It is true, he had good materials to work with. He had the Anglo-Saxon
race to act upon at the time, a race capable of appreciating and
entering into his plans; and he has had the same race to carry them
on, for the ten centuries which have elapsed since he laid his
foundations. As no other race of men but Anglo-Saxons could have
produced an Alfred, so, probably, no other race could have carried
out such plans as Alfred formed. It is a race which has always been
distinguished, like Alfred their great prototype and model, for a
certain cool and intrepid energy in war, combined with and surpassed
by the industry, the system, the efficiency, and the perseverance with
which they pursue and perfect all the arts of peace. They systematize
every thing. They arrange--they organize. Every thing in their hands
takes form, and advances to continual improvement. Even while the
rest of the world remain inert, they are active. When the arts and
improvements of life are stationary among other nations, they are
always advancing with _them_. It is a people that is always making new
discoveries, pressing forward to new enterprises, framing new laws,
constituting new combinations and developing new powers; until now
after the lapse of a thousand years, the little island feeds and
clothes, directly or indirectly, a very large portion of the human
race, and directs, in a great measure, the politics of the world.

Whether Alfred reasoned upon the capacities of the people whom he
ruled, and foresaw their future power, or whether he only followed the
simple impulses of his own nature in the plans which he formed and the
measures which he adopted, we can not know; but we know that, in fact,
he devoted his chief attention, during all the years of his reign,
to perfecting in the highest degree the internal organization of his
realm, considered as a great social community. His people were in a