The English scholars, though defective in actual knowledge, had just conceptions of the objects of philosophy. Alcuin defines it to be the study of natural things, and the knowledge of divine and human affairs. All the subjects comprised by Alcuin in physics are arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. That larger field of science to which we now give the name of physics had not yet been discovered, nor had chemistry, mineralogy, and the other analogous sciences. [Illustration: FIRST TWO LINES OF HORACE'S ODE TO MÆCENAS. (_From MS. of Horace's Works of the Tenth Century in the National Library, Paris._)] [Illustration: ENGLISH WRITING OF THE SIXTH CENTURY.] A fair idea of the condition of mental and moral science previous to the Norman conquest, may be obtained from an extant dialogue between Alcuin and Pepin, the son of Charles the Great. Some of the questions, with the answers, are subjoined:-- "What is life?--The gladness of the blessed; the sorrow of the wretched; the expectation of death. "What is death?--The inevitable event; the uncertain pilgrimage; the tears of the living; the confirmation of our testament; the thief of man. "What is sleep?--The image of death. "What is man's liberty?--Innocence. "What is the brain?--The preserver of the memory. "What is the sun?--The splendour of the world; the beauty of heaven; the honour of day; the distributor of the hours. "What is the moon?--The eye of night; the giver of dew; the prophetess of the weather. "What is rain?--The earth's conception; the mother of corn. "What is the earth?--The nurse of the living; the store-house of life; the devourer of all things. "What is the sea?--The path of audacity; the divider of regions; the fountain of showers. "What is a ship?--A wandering house; a perpetual inn; a traveller without footsteps. "What makes bitter things sweet?--Hunger. "What makes men never weary?--Gain. "What gives sleep to the watching?--Hope. "Who is he that will rise higher if you take away his head?--Look in your bed, and you will find him there." [Illustration: ENGLISH DINNER PARTY. (_From Cotton MS., Claud., B._ 4.)]