“And do thou, most excellent youth, study to adorn nobility of birth by nobility of conduct. Strive with all thy power to fulfil the will and the honour of the omnipotent God, that His ineffable piety may exalt the throne of thy kingdom and extend its bounds, and subject the nations to thy power. Be liberal to the wretched, good to foreigners, devout in the service of Christ, treating honourably His servants and His churches that their sedulous prayer may aid thee. Be clean in conversation, chaste in body. Rejoice with the wife of thy youth and let not other women have any part in thee, that the blessing granted unto thee may lead to a long posterity of descendants. “Be strong against adversaries, faithful to friends, humble to Christians, terrible to pagans, affable to the wretched, provident in council. Use the advice of the old men, the service of the young. Let equity be the judgement in thy kingdom. Let the praise of God everywhere resound at the fitting hours, and especially in the presence of thy piety. This kind of devotion to the offices of the church will render thee loveable to God and honoured among men. Let thoughts of sobriety be in your heart, words of truth in your mouth, examples of honour in your conduct, that the divine clemency may in all ways exalt and preserve thee. “I pray you let this letter go with you as a testimony of my love. Though it be not worthy to be hung at the girdle of thy veneration, yet let its admonition be worthy to be stored in the mind of thy wisdom.” We must now say something on the part which Alcuin played in connexion with the revision of the manuscripts of the Bible. Alcuin is credited with a revision of the whole of the Latin Bible, both the Old Testament and the New. We have a letter of his in which he states in precise terms that he had been commissioned by Karl to correct the corrupted text. The letter is addressed to Gisla, Abbess of Chelles, Karl’s sister, and Rotruda, Karl’s daughter, whom he addresses as Columba, the Dove. [Sidenote: Ep. 136. A.D. 800.] “I have sent for the solace of your sanctity a small book, written in short sections, that you may use it during these days[230] for your holy devotion. In such study you best spend these most holy days, and especially in the Gospel of the blessed John, wherein are the deeper mysteries of divinity, and the most holy words of our Lord Jesus Christ which He spoke on that night when He willed to be betrayed for the salvation of the world. “I might have sent you an exposition of the whole Gospel, if I had not been occupied, by the command of the lord king, in the emendation of the Old and the New Testament. But if life last and God help, I will, when occasion serves, finish the task now begun, and dedicate the completed work to your name.” [Sidenote: Ep. 137.]