Alcuin devotes fifty-five hexameters to a _conflictus_ between spring and winter, and celebrates York in over sixteen hundred.[28] The elegiacs may seek Ovidian recurrences.[29] _Præsul amate, precor_, huc tu diverte, viator: Sis memor Albini ut, _præsul amate, precor_. _O mea cara domus_, habitatio dulcis, amata, Sis felix semper, _O mea cara domus_. Alcuin, _ibid._ 250. _Ordiar unde tuos_, sacer O Benedicte, triumphos? Virtutum cumulos _ordiar unde tuos_? _Euge beate pater_, meritum qui nomine prodis! Fulgida lux secli, _euge beate pater_! Paulus Diaconus, _ibid._ 36. Of the many narrative poems employing these measures the commonest were the _passiones_, or saints’ legends, usually with at least a rhythmic bent, and by the tenth century habitually _rhythmi_ with internal rime. The tenth-century _Vita et passio sancti Christophori_ of Walter of Speier, though it abundantly exemplifies both the metrical training and the study of Latin poets that he mentions in his introduction, shows also the trend of the time. More quidem reg_um_ gestabat sceptra Syror_um_ Fascibus indign_us_ publicis rex, nomine Dagn_us_, Celans corda lup_i_ simulatis vultibus agn_i_, Et dum plumat_am_ portarent colla coron_am_, Texerat occult_e_ serpentem forma columb_æ_. Iam quid plura quer_ar_? Tigribus rabidis fuit is p_ar_. II. 1-6; Ermini, page 82, 240-245.[30] Some, at least, of these longer poems were cumulative school exercises. A promising theme in the imitative verse that was commonly part of the study of the Latin poets would be commented by the _grammaticus_, revised according to his criticism, and kept by him for later rehandling or extension.[31] Thus the verse, even with the rhythmical habit established, attended to Latin quantities. Thus also classical reminiscences, especially Vergilian, are frequent; and Walter shows the continued vogue of Prudentius. For the hexameters most typical of the period are literary exercises. C. _DIALECTICA_ Logic followed the Boethian tradition handed down by Isidore.[32] Alcuin, though his manual is meager, repeats in his tract on the Trinity St. Augustine’s view of the importance of this study[33] for the defense of the faith. Rabanus makes it theoretically central. _Dialectica_ is the training of the reason to investigate, define, and express, and to be able to distinguish the true from the false. This, then, is the training of trainings; it teaches how to learn. This exhibits and unfolds the nature, aim, and scope of reason itself. It knows; its aims and virtue are both to know and to make knowers. _De clericorum institutione_ III. xx; PL 107: 397 C. But the turn of _dialectica_ to dominate the Trivium was not yet. D. _RHETORICA_