taking great interest in adding to its stores, it was the means
of communicating to him soon a very considerable knowledge of the
language, and was the foundation of that extensive acquaintance with
it which he subsequently acquired.

Alfred made great efforts to promote in every way the intellectual
progress and improvement of his people. He wrote and translated books,
which were published so far as it was possible to publish books in
those days, that is, by having a moderate number of copies transcribed
and circulated among those who could read them. Such copies were
generally deposited at monasteries, and abbeys, and other such places,
where learned men were accustomed to assemble. These writings of
Alfred exerted a wide influence during his day. They remained in
manuscript until the art of printing was invented, when many of them
were printed; others remain in manuscript in the various museums of
England, where visitors look at them as curiosities, all worn and
corroded as they are, and almost illegible by time. These books,
though they exerted great influence at the time when they were
written, are of little interest or value now. They express ideas
in morals and philosophy, some of which have become so universally
diffused as to be commonplace at the present day, while others would
now be discarded, as not in harmony with the ideas or the philosophy
of the times.

One of the greatest and most important of the measures which Alfred
adopted for the intellectual improvement of his people was the
founding of the great University of Oxford. Oxford was Alfred's
residence and capital during a considerable part of his reign. It is
situated on the Thames, in the bosom of a delightful valley, where
it calmly reposes in the midst of fields and meadows as verdant and