properly wished to have--stirred up the king’s mind from within, not from without; as it is written, ‘I will hearken what the Lord God will say concerning me.’[184] He would avail himself of every opportunity to procure assistants in his good designs, to aid him in his strivings after wisdom, that he might attain to what he aimed at; and, like a prudent bee,[185] which, rising in summer at early morning from her beloved cells, steers her course with rapid flight along the uncertain paths of the air, and descends on the manifold and varied flowers of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, essaying that which most pleases her, and bearing it home, he directed the eyes of his mind afar, and sought that without which he had not within, that is, in his own kingdom.[186] =77. Alfred’s Scholarly Associates: Werfrith, Plegmund, Æthelstan, and Werwulf.=[187]--But God at that time, as some consolation to the king’s benevolence, enduring no longer his kindly and just complaint, sent as it were certain luminaries, namely, Werfrith,[188] Bishop of the church of Worcester, a man well versed in divine Scripture, who, by the king’s command, was the first to interpret with clearness and elegance the books of the _Dialogues_ of Pope Gregory and Peter, his disciple, from Latin into Saxon, sometimes putting sense for sense; then Plegmund,[189] a Mercian by birth, Archbishop of the church of Canterbury, a venerable man, endowed with wisdom; besides Æthelstan[190] and Werwulf, learned priests and clerks,[191] Mercians by birth. These four King Alfred had called to him from Mercia, and he exalted them with many honors and powers in the kingdom of the West Saxons, not to speak of those which Archbishop Plegmund and Bishop Werfrith had in Mercia. By the teaching and wisdom of all these the king’s desire increased continually, and was gratified. Night and day, whenever he had any leisure, he commanded such men as these to read books to him--for he never suffered himself to be without one of them--so that he came to possess a knowledge of almost every book, though of himself he could not yet understand anything of books, since he had not yet learned to read anything. =78. Grimbald and John, the Old Saxon.=[192]--But since the king’s commendable avarice could not be gratified even in this, he sent messengers beyond sea to Gaul, to procure teachers, and invited from thence Grimbald,[193] priest and monk, a venerable man and excellent singer, learned in every kind of ecclesiastical discipline and in holy Scripture, and adorned with all virtues. He also obtained from thence John,[194] both priest and monk, a man of the keenest intellect, learned in all branches of literature, and skilled in many other arts. By the teaching of these men the king’s mind was greatly enlarged, and he enriched and honored them with much power.