sophy.

- ALFRED considered as a Moral Essayist. — His Thoughts, Tales, and Dialogues on various Subjects.

iii

BOOK hood usually obtains, have been noticed in the
V. preceding pages; as well as the fact, that he was

passing the first twelve years of his life without
any education. 2 But although thus neglected, his
intellectual faculty was too powerful to be indolent,
or to be contented with the illiterate pursuits which
were the fashion of the day. It turned, from its
own energies and sympathies, towards mental cul-
tivation; and attached itself to that species of it,
which, without the aid of others, it could by its
own industry obtain. This was the Saxon popular
poetry. In all the nations of the north, whether
from the Keltic or Teutonic stock, persons were
continually emerging, who pursued the art of
arranging words into metrical composition, and of
applying this arrangement to express their own
feelings, or to perpetuate the favourite subjects of
their contemporaries or patrons. By this verbal
rythm, however imperfect; by the emotions which
it breathed or caused; or by the themes with which
it has been connected, the rudest minds, that have
been most adverse to literature, have been always
found to be impressible. Hence, before Alfred's
birth, Saxon poems had been written; and, in the
court of his father and brothers, there were men
who were fond of repeating them.
them. Wherever
they were recited, either by day or night, Alfred
is recorded to have been, before he could read,
an eager auditor, and was industrious to commit
them to his memory.
This fondness for poetry

3

2 See before, Vol. I. p. 492.

Asser, 16. Malsmb. 45. Jam

duodenis omnis literaturæ expers fuit.

3 Sed Saxonica poemata die noctuque solers auditor relatu aliorum sæpissime audiens, docibilis memoriter retinebat. Asser, 16.

I.

continued with him through life. It was always CHAP. one of his principal pleasures to learn Saxon poems, and to teach them to others; and we have specimens of his own efforts to compose them, in his translation of the metres of Boetius. The memory of his children was also chiefly exercised in this captivating art." It had a powerful effect on Alfred's mind: it kindled a desire of being sung and celebrated himself: it created a wish for further knowledge; and began a taste for intellectual compositions. The muses have in every age had these effects. Their lays have always been found to be most captivating and most exciting to the young mind. They are the most comprehensible form of lettered intellect; and being, in their rudest state, the effusions of the feelings of the day, they excite congenial feelings in those who hear and read them. Poetry is sympathy addressing sympathy; and, if its subjects were but worthy of its excellences, it would lead the human mind

4 Et maxime carmina Saxonica memoriter discere, aliis imperare. Asser, 43. Many princes were at this period fond of poetry. Eginhard mentions of Charlemagne, that he tran scribed and learnt the barbara et antiquissima carmina quibus veterum regum actus et bella canebantur, p. 11. In 844 died Abdalla, son of Taher, a Persian king, in Chorasan, who composed some Arabic poems, and was celebrated for his talents in many elegies, by the poets who survived him. Mirchond, Hist. Reg. Pers. p. 9. In 862, Mustansir Billa, the caliph of the Saracens, died by poison; he wrote verses, of which Elmacin has preserved two. Hist. Sarac. c. xii. p. 154. Wacic, the caliph, who died 845, was a poet. Elmacin cites some of his verses. His dying words were, "O thou, whose kingdom never passes away, pity one whose dignity is so transient," ib. His successor, Mutewakel, was also poetical.

Et maxime Saxonica carmina studiose dedicere et frequentissime libris utuntur. Asser, 43.

.V.

BOOK to every attainable perfection. Alfred, though young, felt forcibly its silent appeal to the noble nature that lived within him; and when his mother promised the book of poems, already mentioned, to her son, who could read it, he sought an instructor, and never ceased his exertions till he had enabled himself to read. 6

State of

Saxon

mind.

THE merit of Alfred in voluntarily attaining the Anglo- this important though now infant art, was more peculiar, because not only his royal brothers, and most, if not all, of the contemporary kings were without it; but even that venerated class of the nation, in whom the largest part of the learning of their age usually concentrates, was, in general, ignorant of it. Such facts induce us to consider our ancestors with too much contempt. But we may recollect that literature was not despised by them from want of natural talent, or from intellectual torpidity, Their minds were vigorous, and in great and continual exertion; but the exertion was confined within the horizon, and directed to the objects, around them. The ancient world stood, in its recording memorials, like an unknown continent before them, shrouded from their sight by its clouds and distance, and kept so by their belief of its inutility. It was too unlike their own world, and too little connected with their immediate pursuits, for them to value or explore. They did not want its remains for their jurisprudence; their landed property; the rules of their nobility and feudal rights; their municipal institutions; their religion; their morals; their internal traffic, manners, amusements, or favourite pursuits.

6 Asser, 16. Malmsb. 45.

I.

On most of these points, and in their legislative C HA P. assemblies and laws, as well as in their private and public wars, they were so dissimilar to the Greeks and Romans, that the classical authors were as unserviceable to them as those of the Chinese are to us. Hence although a magician had offered them a fairy wand, by which, at their own pleasure, they could have transported themselves to the busy streets of Athens or Rome, to have heard Demosthenes harangue, or Socrates teach, or Cato censure; or to have made all the past ages live again before their sight, with all their applauded characters, they would not have welcomed the stupendous gift; not from mere ignorance or stupidity, but because it would not have suited their wants, nor have promoted their interests. Classical literature could have then been only a subject of speculative curiosity, inapplicable to any of their worldly pursuits, and rather impeding than assisting the devotion of their monasteries. For their religion and morals they had higher sources in their revered Scriptures; and for their rights and ceremonies they had sufficient teachers, occasionally from Rome, and generally in their native clergy. To these indeed, a small portion of Latin was necessary, for the correct reading and due understanding of their breviaries. But to the rest of society it was not more practically essential than the scientific astronomy of a Newton or La Place to ourselves. It would have improved their minds, and enlarged their knowledge, and produced beneficial effects; but all the daily business of their lives could be, and was, very ably transacted without it. Hence the intellects of our ancestors are no more to be impeached for their ignorance of classical