[73] "The memory of the life and doings of the noblest of English rulers has come down to us living and distinct through the mist of exaggeration and legend that gathered round it.... He lived solely for the good of his people. He is the first instance in the history of Christendom of the Christian king, of a ruler who put aside every personal aim or ambition to devote himself to the welfare of those whom he ruled. So long as he lived he strove 'to live worthily'; but in his mouth a life of worthiness meant a life of justice, temperance, and self-sacrifice. Ardent warrior as he was, with a disorganised England before him, he set aside at thirty-one the dream of conquest to leave behind him the memory, not of victories, but of 'good works,' of daily toils by which he secured peace, good government, education for his people.... The spirit of adventure that made him in youth the first huntsman of his day took later and graver form in an activity that found time amidst the cares of state for the daily duties of religion, for converse with strangers, for study and translation, for learning poems by heart, for planning buildings and instructing craftsmen in gold work, for teaching even falconers and dog-keepers their business.... He himself superintended a school for the young nobles of the court." (Green's _Short History of the English People_, chap. i. sec. 5.)--ED. [74] Compare Voltaire, _Essai sur les Moeurs_, chap. xxvi.; and Herder's _Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit_. Werke (1820), vol. vi. p. 153.--ED. [75] Through the whole of his life, Alfred was subject to grievous maladies.--W. W. 1822. "Although disease succeeded disease, and haunted him with tormenting agony, nothing could suppress his unwearied and inextinguishable genius." (Sharon Turner's _History of the Anglo-Saxons_, vol. i. book iv. chap. v. p. 503.)--ED. [76] "His mind was far from being prisoned within his own island. He sent a Norwegian shipmaster to explore the White Sea.... Envoys bore his presents to the Christians of India and Jerusalem, and an annual mission carried Peter's-pence to Rome." (Green's _Short History of the English People_, i. 5.)--ED. [77] 1827. And Christian India gifts with Alfred shares By sacred converse link'd with India's clime. 1822 [78] "With Alfred" is in all the editions. The late Bishop of St. Andrews, Charles Wordsworth, suggested that "of Alfred" or "from Alfred" would be a better reading.--ED. XXVII HIS DESCENDANTS