo non mediocre, sicut tunc aiebat, habebat solatium. 27 Spe rpe ic hie zeleopnode æt Plezmunde, minum æɲcebircepe; and et Asserie, minum bircepe; and æt Lpimbolde, minum merseppeoste; and at Johanne, minum mesrepeopste. Alfred's Preface to his Gregory's Pastorals. Wise, p. 85. V. BOOK abroad sought wisdom and learning hither in this country, though we now must go out of it to obtain knowledge, if we should wish to have it." 28 THE king contrasts with this account the state of England in his time. "So clean was it fallen out of England, that there are very few on this side of the Humber who understand to say their prayers in English, or to translate any letter from Latin into English; and I know that there were not many beyond the Humber; so few were they, that I indeed cannot think of a single instance south of the Thames, when I took the kingdom." RECOLLECTING here the success of his own exertions, he exclaims, "Thanks be to Almighty God, that we have now some teachers in our stalls!" 29 THE father of his people, and the benevolent man, appear strikingly in the expressions which he continues to use: "Therefore I direct that you do, as I believe that you will, that you who have leisure for the things of this world, as often as you can, impart that wisdom which God has given you, wherever you can impart it. Think what punishments will come upon us from this world, if we shall have neither loved it ourselves, nor left it to others we shall have had only the name of Christians, and very few of their proper habits. "WHEN I recollect all this, I also remember how I saw, before that every thing was ravaged and burnt, that the churches through all the English nation stood full of vessels and books, and also of a great many of the servants of God." 28 This preface is published by Wise, at the end of his life of Asser, from the Bodleian MSS. Jun. 53. Wise, p. 82. THIS statement alludes to the times in which Bede flourished, and when Alcuin was educated; but after that period, the Saxon mind declined from its beginning literature. Other occupations occurred during the interval in which their octarchy was passing into a monarchy, from the feuds and wars, and mutations of fortune which this political crisis occasioned, which the Northmen's invasions increased, and which monopolised their time, passions, and activity. "THEY knew very little of the use of their books, because they could not understand any thing in them, as these were not written in their own language, which they spoke. Our ancestors, that held these places before, loved wisdom, and through this they obtained abundance of it, and left it to us. Here we may yet see their treasures, though we are unable to explore them; therefore we have now lost both their wealth and their wisdom, because we have not been willing with our minds to tread in their steps.20 "WHEN I remembered all this, then I wondered greatly that of those good wise men who were formerly in our nation, and who had all learnt fully these books, none would translate any part into their own language; but I soon answered myself and said, they never thought that men would be so reckless, and that learning would be so fallen. They intentionally omitted it, and wished that there should be more wisdom in the land, by many languages being known. "I THEN recollected how the law was first revealed in the Hebrew tongue, and that after the Greeks had learned it, they turned it all into their 30 Wise, p. 83. CHAP. I own language, and also other books; and the Latin THE wise, the active-minded, but unassuming "WHEN I remembered how the learning of the Latin tongue, before this was fallen through the English nation, and yet many could read English, then began I, among much other manifold business of this kingdom, to turn into English the book named Pastoralis, or the Herdsman's Book, sometimes word for word, sometimes sense for sense, so as I had learned of Plegmund, my archbishop; and of Asser, my bishop; of Grimbold, my mass priest; and of John, my mass priest; and as I understood and could most intellectually express it, I have turned it into English." 31 Wise, p. 84. 33 2 Ibid. p. 85. 33 Ibid. He concludes with, "I will send one copy to every bishop's seat in my kingdom; and on every one there shall be an æstel that t WHAT a sublime, yet unostentatious, character appears to us in these artless effusions! A king, though in nation, age, and education, almost a barbarian himself, yet not merely calmly planning to raise his people from their ignorance, but amid anxiety, business, and disease, sitting down himself to level the obstacles by his own personal labour, and to lead them, by his own practice, to the improvements he wished! 34 WE proceed to notice the translations of Alfred. The preceding preface mentions his determination to translate some books. The life of St. Neot says, that he made many books. Malmsbury affirms, that he put into English a great part of the Roman compositions; and the more ancient Ethelwerd declares, that the number of his versions was not known. 35 The first of these, which we shall consider as the most expressive exhibition of his own genuine mind, is his translation of Boetius. 36 CHAP. I. shall be of fifty manscuses; and I entreat in God's name, that no man take the æstel from the book, nor the book from the minister. It is uncertain how long there may be learned bishops such as now there are, thank God, every where. Hence I wish that they should always be at these places, unless the bishops should desire to have it with them, or to lend it any where, or to write another from it." Ibid. p. 86. What the stel meant that was to be so costly is not precisely known. 14" Eac is to pуtene tha se king Ælfped maneza bæc thuph Loder zapt zebyhte." Vita Sancti Neoti, p. 147. MSS. Cot. Vesp. D. 14. 5 Malmsb. p. 45. 36 Nam ex Latino rhetorico fasmate in propriam verterat linguam volumina, numero ignoto, &c. Ethelwerd, 847. |