The history of the Anglo-Saxons

This is the Wise King,
This is he that governs

Over the nations of men,
And all the other
Kings of the earth.
He with his bridle

Hath restrained around

All the revolutions

Of earth and heaven.

He his governing reins

Well coerces.

He governs ever

Through his strong might

All the swift cars

Of heaven and earth.

He the only judge is steadfast,
Unchangeable,

Beauteous and great.

If thou turnest right in thy way

Up to that country,

Thou wilt find it

A noble place:

Though thou now yet
Hast not obtained it.
If thou ever again

There canst come,
Then wilt thou say,
And soon declare :-

Here the Lord of Kings holds the sceptre

and governs the reins of the world, and, stable himself, rules the swift car, the splendid arbiter of things.

If that road should meet thee returning, which now forgetful you inquire for, you may

say :

Alfred.

This is the pleasant station

After these miseries

To possess.

And I earnestly know

That the gilded vessel,
The silvery treasure,

The stone fortress of gems,
Or riches of the world
To the mind's eye

Can never bring any light.
Nothing can recompense
Its acuteness,

But the contemplation
Of the truer riches;

But such things strongly
The mind's eye

Of every one of men
Blind in their breast,
When they to it
Are made brighter.
But all things

That in this present
Life so please,
Are slender,
Earthly things,
And to be fled from.

But wonderful is that
Beauty and brightness,
With every creature
Which beauty illuminates,
And after that

Governs all:

This Governor will not

That we should destroy

Our souls,

But he himself will them
Enlighten with light;
The Ruler of life.

If then any man

With the clear eyes
Of his mind,

May ever behold

Of heaven's light

The lucid brightness,

Then he will say,

That the brightness of the sun

Will be darkness,

If any man

Shoul compare it

With the superior light

Of God Almighty.

That will be to every spirit

Eternal without end;

To happy souls. - P. 181, 182.

O thou Creator

Of the shining stars;

Of heaven and the earth;

Thou on high throne

Eternal governest,
And thou swiftly all

The heaven turnest round,
And through thy

Boetius.

Not all that Tagus may give in its golden sands, or Hermus from its glittering bank, or Indus near the warm circle mingling green gems with white, can enlighten the sight; but they make the mind more blind from their darkening effects.

Whatever of these pleases and excites the mind, earth nourishes in its lowest caverns..

The radiance by which Heaven is governed and flourishes, shuns the obscured ruins of the soul.

Whoever can remark this light will deny the beams of Phoebus their lustre. Lib. iii. met. 10.

HIS ADDRESS TO THE DEITY.

Oh Framer of the starry world! who, resting on thy perpetual throne, turnest the heaven with a rapid whirl, and compellest the stars to endure a law. Lib. i. met. 5.

The preceding facts of Alfred's studies, translations, additions, and compositions, enable us to perceive the great improvements which they diffused upon the intellect of the Anglo-Saxon nation. By his Orosius and Bede, he made the general history and geography of the world, and the particular history of England, a part of the mind of his countrymen; and, by his Bede, he made historical fame an object of ambition to his royal successors; for that exhibited to their own eye-sight how their predecessors had been recorded and applauded. By transmitting to posterity the detail

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The history of the Anglo-Saxons, 2. köide