and which was first translated into Anglo Saxon by King
Alfred the Great. One edition of the "History" was published at
Strasburg, in 1500; another by Smith of Cambridge, in 1722; another by
Stevenson of London, in 1838; another by Dr. Hussey at Oxford, in 1864;
another in the "Monumenta Historica Britannica," and yet another by Dr.
Giles, with the whole of Bede's writings.[2]

Not only was the industry of Bede most extraordinary, but his character
and disposition were most lovely. It demanded no small amount of moral
strength, concentration of mind, and tenacity of will and purpose, as
well as ardent consecration to a good cause, thus quietly to pursue
studies, and remain at work, while all around was confusion and strife,
violence and slaughter. So little was the spirit of his age in him,
that it has been well said of him, he was like "a light shining in a
dark place." His life was holy, his temper calm and gentle, and all
his works humanising and instructive.

Dean Stanley's remarks upon him, are so very beautiful and appropriate,
that we may be pardoned for extracting some of them:--"Two names only
from the Anglo Saxon period are still held in unquestioned and
universal reverence. One is the Great Alfred, the illustrious king and
lawgiver, in the south of England; the other is Bede, the venerable
father of English history and English learning, in the North of
England. Venerable he truly was. We need not go back to the legend
which supposed that he received the title from the Roman Senate for
having solved a strange riddle which they could not answer; nor to the
other legend, which tells us that, on his grave-stone at Durham, you
can still read the inscription in which it is said that an angel in the
night filled up the blank space with _Venerabilis_. He is venerable
for the much more solid reason, that he has won the veneration of all
Englishmen--we may say of all the world--as an example of the faithful
student of truth. His old oaken chair at Jarrow may be still chipped
away, as it has been for many years, for healing relics. But no
miracle, no wonder, is ever recorded of him in his lifetime. Nay, he
was even accused before the Archbishop of York, on a charge of heresy
on account of some of his views on chronology. He never was formally
acknowledged as a saint. Yet in spite of this, the instinct of mankind
has gradually given to him the superiority and pre-eminence over those
eccentric missionaries