written find anything not delivered according to the truth, we beg that you will not impute the same to us, who, as the true rule of history requires, have labored sincerely to commit to writing such things as we could gather from common report for the instruction of posterity."

Bede died in 735 and was buried at Jarrow. Thence Elfred, a priest of Durham, in an excess of hero-worship, stole his bones. In the cathedral of Durham, during the twelfth century, there was built over them a beautiful shrine of gold, silver, and jewels. In the days of Henry VIII this was destroyed and the bones scattered by a mob. The mob could not, however, destroy the reputation of the old monk or the beautiful legend connected with the title by which he is best known. A pupil, who had been chosen to write the master's epitaph, labored in vain to complete the Latin hexameter in which he was to say: "In this grave are the bones of Bede." He fell asleep over the unfinished line

"Hac sunt in fossa, Bedæ ossa."

But as he slept an angel came with a pen of light and, bending over the youth, completed the line. The youth awoke and read:

"Hac sunt in fossa, Bedæ Venerabilis ossa."

"England," says Henry Morley, "has ratified the title; and to the end of time his countrymen will look back with affectionate honor to the sinless student life of the Venerable Bede."

The work begun by Caedmon was carried on by another excellent poet, Cynewulf. Of him we know nothing with certainty except that he must be the author of four poems, since he marked them as his own by the insertion of his name in the old Saxon letters, or runes. This fact is a good indication of his half-pagan character, for, though his subjects are Christian and his object was to diffuse Christianity, he was obviously at heart a fierce viking, as fond of the sea as is Rudyard Kipling, and, like Theodore Roosevelt, an advocate of the strenuous life.

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The titles of his four poems are "Crist," Juliana,' ""The Fates of the Apostles," and "Elene." Crist is in three parts: the advent of Christ on earth, his ascension, and his second advent. The

author's half-pagan attitude is seen in the fact that he says that one of the chief joys of heaven will be derived from witnessing the sufferings of the damned. "Juliana " is the story of a Christian martyr, who overcomes many temptations, including an offer of marriage with a pagan, and, finally, having routed the devil in person, endures martyrdom by the sword. In "Elene," which is his best poem, Cynewulf tells how Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, discovered the true cross. Its style is simple, yet dramatic, and it contains passages of great beauty. The pomp of war, the gleam of jewels, and ships dancing on the waters give life and color to a narrative permeated with a deep and serious purpose. Several other poems which may have been written by Cynewulf have come down to us. Of these "Andreas," which deals with St. Andrew, may be said to represent Christ as a viking, and the " Dream of the Rood" has been described by M. Bentinck Smith as the choicest blossom of OldEnglish Christian poetry. "Religious feeling," she says, " has never been more exquisitely clothed than in these 140 lines of alliterative verse."

Cynewulf belongs to a later school than Caedmon. Both are Christian and both monkish; both in many respects are still full of the pagan spirit of Beowulf. But Cynewulf is more self-conscious and open to foreign influence. In a restricted sense Caedmon may be called the poet of the Old Testament, Cynewulf of the New.

For our knowledge of Cynewulf's poetry we are indebted to two recently discovered books. One was found in 1822 in a monastery at Vercelli in Italy and is called the "Vercelli Book "; the other, known as the " Exeter Book," is preserved in Exeter Cathedral. The poems of the Vercelli book were published in 1840, those of the "Exeter Book " in 1842.

A rude interruption came about 787 to the pious labors which we have been describing. In that year there landed on the east coast of England a party of Danes. Letters, arts, and religion disappeared before these Northmen as before the Northmen of an earlier day. It was not until 871, when Alfred the Great became King of Wessex, that the country was rescued from their ravages. Then, however, land, government, and people reappeared unchanged. "The Danes

were really Englishmen bringing back to an England that had forgotten its origin," says John Richard Green," the barbaric England of its pirate forefathers." For this reason the fusion of the two people was easy and complete. To this struggle there are some interesting allusions in Shakespeare's "Hamlet "; and two capital modern novels, "The Thrall of Leif the Lucky" and "The Ward of King Canute," by Miss Ottilie Liljencrantz, picture the period in a fashion that makes it live for modern readers.

In order to repair the intellectual and moral ruin wrought by the Danes, King Alfred became a writer of English prose When already a man and a king, he taught himself to write under the instruction of a priest named Asser. Of his works, only one, a collection of notes concerning English history, is original; the rest are translations. He has the distinction, indeed, of being the earliest of English translators. Among the books which he thus gave to his people are Boethius's "Consolations of Philosophy," the masterpiece of the last man of genius produced by Rome and one of the noblest treatises on right living which the world possesses; "The Universal History of Orosius, from the Creation to the year of our Lord 416 "; Bede's " Ecclesiastical History"; Pope Gregory's "Book on the Care of the Soul"; and an abridgment of St. Augustine's "Soliloquies." These are not literal translations. Alfred rendered them freely, omitted much, and occasionally added matter of his own.

Beside these writings of Alfred, there is a collection of AngloSaxon laws which is not without interest. From a few of them, the amiable character of our ancestors may be inferred:

"These are the laws King Ethelbert established in Augustine's day:

8. If in the king's town any one a man slay, 50 shillings shall be paid.

19. If a highway robbery be committed, 3 shillings shall be paid. 57. If a man beat another with the fist on the nose, 3 shillings." We may also congratulate ourselves on the fact that we are not dependent upon their doctors for the cure of our wounds or upon their agricultural knowledge for our food. To cure a broken head, according to a Saxon herbarium published in 1864-6 by the Rev.

Oswald Cockayne, they were advised to swallow two drachms of powdered betony in hot beer. Baldness was cured by putting juice of watercress upon the nose. A hare's brain in wine was a remedy against oversleeping. Those who were much troubled by ghosts could get relief by eating lion's flesh. To insure good crops the Saxon farmer had to proceed as follows: (1) Before dawn cut four sods from the corners of his land; (2) put in each hole thus made oil, honey, barm, the milk of every kind of beast and the leaves of every kind of tree and shrub on the land; (3) drop holy water thrice on the mixture; (4) say in Latin, "Grow-multiply-replenish the earth "; (5) say his Paternoster; (6) carry the four sods to church and have four masses said over them; (7) carry them back before sunset to the places whence they had been taken; (8) lay them again in their places; (9) set up four crosses inscribed with the names of the four evangelists; (10) say "Grow-multiply-replenish the earth" nine times; (11) say the Paternoster nine times; (12) bow nine times to the earth; (13) repeat a charm 26 lines long; (14) turn himself round three times in the direction of the sun; (15) recite the names of the saints; (16) recite the Magnificat; (17) recite three more Paternosters; (18) recite another charm; (19) take strange seed from a priest, giving him twice as much in return; (20) bore a hole in his plough-beam; (21) put in the hole incense, fennel, consecrated soap, and consecrated salt; (22) put the seed from the priest on the body of the plough; (23) say another charm 30 lines long; (24) say a shorter charm while the plough cut its first furrow; (25) bake a loaf as big as his two hands would hold, having put into it flour of all grain on the land, with milk and holy water; (26) lay the loaf under the furrow; (27) say another charm of twelve lines; (28) say three more Crescites; (29) say three more Paternosters.

From these curious documents we can infer why it was that Alfred's attempts to educate his subjects were only in part successful. After his death in 900 the Danes also returned and for a century blood flowed, the sky was black with the smoke of monastery and farm, and literature languished. Practically nothing of value was written during that time except portions of the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle." This work, which is a crude record of the history of the island

from 55 B.C. to 1154 A.D., was written by various priests in various monasteries in various generations. It is of immense historical importance and no small literary interest. A few extracts will give a better idea of its style than uch description and will also afford a convenient review of this chater:

A. 47. This year Claudius conquered the greater part of the island. A. 188. This year Severus built a rampart of turf and a broad wall thereon from sea to sea.

A. 381. This year Maximus, the emperor, obtained the empire; he was born in Britain and went thence into Gaul. And he there slew the Emperor Gratian. And Valentinian afterwards gathered an army and slew Maximus. (See Kipling's stories, already cited, P. 20.)

A. 409. This year the Goths took the city of Rome by storm and after this the Romans never ruled in Britain.

A. 449. This year Hengist and Horsa, invited by Vortigern, king of the Britons, landed in Britain. Then they fought against the Picts and had the victory wheresoever they came. They then sent to the Angles and desired a larger force to be sent, describing to them the worthlessness of the Britons and the excellence of the land. At that time there came men from the Saxons, the Angles, and the Jutes. From the Jutes came the Kentish men. From the Saxons came the men of Essex, Sussex, and Wessex. From Anglia came the men of East Anglia, Middle Anglia, Mercia, and all North-Humbria.

A. 597. This year Augustine and his companions came to the land of the Angles.

A. 773. This year a fiery crucifix appeared in the heavens after sunset; and the same year the Mercians and the Kentishmen fought at Oxford; and wondrous adders were seen in the land of the South-Saxons. A. 787. This year first came three ships of Northmen out of Hæretha land (Denmark).

A. 962. This year the great fever was in London and Paul's minster was burnt, and that same year was again built up.

A. 995. In this year King Edward came to Westminster, at mid-winter, and there caused to be consecrated the minster which himself had built to the glory of God and of St. Peter and of all God's saints.

A. 1087. He (King William) was mild to those good men who loved God, but stark to those who withstood him. In his days the great monastery at Canterbury was built. Among other things, the good peace he made in the land must not be forgotten; it was such that any man with a bosom full of gold might travel over the kingdom unmolested. He surveyed the kingdom so thoroughly that there was not a single hide of land of which he knew not the possessor and the value. He made large forests for the deer and enacted laws therewith, so that whoever killed a hart or a hind should be blinded. He loved the tall stags as if he were their father.

A. 1093. This year, in Lent, King William was very sick; and he made many good promises in his illness.

A. 1094. This year the Scots conspired against their king, Duncan, and slew him, and they afterward took his uncle, Dufenal, a second time,