II.

ALFRED on this brief passage pours out the CHAP. following ideas :

thoughts

on real

"If any powerful man should be driven from his country, His or should go on his lord's errand, and should then come to a foreign people, where no man knew him, nor he any one, nor greatness. indeed the language; dost thou think that his greatness would make him honourable in that land? But I know that it could not. If, then, dignity were natural to power, and were its own; or if the wealth of the rich were their own affluence, then they could not lose it. Were a person on any land soever, he would be there with what he possesed. His riches and his dignity would be with him; but because wealth and power have no merit of their own, they abandon him; and hence they have no natural good in themselves. Hence he loseth them, like a shadow or smoke, though false hope and imagination of weak men make power to be their highest good.

"Great men will be in one of two conditions, either in a foreign country, or in their own nation, with reasonable men : but both with these wise men, and with the foreigner, their power would be deemed nothing, after they had understood that they had not received it for any virtues: but from the praises of silly men. Yet, if wealth had any excellence of its own, or of nature, in its power, they would have it within them. Though they should lose their territory, they could not lose a natural good; but this would always follow them, and make them worthy in whatsoever land they were." 64

THE following extract shows the ease with which he translates his author when he chooses to adhere to him. Boetius has a passage on the effect of the vices on the characters of men, which Alfred thus expresses with a little expansion:

64 Alfred, p. 61.

65 In Boetius it is:- "As probity alone can raise any one above humanity, it follows that those whom wickedness throws down from the human condition, it lowers below the merit of a man. Therefore when you see any one transformed by vices, you cannot think him a man. Does a violent plunderer of another's property glow with avarice? You may say he is like a wolf. Does a fierce and unquiet one exercise his tongue in strife? He is to be compared to a dog. Does a betrayer rejoice to have surprised by secret fraud? He is on a level with foxes. Does he rage with intemperate anger? Believe that he carries the soul of a lion:" &c. &c. lib. iv. pr. 3.

BOOK

V.

On birth.

"But as the goodness of men raiseth them above human nature, to this that they be exalted to divine; so also their evilness converts them into something below human nature, to the degree that they may be named devils. This we say should not be so; for if thou findest a man so corrupted, as that he be turned wholly from good to evil, thou canst not with right name him a man, but an animal. If thou perceivest of any man that he be covetous, and a plunderer, thou shalt not call him a man but a wolf. And the fierce person that is restless, thou shalt call a hound, not a man. And the false, crafty one, a fox. He that is extremely moody, and enraged, and hath too great fury, thou shalt call a lion, not a man. The slothful that is too slow, thou shalt term an ass, more than a man. The unseasonably fearful person, who dreads more than he needs, thou mayest call a hare, rather than man. Thou mayest say of the inconstant and light minded, that they are more like the winds or the unquiet fowls, than steady men. And if thou perceivest one that pursues the lusts of his body, he is most like fat swine, who always desire to lay down in foul soils, and will not wash themselves in clear waters; or if they should, by a rare chance, be swimming in them, they throw themselves again on their mire, and wallow therein." 66

ALFRED adds much of his own to Boetius's remarks on nobility, as :

"Think now first of noble birth. If any one should glory in this, how idle and how fruitless would that glory be ! Because every one knows that all men come from one father and one mother."

THIS reason is the addition of Alfred: he also inserts the following passages from himself:

"Or again of fame among the multitude, or their praise. I know that we rejoice at this; although those persons now seem illustrious, whom the people praise, yet they are more illustrious and more justly to be applauded, when they are made worthy by their virtues; for no man is so by right from any other advantage.

"Art thou more beautiful for other men's beauty? A man will be full little the better, because he hath a good father, if he himself is but nought.

66 Alfred, p. 113, 114.

"Therefore, I teach, that thou mayest rejoice in other men's goods, and their nobility; for this chiefly, that thou dost not prepare thy own self; because every man's good and nobility is more in his mind than in his flesh." 67

HE now adds, paraphrasing the words of Boetius 68:

"This alone I yet know to be good in nobility: that it makes many men ashamed of being worse than their elders were; and therefore they strive all their power, that they may become better in some habits, and may increase their virtues."

WITH the same nobleness of mind, he paraphrases and adds .sentiments to the sixth metrum of Boetius 69, which would surprise us from any other king, than the great-minded, wise, and moral Alfred.

"What! all men had a like beginning; because they all come of one father and one mother. They all are yet born alike. This is no wonder; because God alone is the Father of all creatures. He made them all, and governs all. He gave us the sun's light, and the moon, and placed all the stars. He created men on the earth. He has connected together the soul and the body by his power, and made all men equally noble in their first nature. Why then do ye arrogate over other men for your birth without works? Now you can find none unnoble. But all are equally noble, if you will think of your beginning creation, and the Creator, and afterwards of your own nativity; yet the right nobility is in the mind. It is not in the flesh, as we said before. But every man that is at

67 Alfred, p. 66, 67. 68 Which are: "If there be any good in nobility, I think it is this alone, that a necessity seems to be imposed on the noble, that they should not degenerate from the virtue of their ancestors." Lib. iii. prosa 6.

69 Boetius says: "All the human race arises on earth from a like origin. There is one Father of things: one administers all things. He gave the sun his rays, and he gave the moon her horns. He gave men to the earth, and stars to the sky. He has enclosed in limbs, souls derived from a lofty seat. Therefore a noble germ has produced all mortals. Why do you boast of your race and ancestors? If you look at your beginnings and your Author, God, you will perceive that no one lives ignobly born." Lib. iii. met. 6.

CHAP.

II.

BOOK

V.

all subjected to his vices, forsakes his Creator, and his first creation, and his nobility; and thence becomes more ignoble than if he were not nobly born." 79

ALFRED adapts to his own times a passage of Boetius, which he rather imitates than translates, and thereby gives us a lively picture of the habits and pursuits of his day, with an allusion to his own sufferings:

"Dost thou then mean to be covetous for money? Now thou mayest no how else get it, except thou steal it, or plunder it, or find it hidden, or there increase thyself with it, where you lessen it to others.

"Wouldest thou now be foremost in dignities? But if thou wilt have them, thou must flatter very miserably and very humbly those that may assist thee to them. If thou wilt make thyself better and worthier than many, then shalt thou let thyself be worse than some. How is not this then some portion of unhappiness, that a man so brave should cringe to those that can give it?

"Desirest thou power? But thou shalt never obtain it free from sorrows from foreign nations, and yet more from thine own men and kindred.

"Yearnest thou for glory? But thou canst never have it without vexations; for thou wilt always have something contrary and unpleasing.

"Dost thou wish to enjoy thine unrestrained desires? But then thou wilt despise God's commandments, and thy wearied flesh will have the command of thee; not thou of that. How can a man become more wretched, than by being subject to his wearying flesh, and not to his reasoning soul?"71

We now come to a series of thoughts on kings, in which Alfred largely adds to those of Boetius. 72

72 The passage of Boetius is: "Do kingdoms or the familiarity of kings make you powerful? Why not? Since their felicity lasts perpetually. But antiquity is full of examples, the present age is full of them, in which the felicity of kings has been changed by calamity. Oh, excellent power! which is not found to be sufficiently efficacious to its own preservation. Yet if this power of kingdoms were the author of blessedness, would it not, if failing in any part, lessen our

II.

They display his feelings on kingly power used for CHAP. oppression; his magnanimity in alluding to his own. anxieties and vicissitudes; his estimate of sovereign greatness; his reasoning cast, and effusion of consecutive thought, and his flowing style:

"Dost thou now think that the friendship and society of kings, On kings and the wealth and power which they give to their favourites, may make any man happy or powerful?

"Then answered I, and said: Why may they not? What is in this present life more pleasant and better than the retinue of the king, and to be near him and the wealth and power that follow.'

"Then answered Wisdom, and said: Tell me, now, whether thou ever heardest, that these things always continued with those who have been before us; or dost thou think that any may always keep what they now possess? Dost thou not know that all books are full of the examples of men that lived before is? and every man knows, that of those who now are alive, the power and affluence have changed with many kings, till they have become poor again.'

"Oh, this a very admirable felicity, that neither may support itself nor its lord, so that he need no more help, or that they be both retained!'

"How is your highest happiness the power of kings, and yet, if there be any failure of his will to any king, then that diminishes his power and increaseth his misery! Hence this your happiness will always be in some things unblessed.

"But kings! though they rule many nations, yet they rule not all those that they would govern; and for this they are so wretched in their minds; because they have not something which they would have.

“Therefore, I know, that the king who is rapacious hath more misery than power.'

felicity and introduce misery. But though human empire should be widely spread, yet it must abandon many nations over whom every king cannot reign. Wherever the power that makes us happy ceases, that impotence enters which makes us miserable. Therefore kings must have a larger portion of misery." Boetius, lib. iii. prosa 5.

73 Alfred, p. 62, 63.