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12 - King Alfred of England by Jacob Abbott · King Alfred of England

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  Speaker 1: Chapter eleven of King Alfred of England. This is LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. King Alfred
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  Speaker 1: of England by Jacob Abbott, Chapter eleven, Character of Alfred's reign.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps the chief aspect of which King Alfred's character has
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  Speaker 1: attracted the attention of mankind is in the spirit of
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  Speaker 1: humanity and benevolence which he manifested, and in the efforts
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  Speaker 1: which he made to cultivate the arts of peace and
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  Speaker 1: to promote the intellectual and social welfare of his people.
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  Speaker 1: Notwithstanding the warlike habits to which he was accustomed in
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  Speaker 1: his early years, and the warlike influences which surrounded him
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  Speaker 1: during all his life, everything in the outward circumstances in
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  Speaker 1: which he was placed tended to make him a mere
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  Speaker 1: military hero. He saw, however, the superior greatness and glory
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  Speaker 1: of the work of laying the foundations of an extended
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  Speaker 1: and permanent power by arranging in the best possible manner
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  Speaker 1: the internal organization of the social state. He saw that intelligence, order, justice,
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  Speaker 1: and system prevailing in and governing the institutions of a
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  Speaker 1: country constitute the true elements of its greatness, and he
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  Speaker 1: acted accordingly. It is true he had good materials to
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  Speaker 1: work with. He had the Anglo Saxon race to act
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  Speaker 1: upon at the time, a race capable of appreciating and
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  Speaker 1: entering into his plans. And he has had the same
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  Speaker 1: race to carry them on for the ten centuries which
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  Speaker 1: have elapsed since he laid his foundations. As no other
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  Speaker 1: race of men but the Anglo Saxons could have produced
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  Speaker 1: an Alfred, So probably no other race could have carried
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  Speaker 1: out such plans as Alfred formed. It is a race
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  Speaker 1: which has always been distinguished like Alfred, their great prototype
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  Speaker 1: and model for a certain cool and intrepid energy in war,
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  Speaker 1: combined with and surpassed by the industry. The system, the efficiency,
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  Speaker 1: and the perseverance with which they pursue and perfect all
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  Speaker 1: the arts of peace. They systematize everything they arrange, They organize.
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  Speaker 1: Everything in their heads, takes form and advances to continual improvement,
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  Speaker 1: even while the rest of the world remain inert. They
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  Speaker 1: are active. When the arts and improvements of life are
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  Speaker 1: stationary among other nations, they are always advancing with them.
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  Speaker 1: It is a people that is always making new discoveries,
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  Speaker 1: pressing forward to new enterprises, framing new laws, constituting new combinations,
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  Speaker 1: and developing new powers. Until now, after the lapse of
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  Speaker 1: a thousand years, the little island feeds and closed, directly
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  Speaker 1: or indirectly, a very large portion of the human race,
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  Speaker 1: and directs in great measure the politics of the world.
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  Speaker 1: Whether Alfred reasoned upon the capacities of the people whom
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  Speaker 1: he ruled and foresaw their future power, or whether he
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  Speaker 1: only followed the simple impulses of his own nature in
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  Speaker 1: the plans which he formed and the measures which he adopted,
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  Speaker 1: we could not know. But we know that, in fact,
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  Speaker 1: he devoted his chief attention during all the years of
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  Speaker 1: his reign to perfecting in the highest degree the internal
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  Speaker 1: organization of his realm. Considered as a great social community,
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  Speaker 1: his people were in a very rude and in fact,
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  Speaker 1: almost half savage state. When he commenced his career. He
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  Speaker 1: had everything to do, and yet he seems to have
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  Speaker 1: had no favorable opportunities for doing anything in the first place.
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  Speaker 1: His time and attention were distracted during his whole reign
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  Speaker 1: by continued difficulties and contentions with various hordes of Danes.
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  Speaker 1: Even after his peace with Gunthrom. These troubles, and the
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  Speaker 1: military preparations and movements to which they would naturally give rise,
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  Speaker 1: but seemed to have been sufficient to have occupied fully
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  Speaker 1: all the powers of his mind, and to have prevented
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  Speaker 1: him from doing anything effectual for the internal improvement of
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  Speaker 1: his kingdom. Then besides, there was another difficulty with which
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  Speaker 1: Offered had to contend, which one might have supposed, would
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  Speaker 1: have paralyzed all his energies. He suffered all his life
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  Speaker 1: from some mysterious and painful internal disease, the nature of
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  Speaker 1: which precisely is not known, as the allusions to it,
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  Speaker 1: though very frequent throughout his life, are very general, and
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  Speaker 1: the physicians of the day, who probably were not very skillful,
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  Speaker 1: could not determine what it was or do anything effectual
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  Speaker 1: to relieve it. The disease, whatever it may have been,
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  Speaker 1: was a source of continual uneasiness, and sometimes of extreme
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  Speaker 1: and terrible suffering. Alfred bore all the pain which it
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  Speaker 1: caused him with exemplary patience, and though he could not
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  Speaker 1: always resist the tendency to discouragement and depression with which
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  Speaker 1: the perpetual presence of such a torment wears upon the soul,
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  Speaker 1: he did not allow it to diminish his exertions or
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  Speaker 1: suspend at any time the ceaseless activity with which he
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  Speaker 1: labored for the welfare of the people of his realm
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  Speaker 1: Alfred attached great importance to the education of his people.
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  Speaker 1: It was not possible in those days to educate the mass,
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  Speaker 1: for there were no books and no means of producing
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  Speaker 1: them in sufficient numbers to supply any general demand. Books
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  Speaker 1: in those days were extremely costly, as they had all
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  Speaker 1: to be written laboriously by hand. The great mass of
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  Speaker 1: the population, therefore, who were engaged in the daily toil
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  Speaker 1: of cultivating the land, were necessarily left in ignorance. But
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  Speaker 1: Alfred made every effort in his power to awaken a
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  Speaker 1: love for learning and the arts among the higher classes.
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  Speaker 1: He set them, in fact, an efficient example in his
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  Speaker 1: own case, by pressing forward diligently in his own studies,
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  Speaker 1: even in the busiest periods of his reign. The spirit
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  Speaker 1: and manner in which he did this are well illustrated
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  Speaker 1: by the plan he pursued in studying Latin. It was
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  Speaker 1: this he had a friend in his course, a man
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  Speaker 1: of great literary attainments and great piety, whose now was Asser.
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  Speaker 1: Asser was a bishop in Wales. When Alfred first heard
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  Speaker 1: of his fame as a man of learning and abilities,
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  Speaker 1: Alfred sent for him to come to his court and
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  Speaker 1: make him a visit. Alfred was very much pleased with
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  Speaker 1: what he saw of Asser at this interview, and propose
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  Speaker 1: to him to leave his preferments in Wales, which were
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  Speaker 1: numerous and important, and come into his kingdom, and he
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  Speaker 1: would give him a greater prefermance there. Asser hesitated. Alfred
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  Speaker 1: then proposed to him to spend six months every year
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  Speaker 1: in England and the remaining six in Wales. Asser said
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  Speaker 1: that he could not give an answer even to this
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  Speaker 1: proposal till he had returned home and consulted with the
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  Speaker 1: monks and the other clergy under his charge there. He would, however,
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  Speaker 1: he said, at least come back and see Alfred again
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  Speaker 1: within the next six months, and gave him his final answer. Then,
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  Speaker 1: after having spent four days in Alfred's court, he went away.
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  Speaker 1: The six months passed away, and he did not return.
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  Speaker 1: Alfred sent a messenger into Wales to ascertain the reason.
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  Speaker 1: The messenger found that Asser was sick. His friends, however,
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  Speaker 1: had advised that he should accede to Alfred's proposal to
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  Speaker 1: spend six months of the year in England, as they
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  Speaker 1: thought that by that means, through his influence with Alfred,
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  Speaker 1: he would be better able to protect and advance the
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  Speaker 1: interests of their monasteries and establishments in Wales. So Aser
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  Speaker 1: went to England and became during six months in the
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  Speaker 1: year Alfred's constant friend and teacher. In the course of time,
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  Speaker 1: Alfred placed him at the head of some of the
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  Speaker 1: most important establishments and ecclesiastical charges in England. One day,
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  Speaker 1: it was eight or nine years after Alfred's victory over
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  Speaker 1: Gunthram and settlement of the Kingdom, the King and Asser
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  Speaker 1: were engaged in conversation in the royal apartments, and Asser
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  Speaker 1: quoted some Latin phrase with which, on its being explained,
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  Speaker 1: Alfred was very much pleased, and he asked Asser to
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  Speaker 1: write it down for him in his book. So saying,
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  Speaker 1: he took from his pocket a little book of prayers
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  Speaker 1: and other pieces of devotion, which he was accustomed to
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  Speaker 1: carry with him for daily use. It was, of course
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  Speaker 1: in manuscript. Asser looked over to find a space where
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  Speaker 1: he could write the Latin quotation, but there was no
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  Speaker 1: convenient vacancy. He then proposed to Alfred that he should
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  Speaker 1: make for him another small book expressly for Latin quotations,
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  Speaker 1: with explanations of their meaning, if Alfred chose to make
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  Speaker 1: them in the Anglo Saxon tongue. Alfred highly approved of
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  Speaker 1: this suggestion. The bishop prepared the little parchment volume, and
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  Speaker 1: it became gradually filled with passages in scripture in Latin,
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  Speaker 1: and striking sentiments briefly and tersely expressed extracted from the
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  Speaker 1: writings of the Roman poets or from the fathers of
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  Speaker 1: the church. Alfred wrote opposite to each quotation, its meaning
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  Speaker 1: expressed in his own language. And as he made the
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  Speaker 1: book his constant companion and studied it continually, taking great
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  Speaker 1: interest in adding to its stores. It was the means
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  Speaker 1: of communicating to him soon a very considerable knowledge of
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  Speaker 1: the language, and was the foundation of that extensive acquaintance
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  Speaker 1: with it which he subsequently acquired. Alfred made great efforts
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  Speaker 1: to promote in every way the intellectual progress and improvement
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  Speaker 1: of his people. He wrote in translated books which were
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  Speaker 1: published so far as it was possible to publish books
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  Speaker 1: in those days, that is, by having a moderate number
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  Speaker 1: of copies transcribed and circulated among those who could read them.
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  Speaker 1: Such copies were generally deposited at monasteries and abbeys and
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  Speaker 1: other such places where learned men were accustomed to assemble.
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  Speaker 1: These writings of Alfred exerted a wide influence during his day.
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  Speaker 1: They remained in manuscript until the art of printing was invented,
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  Speaker 1: when many of them were printed. Others remained in manuscript
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  Speaker 1: in the various museums of England, where look at them
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  Speaker 1: as curiosities, all worn and corroded as they are, and
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  Speaker 1: almost illegible by time. These books, though they exerted great
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  Speaker 1: influence at the time when they were written, are of
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  Speaker 1: little interest or value now. They express ideas in morals
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  Speaker 1: and philosophy, some of which have become so universally diffused
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  Speaker 1: as to be commonplace at the present day, while others
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  Speaker 1: would now be discarded as not in harmony with the
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  Speaker 1: ideas or philosophy of the times. One of the greatest
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  Speaker 1: and most important of the measures which Alfred adopted for
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  Speaker 1: the intellectual improvement of his people was the founding of
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  Speaker 1: the great University of Oxford. Oxford was Alfred's residence and
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  Speaker 1: capital during a considerable part of his reign. It is
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  Speaker 1: situated on the Thames in the bosom of the delightful valley,
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  Speaker 1: where it calmly reposes in the midst of fields and
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  Speaker 1: meadows as verdant and beautiful as the imagination can conceive.
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  Speaker 1: There was a monastery in Oxford before Alfred's day, and
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  Speaker 1: for many centuries after his time, acts of endowment were
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  Speaker 1: passed and charities granted, some of which were perhaps of
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  Speaker 1: greater importance than those which emanated from Alfred himself. Thus
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  Speaker 1: some carry back the history of this famous university beyond
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  Speaker 1: Alfred's time. Others consider that the true origin of the
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  Speaker 1: present establishment should be assigned to the latter date than
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  Speaker 1: his day. Alfred certainly adopted very important measures that Oxford,
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  Speaker 1: were organizing and establishing schools of instruction, and assembling learned
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  Speaker 1: men there from various parts of the world, so that
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  Speaker 1: he soon made it a great center and seat of learning.
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  Speaker 1: And mankind have been consequently inclined to award him the
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  Speaker 1: honor of having laid the foundations of the vast superstructure
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  Speaker 1: which has since grown up on that consecrated spot. Oxford
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  Speaker 1: is now a city of ancient and venerable colleges, its
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  Speaker 1: silent streets, its grand quadrangles, its churches and chapels and libraries,
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  Speaker 1: its secluded walks, its magnificent, though old and crumbling architecture,
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  Speaker 1: make it, even to the passing traveler, one of the
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  Speaker 1: wonders of England, and by the influence which it has
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  Speaker 1: exerted for the past ten centuries on the intellectual advancement
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  Speaker 1: of the human race, it is really one of the
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  Speaker 1: wonders of the world. Alfred repaired the castles which had
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  Speaker 1: become dilapidated in the wars. He rebuilt the ruined cities,
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  Speaker 1: organized municipal governments for them, restored the monasteries, and took
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  Speaker 1: great pains to place men of learning and piety in
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  Speaker 1: charge of them. He revised the laws of the kingdom
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  Speaker 1: and arranged and systematized them in the most perfect manner
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  Speaker 1: which was possible in times so rude. Alfred's personal character
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  Speaker 1: gave him great influence among his people and disposed them
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  Speaker 1: to acquiesce readily in the vast innovations and improvements which
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  Speaker 1: he introduced, changes which were so radical and effected so
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  Speaker 1: extensively the whole structure of society and all the customs
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  Speaker 1: of social life, that any ordinary sovereign would have met
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  Speaker 1: with great opposition in his attempt to introduce them. But
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  Speaker 1: Alfred possessed such a character and proceeded in such a
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  Speaker 1: way in introducing his improvements and reforms that he seems
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  Speaker 1: to have awakened no jealousy and to have aroused no resistance.
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  Speaker 1: He was of a very calm, quiet, and placid temper
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  Speaker 1: of mind. The crosses and vexations which disturb and irritate
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  Speaker 1: ordinary men, seemed never to disturb his equiminity. He was
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  Speaker 1: patient and forbearing, never expecting too much of those whom
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  Speaker 1: he employed, or resenting angrily the occasional neglects or failures
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  Speaker 1: and duty on their part, which he well knew must
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  Speaker 1: frequently occur. He was never elated by prosperity, nor made
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  Speaker 1: moody or morose by the turning of the tide against him.
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  Speaker 1: In a word, he was a philosopher of a calm
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  Speaker 1: and quiet and happy temperament. He knew well that every man,
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  Speaker 1: in going through life, whether his rank and station, must
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  Speaker 1: encounter the usual alternations of sunshine and storm. He determined
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  Speaker 1: that those alternations should not mar his happiness nor disturb
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  Speaker 1: the repose of his soul. That he would, on the
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  Speaker 1: other hand, keeping all quiet within press, calmly and steadily
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  Speaker 1: forward in the accomplishment of the vast objects to which
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  Speaker 1: he felt that his life was to be given. He
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  Speaker 1: was accordingly, never anxious or restless, never impatient or fretful,
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  Speaker 1: never excited or while, but always calm, considerate, steady, and persevering.
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  Speaker 1: He infused his own spirit into all around him. They
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  Speaker 1: say he governed by fixed and permanent principles of justice
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  Speaker 1: and of duty. In all that he planned, and in
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  Speaker 1: every measure that he resorted to the execution of his plans,
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  Speaker 1: it was plain that his great ruling motive was a
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  Speaker 1: true and honest desire to promote the welfare prosperity of
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  Speaker 1: his people and the internal peace and order and happiness
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  Speaker 1: of his realm, without any selfish or sinister aims of
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  Speaker 1: his own. In fact, it seemed as if there were
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  Speaker 1: no selfish or sinister ends that possessed any charms for
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  Speaker 1: Alfred's mind. He had no fondness or taste for luxury
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  Speaker 1: or pleasure, or for aggrandizing himself in the eyes of
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  Speaker 1: others by pomp and parade. It is true that, as
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  Speaker 1: was stated in a former chapter, he was charged in
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  Speaker 1: early life with a tendency to some kinds of wrong indulgence.
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  Speaker 1: But these charges obscure and doubtful, as they were pertained
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  Speaker 1: only to the earliest periods of his career, before the
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  Speaker 1: time of his seclusion. Through all the middle and latter
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  Speaker 1: portions of his life, the sole motive of his conduct
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  Speaker 1: seems to have been a desire to lay broad and
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  Speaker 1: deep and lasting foundations for the permanent welfare and prosperity
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  Speaker 1: of his realm. It resulted from the nature of the
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  Speaker 1: measures which Alfred undertook to effect that they brought upon
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  Speaker 1: him daily a vast amount of labor. As such measures
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  Speaker 1: always involve a great deal of minute detail. Alfred could
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  Speaker 1: only accomplish this great mass of duty by means of
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  Speaker 1: the most unremitting industry and the most systematic and exact
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  Speaker 1: division of time. There were no clocks or watches in
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  Speaker 1: those days, and yet it was very necessary to have
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  Speaker 1: some plan for keeping the time, in order that his
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  Speaker 1: business might go on regularly, and also that the movements
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  Speaker 1: and operations of his large household might proceed without confusion.
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  Speaker 1: Alfred invented a plan. It was as follows. He observed
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  Speaker 1: that the wax candles which were used in his palace
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  Speaker 1: and in the churches, burned very regularly and with greater
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  Speaker 1: or less rapidity according to their size. He ordered some
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  Speaker 1: experiments to be made, and finally, by means of them,
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  Speaker 1: he determined on the size of a candle, which should
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  Speaker 1: burn three inches in an hour. It is said that
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  Speaker 1: the weight of wax which she used for each candle
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  Speaker 1: was twelve pennyweights, that is, but a little more than
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  Speaker 1: half an ounce, which would make one would suppose a
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  Speaker 1: taper rather than a candle. There is, however, great doubt
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  Speaker 1: about the value of the various denominations of weight and measure,
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  Speaker 1: and also of money used in those days. However this
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  Speaker 1: may be. The candles were each a foot long, and
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  Speaker 1: of such size that each would burn four hours. They
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  Speaker 1: were divided into inches and marked so that each inch
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  Speaker 1: corresponded with a third of an hour or twenty minutes.
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  Speaker 1: A large quantity of these candles were prepared, and a
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  Speaker 1: person in one of the chapels was appointed to keep
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  Speaker 1: a succession of them burning, and to ring the bells
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  Speaker 1: or give other signals, whatever they might be, by which
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  Speaker 1: the household was regulated at the successive periods of time
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  Speaker 1: denoted by their burning. As each of these candles was
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  Speaker 1: one foot long and burned three inches in an hour.
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  Speaker 1: It follows that it would last four hours. When this
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  Speaker 1: time was expired, the attendant to have the apparatus in
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  Speaker 1: charge lighted another. There were of course six required for
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  Speaker 1: the whole twenty four hours. The system worked very well,
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  Speaker 1: though there was one difficulty that occasioned some trouble in
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  Speaker 1: the outset, which, however, was not much to be regretted,
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  Speaker 1: after all, since the remedying of it awakened the royal
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  Speaker 1: ingenuity anew and led in the end to adding to
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  Speaker 1: Alfred's other glories the honor of being the inventor of lanterns.
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  Speaker 1: The difficulty was that the wind, which came in very
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  Speaker 1: freely in those days, even in royal residences through the
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  Speaker 1: open windows, blew the flames of these horological candles about,
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  Speaker 1: so as to interfere quite seriously with the regularity of
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  Speaker 1: their burning. There was no glass for windows in those days,
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  Speaker 1: or at least very little. It had been introduced, it
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  Speaker 1: is said in one instance, and that it was a
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  Speaker 1: monastery in the north of England. The abbot, whose name
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  Speaker 1: was Benedict, brought over some workmen from the continent, where
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  Speaker 1: the art of making glass windows had been invented, and
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  Speaker 1: caused them to glaze some windows in his monastery. It
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  Speaker 1: was many years after this before glass came into general use,
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  Speaker 1: even in churches and palaces and other costly buildings of
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  Speaker 1: that kind. In the meantime, windows were mere openings in
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  Speaker 1: stone walls, which could be closed only by shutters, and
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  Speaker 1: inasmuch as when closed they excluded the light as well
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  Speaker 1: as the air, they could ordinarily be shut only on
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  Speaker 1: one side of the apartment at a time, the side
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  Speaker 1: most exposed to the winds and storms. Alfred accordingly found
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  Speaker 1: that the flame of his candles was blown by the wind,
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  Speaker 1: which made the wax burn irregularly, and to remedy this evil,
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  Speaker 1: he contrived the plan of protecting them by thin plates
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  Speaker 1: of horn. Horn, when softened by hot water, can easily
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  Speaker 1: be cut and fashioned into any shape, and when very thin,
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  Speaker 1: is almost transparent. Alfred had these thin plates of horn
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  Speaker 1: prepared and set into the sides of a box made
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  Speaker 1: to open to receive them, thus forming a rude sword
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  Speaker 1: of lantern within which the time keeping candles could burn
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  Speaker 1: in peace. Mankind have consequently given to King Alfred the
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  Speaker 1: credit of having invented lanterns, having thus completed his apparatus
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  Speaker 1: for the correct measurement of time, Alfred was enabled to
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  Speaker 1: be more and more systematic in the division and employment
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  Speaker 1: of it. One of the historians of the day relates
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: that his plan was to give one third of the
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: twenty four hours to sleep and refreshment, one third to business,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: and the remaining third to the duties of religion. Under
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: this last head was probably included all those duties and
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: pursuits which, by the customs of the day, were considered
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: as pertaining to the church, such as study, writing, and
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: the consideration in management of ecclesiastical affairs. These duties were
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: performed in those days almost always by clerical men, and
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: in the retirement and seclusion of monasteries, and were thus
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: regarded as in some sense religious duties. We must conclude
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: that Alfred classed them thus, as he was a great
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: student and writer all his days, and there is no
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: other place than this third head to which the duties
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: of this nature can be assigned. Thus understood, it was
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: a very wise and sensible division, though eight hours daily
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: for any long period of time appropriated to services strictly
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: devotional would not seem to be a wise arrangement, especially
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: for a man in the prime of his life and
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: in a position demanding the constant exercise of his powers
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: and the discharge of act duties. Thus the years of
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: Alfred's life passed away, his kingdom advancing steadily all the time,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: and good government, wealth and prosperity. The country was not, however,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: yet freed entirely from the calamities and troubles arising from
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: the hostility of the Danes. Disorders continually broke out among
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: those who had settled in the land, and in some
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: instances few hordes of invaders came in. These were, however,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: in most instances, easily subdued, and Alfred went on with
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: comparatively little interruption for many years in prosecuting the arts
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: and improvements of peace. At last, however, towards the close
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: of his life, a famous Northman leader named Hastings landed
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: in England at the head of a large force, and made,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: before he was expelled, a great deal of trouble. An
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: account of this invasion will be given in the next chapter.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: End of Chapter eleven. Recording by Ryan Jerock