animal kingdom likewise disappears, and for days the traveller pursues his journey without meeting with a single quadruped, bird, or insect. Nowhere are the transitions of light and shade more abrupt than in the desert, for nowhere is the atmosphere more thoroughly free from all vapours. The sun pours a dazzling light on the ground, so that every object stands forth with wonderful clearness, while all that remains in the shade is sharply defined, and appears like a dark spot in the surrounding glare.

COMPOUND PROPORTION.

(1) How many horses can plough 960 acres in 9 days, if 14 horses can plough 840 acres in 12 days?

(2) How much land can be ploughed by 15 horses in 11 days, if 12 horses plough 760 acres in 13 days?

(3) In what time will 20 men earn £72, if 45 men earn £160 in 30 days?

(4) If £96 pay the expenses of 8 persons for 15 weeks 3 days, how much will 10 persons, living at the same rate, require for 15 weeks 2 days?

(5) If 16 houses are built by 110 men in 60 days, how many men would be required to build 42 houses of the same size in 78 days?

ALFRED was not only the first warrior, the first statesman and legislator, but he was also the first scholar in his dominions. From Asser's interesting memoirs the fact may easily be gathered that Alfred vastly exceeded even the most learned of his prelates in scholar-like accomplishments. He states that the king's noble mind thirsted for knowledge from the very cradle, and that when a mere child he had got many of the Anglo-Saxon poems by heart. It appears highly probable that Alfred diligently studied the language between his twelfth and

eighteenth year; that he had a few Latin books with him in his solitude at Athelney, and that he was (for that time) a good Latin scholar before he invited Asser to his court. But whenever or however he obtained his knowledge of that learned tongue, he certainly showed in his literary works a proficiency in Latin which was almost miraculous for a prince in Alfred's age. The style of his works in his native language proves that his acquaintance with a few good classical models was familiar, and extended to higher things than mere words and phrases.

Alfred was accustomed to say that he regretted the imperfect education of his youth, the entire want of proper teachers, and the many difficulties which then barred his progress to intellectual improvement, much more than all the hardship and sorrows and misfortunes that befell him afterwards. As one of his greatest impediments had been the difficult Latin language, he earnestly recommended from the throne, in a circular letter addressed to the bishops, that thenceforward 'all good and useful books be translated into the language which we all understand; so that all the youths of England, but more especially such as are of gentle kind and in easy circumstances, may be grounded in letters-for they cannot profit in any pursuit until they be well able to read English.' His mind was too lofty for pedantry to reach it, and too liberal and expansive to entertain the idea that learning ought to be kept in a foreign disguise and out of the reach of the people. He looked to the intellectual improvement of the people and their religious instruction as to the only solid foundation upon which a government could repose or a throne be established. It was left to a later age to advance the monstrous principle that the bulk of mankind can be governed only by the suppression or debasement of their intellectual faculties, and that governments and all the institutions of civil life are best supported by the ignorance of the greatest part of those who live under them. The doctrine of this enlightened English king of the ninth century was,-Let there be churches, abbeys, schools, books; let the churches be served by active and conscientious priests; let the abbeys be filled with the most learned men that can be found; let the schools be taught by able masters; and let the books be in the language which is spoken by all the people. And the theory was carried into practice to an extent which is surprising for those times. He never rebuilt a town without furnishing it with a good capacious school; he founded or restored churches and monasteries at Athelney, Shaftesbury, Winchester, and many other places, in some of which the people had almost relapsed into heathenism; he sent into various countries in search of learned and industrious teachers, and in order that there might be books for the people to read, he wrote many himself. Even as an author, no native of England

of the old Saxon period, except the Venerable Bede, can be compared to Alfred, either for the number or for the excellence of his writings. These works were in good part translations from the Latin into Anglo-Saxon. He thus translated for the instruction of his subjects:-1. Orosius's History,' six books; 2. Gregory's Pastorale;' 3. 'St. Gregory's Dialogue;' 4. 'Bede's History,' five books; 5. 'Boetius on the Consolation of Philosophy; 6. The Laws of the Mercians; 7. 'Asser's Sentences; 8. "The Psalms of David.' His original works-all in the same plain-spoken language of the people, were,—1. ‘An Abridgment of the Laws of the Trojans, the Greeks, the Britons, the Saxons, and the Danes;' 2. 'Laws of the West Saxons 3. 'Institutes;' 4. 'A Book against unjust Judges;' 5. 'Sayings of the Wise;' 6. 'A Book on the Fortunes of Kings;' 7. Parables and Jokes;' 8. 'Acts of Magistrates;' 9. 'Collection of Chronicles;' 10. 'Manual of Meditations.'

He was an elegant poet, and wrote a great many AngloSaxon poems and ballads, which were sung or recited in all parts of England, but of which we believe no trace has been preserved, though we have a few verses of a still more ancient date. In his original works, the extent of his knowledge is not less astonishing than the purity of his taste: the diction is classically easy and simple, yet not deficient either in strength or in ornament. .Asser tells us that his first attempt at translation was upon the Bible, a book which no man ever held in greater reverence than King Alfred. He and the king were engaged in pleasant conversation, and it so chanced that Asser quoted a passage from the Bible with which the king was much struck. Alfred requested his friend to write the passage in a collection of psalms and hymns which he had had with him at Athelney, and which he always carried in his bosom; but not a blank leaf could be found in that book. At the monk's suggestion, the king called for a clean skin of parchment, and this being folded into fours, in the shape of a little book, the passage from the Scriptures was written upon it in Latin, together with other good texts; and the king setting to work upon these passages, translated them into the Anglo-Saxon tongue.

Nothing is more astonishing in the story of this marvellous man than how he could find time for these laudable literary occupations; but he was steady and persevering in all things, regular in his habits, when not kept in the field by the Danes, and a rigid economist of his time. Eight hours of each day he gave to sleep, to his meals, and exercise; eight were absorbed by the affairs of government; and eight were devoted in study and devotion. Clocks, clepsydras, and other ingenious instruments for measuring time, were then unknown in England. Alfred was no doubt acquainted with the sun-dial which was in

common use in Italy; but this index is of no use in the hours of the night, and would frequently be equally unserviceable during our foggy sunless days.

He therefore marked his time by the constant burning of wax torches or candles, which were made precisely of the same weight and size, and notched in the stem at regular distances. These candles were twelve inches long; six of them, or seventytwo inches of wax, were consumed in twenty-four hours, or fourteen hundred and forty minutes; and thus, supposing the notches at intervals of an inch, one such notch would mark the lapse of twenty minutes, and three such notches the lapse of an hour. These time-candles were placed under the special charge of the king's mass-priests, or chaplains. But it was soon discovered that sometimes the wind, rushing in through the windows and doors, and the numerous chinks in the walls of the royal palace, caused the wax to be consumed in a rapid and irregular manner. This induced Alfred to invent that primitive utensil, the horn lanthorn, which now-a-days is never seen except in the stable-yard of some lowly country inn, and not often even there. Asser tells us that the king went skilfully and wisely to work; and having found out that while horn could be rendered transparent like glass, he with that material, and with pieces of wood, admirably made a case for his candle, which kept it from wasting and flaring. And therefore, say we, let none ever look upon an ostler's horn lanthorn, however poor and battered it may be, and however dim the light that shines within it, without thinking of Alfred the Great.

In his youth he was much addicted to field sports, and a perfect master of hunting, and the then newly introduced art of hawking; but in after-life he begrudged the time which these exciting amusements demanded.

No prince of his time made such strenuous efforts in favour of education and the diffusion of knowledge among his people. Charlemagne acted upon a much vaster stage; but in this, as in several other respects, he was left far behind by our Alfred. Since the days of the Venerable Bede, the civilisation of the country had sadly retrograded: the Danes, by directing their chief fury against the churches, abbeys, and monasteries, had destroyed the most learned of the Anglo-Saxon priests and monks, had burned their little libraries, and scared literature away from its only haunts. The schools had disappeared, there being at this period no schools or libraries in the country, except such as belonged to the monastic establishments. Alfred's own account of the state in which he found the kingdom in this respect, at his accession to the throne, is most interesting; and his feeling of his own merits in effecting a change for the better is expressed with all the modesty of a

truly great mind. In the circular letter which he prefixed to his translation of S. Gregory's 'Pastorale,' he says:-'Knowledge had fallen into such total decay among the English, that there were very few on the other side of the Humber who understood the common prayers, so as to be able to tell their meaning in English, or who could have translated into that language a Latin passage, and I ween there were not many on this side of the Humber who could do it. Indeed there were so few such, that I do not even recollect one to the south of the Thames, at the time I succeeded to the crown. God Almighty be thanked, there are now some holding bishoprics who are capable of teaching.'. . . . . This Saxon king, who could practise with his own hand the mechanical arts, extended his encouragement to all the humble but useful arts, and always gave a kind reception to mechanics of superior skill, of whom no inconsiderable number came into England from foreign countries. No man,' says Milton, could be more frugal of two precious things in man's life-his time and his revenue.

His

whole annual revenue, which his first care was should be justly his own, he divided into two equal parts: the first he employed in secular uses, and subdivided those into three-the first, to pay his soldiers, household servants, and guard; the second, to pay his architects and workmen whom he had got together of several nations, for he was also an elegant builder, above the custom and conceit of Englishmen in those days; the third he had in readiness to relieve or honour strangers, according to their worth, who came from all parts to see him and live under him. The other equal part of his yearly wealth he dedicated to religious uses, those of four sorts:-the first, to relieve the poor; the second, to build and maintain monasteries; the third, to a school where he had persuaded the sons of many noblemen to study sacred knowledge and liberal arts (some say Oxford); the fourth was for the relief of foreign churches, as far as India to the shrine of St. Thomas.'

This great prince was anxious above all things that his subjects should learn how to govern themselves, and how to preserve their liberties; and in his will he declared that he left his people as free as their own thoughts. He frequently assembled his Witenagemot, or Parliament, and never passed any law, or took any important step whatsoever, without their previous sanction. Down to the last days of his life he heard all law appeals in person with the utmost patience; and, in cases of importance, he revised all the proceedings with the utmost industry. His manifold labours in the court, the camp, the field, the hall of justice, the study, must indeed have been prodigious. 'One cannot help being amazed,' says Burke, that a prince who lived in such turbulent times, who com