earning, which by the rage of the late wars had been
entirely extinguished in his kingdom. "Very few there were" (says this
monarch) "on this side the Humber that understood their ordinary
prayers, or that were able to translate any Latin book into English,--so
few, that I do not remember even one qualified to the southward of the
Thames when I began my reign." To cure this deplorable ignorance, he was
indefatigable in his endeavors to bring into England men of learning in
all branches from every part of Europe, and unbounded in his liberality
to them. He enacted by a law that every person possessed of two hides
of land should send their children to school until sixteen. Wisely
considering where to put a stop to his love even of the liberal arts,
which are only suited to a liberal condition, he enterprised yet a
greater design than that of forming the growing generation,--to instruct
even the grown: enjoining all his earldormen and sheriffs immediately to
apply themselves to learning, or to quit their offices. To facilitate
these great purposes, he made a regular foundation of an university,
which with great reason is believed to have been at Oxford. Whatever
trouble he took to extend the benefits of learning amongst his subjects,
he showed the example himself, and applied to the cultivation of his
mind with unparalleled diligence and success. He could neither read nor
write at twelve years old; but he improved his time in such a manner
that he became one of the most knowing men of his age, in geometry, in
philosophy, in architecture, and in music. He applied himself to the
improvement of his native language; he translated several valuable works
from Latin; and wrote a vast number of poems in the Saxon tongue with a
wonderful facility and happiness. He not only excelled in the theory of
the arts and sciences, but possessed a great mechanical genius for the
executive part; he improved the manner of ship-building, introduced a
more beautiful and commodious architecture, and even taught his
countrymen the art of making bricks,--most of the buildings having been
of wood before his time. In a word, he comprehended in the greatness of
his mind the whole of government and all its parts at once, and, what is
most difficult to human frailty, was at the same time sublime and
minute.

Religion, which in Alfred's father was so prejudicial to affairs,
without being in him at all inferior in its zeal and fervor, was of a
more enlarge