him that he should find out the middle way between severe and agreeable fortune, that he may not desire a more pleasant one, nor more enjoyment than will be suitable to him; nor again, a severer fortune; for this reason, that he may not suffer any thing unbecoming. But it is in their own power which of these they should choose. If then they will find out this middle path, then shall they themselves moderate their good fortune, and their enjoyments. Then will God mitigate to them all severe fortune, both in this world and that which is to come, so as that they may bear it.'" 79

ALFRED now omits all the seventh metre of Boetius but the last three verses and a half 80; and these he enlarges upon into this animated exhortation, which obviously issues from his heart:

"Well! O wise men! Well! Go all into the way which the illustrious examples of those good men, and those worthy heroes that were before you, lead you. Oh! ye slothful and idle loiterers, why will ye be so unprofitable and so enervated? Why will ye not ask after the wise and the worthy; such as they were that lived before you? and why will ye not then, after you have inquired into their customs, listen to them the most earnestly you may? For they struggled after worship in this world, and toiled for a good fame by good works, and wrought a good example for those that should be after them. Hence they dwell now above the stars in everlasting blessedness for their good works." 81

AFTER a discussion that the five most desired things of human life are, wealth, power, worship, fame, and pleasure; and that all these fail to give true happiness, their conversation turns upon what is the supreme good in which this can be obtained. All this part is translated by Alfred with the same

79 Alfred, 136-138.

80 There are in Boetius: "Go now, ye brave! where the lofty way of a great example leads you. Why should you, inert, uncover your backs? The earth, when conquered, gives us the stars." Lib. iv. met. 7.

81 Alfred, p. 138.

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BOOK spirit and freedom, and vivacity of dialogue, of which we have already given specimens. Alfred, at length, adds of his own:

Alfred's philosophi

"That, methinketh, would be the true and perfect felicity, that would give to its followers permanent affluence and eternal power, and perpetual reverence, and everlasting fame, and fulness of joy ;"

and asks Wisdom to inform him where this is to be found; who, reminding him that Plato advised us to implore the Divine help in small things as well as in great, proceeds to utter that noble address to the Deity, of which Dr. Johnson has so finely translated the beginning and the conclusion into those beautiful lines already cited.

PARTS of this address are very fine in Boetius, but the whole is finer in Alfred; for it is made more natural, more flowing from the heart, and more expanded, both in the feeling and the illustrations. It is a noble specimen of Alfred's lofty and enlarged, and even philosophical theism-the best foundation, and most attractive support of Christianity. He mingles with his devotion all the natural philosophy he possessed. Our ancient king has added to it so much of his own as to make it almost his original composition.

THE extent of his additions will be perceived when the reader is told that the passage occupies 28 lines in Boetius 82, and 131 in Alfred:

"O Lord! How great and how wonderful art thou! Thou!

82 That the reader may perceive what is Alfred's own, we shall add a version of his original. It begins, "O THOU, who governest the world with continual reason! Author of the earth and heaven! who commandest time to move from eternity, and, stable and enduring thyself, givest all things to be moved! Whom external causes have not impelled to form the work of flowing matter, but the innate form of the supreme good, void of all envy." Boetius, lib. iii. met. 9.

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cal address

to the

that all thy creatures, visible and also invisible, hast wonderfully made, and wisely dost govern. Thou! who the courses of time, from the beginning of the world to the end, hast established in such order, that from Thee they all proceed, and to Thee return. Thou! that all moving creatures stirrest to Deity. thy will, while thou Thyself remainest ever tranquil and unchangeable. Hence none exists mightier than THOU art; none like THEE. No necessity has taught Thee to make what thou hast made; but, of Thine own will, and by Thy own power, THOU hast created all things. Yet THOU hast no need

of any.

"Most wonderful is the nature of THY goodness, for it is all one, Thou and Thy goodness. Good comes not from without to THEE; but it is Thine own, and all that we have of good in this world, and that is coming to us from without, proceeds from THEE. Thou hast no envy towards any thing.

"None, therefore 83, is more skilful than THOU art. No one is like Thee; because Thou hast conceived and made all good from thine own thought. No man has given Thee a pattern; for none of these things existed before Thee to create any thing or not. But THOU hast created all things very good and very fair; and THOU Thyself art the highest and the fairest good.

"As THOU Thyself didst conceive, so hast Thou made this world; and Thou rulest it as Thou dost will; and Thou distributest Thyself all good as Thou pleasest. Thou hast made all creatures alike, or in some things unlike, but Thou hast named them with one name. Thou hast named them collectively, and called them the World. Yet this single name Thou hast divided into four elements. 84 One of these is Earth; another Water; the third, Air; the fourth Fire. To each of these Thou hast established his own separate position; yet

83 Boetius proceeds: "Thou leadest all things by thy superior example. Fairest of all thyself! Thou bearest the fair world in thy mind, forming it in a resembling image, and commanding the perfect to have perfect parts. Lib. iii. met. 9.

84" Thou bindest the elements by numbers, that cold may suit with flame, and the dry with the liquid, lest the purer fire should fly off, or their weight lead the earth to be submerged. Thou connecting the middle soul that moves all things of threefold nature, resolvest it through consonant members. When divided, it assembles motion into two orbs, goes on to return into itself, circles round the profound mind, and turns heaven with a similar impress." Boetius, ibid.

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each is classed with the other; and so harmoniously bound by Thy commandment, that none of them intrudes on the limits of the other. The cold striveth with the heat, and the wet with the dry. The nature of the earth and water is to be cold. The earth is dry and cold; the water wet and cold. The air then is called either cold or wet, or warm; nor is this a wonder, because it is made in the middle between the dry and the cold earth and the hot fire. The fire is the uppermost of all this world's creations.

"Wonder-like is Thy plan, which THOU hast executed, both that created things should have limits between them, and be also intermingled; the dry and cold earth under the cold and wet water, so that the soft and flowing water should have a floor on the firm earth, because it cannot of itself stand. But the earth preserves it, and absorbs a portion, and by thus imbibing it the ground is watered till it grows and blossoms, and brings forth fruits. But if the water did not thus moisten it, the earth would be dried up and driven away by the wind like dust and ashes.

"Nor could any living creature enjoy the earth, or the water, or any earthly thing, for the cold, if THOU didst not a little intermix it with fire. Wonderful the skill with which Thou hast created that the fire should not burn the water and the earth. It is now mingled with both. Nor, again, can the water and the earth, entirely extinguish the fire. The water's own country is on the earth, and also in the air, and again, above the sky but the fire's own place is over all the visible creatures of the world; and though it is mingled with all the elements, yet it cannot entirely overcome any of them; because it has not the leave of the Almighty.

:

"The earth, then, is heavier and thicker than the other elements, because it is lower than any other except the sky. Hence the sky is every day on its exterior; yet it no where more approaches it, but in every place it is equally nigh both above and below.

"Each of the elements that we formerly spoke about has its own station apart, and though each is mingled with the other, so that none of them can exist without the other, yet they are not perceptible within the rest. Thus water and earth are very difficult to be seen, or to be comprehended by unwise men, in fire, and yet they are therewith commingled. So is also the fire in stones and water very difficult to be perceived; but it is there.

"THOU bindest fire with very indissoluble chains, that it may not go to its own station, which is the mightiest fire that exists above us, lest it should abandon the earth, and all other creatures should be destroyed from extreme cold in case it should wholly depart.

"THOU hast most wonderfully and firmly established the earth, so that it halts on no side, and no earthly thing falls from it; but all earth-like things it holds, that they cannot leave it. Nor is it easier to them to fall off downwards than upwards.

"THOU also stirrest the threefold soul in accordant limbs, so that there is no less of that soul in the least finger than in all the body. By this I know that the soul is threefold, because foreign writers say that it hath three natures. One of these natures is, that it desires; another, that it becomes angry; the third, that it is rational. Two of these natures animals possess the same as men: one is desire, the other is anger. But man alone has reason, no other creature has it. Hence he hath excelled all earthly creatures in thought and understanding; because reason shall govern both desire and wrath. It is the distinguishing virtue of the soul.

"THOU hast so made the soul that she should always revolve upon herself as all this sky turneth, or as a wheel rolls round, inquiring about her Creator or herself, or about the creatures on the earth. When she inquireth about her Creator she rises above herself; when she searches into herself, then she is within herself; and she becomes below herself when she loves earthly things, and wonders at them.

"THOU, O LORD! wilt grant the soul a dwelling in the heavens 85, and wilt endow it there with worthy gifts, to every one according to their deserts. Thou wilt make it to shine very bright, and yet with brightness very various; some more splendidly, some less bright, as the stars are, each according to his earning.

"THOU, O LORD! gatherest the heaven-like souls, and the earth-like bodies; and Thou minglest them in this world so that they come hither from Thee, and to Thee again from hence aspire. Thou hast filled the earth with animals of

85 Boetius adds: "Thou with like causes conveyest souls and inferior life, and adapting the sublime beings to lighter chariots, thou sowest them in heaven and in earth, and by a benign law maketh them converging, to be brought back to thee like the flame of a torch." Boetius, lib. iii. met. 9.

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