accord
with Christian teaching that some people thought Boethius must have
belonged to the body of Holy Church.

A Christian writer, finding a book seeming to possess much of the spirit
of Christianity, would naturally study it and frequently use it; and
Boethius's book, with more or less adaptation, grew to be a great
favourite with Christians. Its influence can be traced in the work of
the greatest Catholic poet, Dante, and in that of the great English
poet, Chaucer, who rendered it into the English of his day.

Alfred made the translation definitely Christian. For instance, he
writes of "God" and "Christ" where Boethius says "love" or "the good";
and he writes of "angels" instead of "divine substance."

I will give you one or two specimens of the additions to Boethius with
which Alfred is credited.

"He that will have eternal riches, let him build the house of his mind
on the footstone of lowliness; not on the highest hill where the raging
wind of trouble blows, or the rain of measureless anxiety."

"Power is never a good unless he be good who has it."

Here is what he has to say of being well-born:

"Art thou more fair for other men's fairness? A man will not be the
better because he had a well-born father, if he himself is nought. The
only thing which is good in noble descent is this, that it makes men
ashamed of being worse than their elders, and strive to do better than
they."

And here is his standard of self-respect:

"We under-worth ourselves when we love that which is lower than
ourselves."[D]

[Footnote D: Translation by Miss Kate Warren.]

These sayings are worth copying into a little book such as Alfred kept
to note down things he wanted to keep track of. Asser tells us this,
and he tells us of the "Handbook" which grew to a great size, from this
collecting habit of Alfred's. The book was unfortunately lost.

By no means have we exhausted the interest of Alfred's story. It would
be indeed difficult to do so; but we must now bid him good-bye.

We love to think how, amidst all his cares and work for his kingdom, he
had the true Catholic Missionary spirit; for he sent embassies to India,
with alms for "the Christians of St Thomas and St Bartholomew."

There is a valuable thing which we possess, known as the "Alfred Jewel":
it has on it an inscription which we can truly say applies to far more
than this work of art. Its application to Alfred's work is indeed a very
wide one:

Alfred com