in the
collection of which so many perils and anxious years were spent.[248]

We all know the force of example, and are not surprised that the sweet
mania which ruled so potently over the mind of Benedict, spread itself
around the crowned head of royalty. Perhaps book collecting was beginning
to make "a stir," and the rich and powerful among the Saxons were
regarding strange volumes with a curious eye. Certain it is that Egfride,
or AElfride, the proud king of Northumbria,[249] fondly coveted a
beautiful copy of the geographer's (_codice mirandi operis_), which
Benedict numbered among his treasures; and so eagerly too did he desire
its possession, that he gave in exchange a portion of eight hides of
land, near the river Fresca, for the volume; and Ceolfrid, Benedict's
successor, received it.

How useful must Benedict's library have been in ripening the mind that
was to cast a halo of immortality around that old monastery, and to
generate a renown which was long to survive the grey walls of that costly
fane; for whilst we now fruitlessly search for any vestiges of its former
being, we often peruse the living pages of Bede the venerable with
pleasure and instruction, and we feel refreshed by the breath of piety
and devotion which they unfold; yet it must be owned the superstition of
Rome will sometimes mar a devout prayer and the simplicity of a Christian
thought. But all honor to his manes and to his memory! for how much that
is admirable in the human character--how much sweet and virtuous humility
was hid in him, in the strict retirement of the cloister. The writings of
that humble monk outlive the fame of many a proud ecclesiastic or haughty
baron of his day; and well they might, for how homely does his pen record
the simple annals of that far distant age. Much have the old monks been
blamed for their bad Latin and their humble style; but far from
upbraiding, I would admire them for it; for is not the inelegance of
diction which their unpretending chronicles display, sufficiently
compensated by their charming simplicity. As for myself, I have sometimes
read them by the blaze of my cheerful hearth, or among the ruins of some
old monastic abbey,[250] till in imagination I beheld the events which
they attempt to record, and could almost hear the voice of the "_goode
olde monke_" as he relates the deeds of some holy man--in language so
natural and idiomatic are they written.

But as we were saying, Bede made ample use o