ALFRED THE GREAT LEARN. ordinary obstacles at defiance, and ING TO READ. Ir was Alfred's misfortune in infancy to lose his mother, a person of excellent abilities and conspicuous piety: his extraordinary talents, therefore, owed but little to her culture. Nor does any degree of scholarship appear to have entered into the plans of those who directed his earlier education. He was trained in the habits of a sportsman and a warrior; but his twelfth year overtook him while yet unable to read. He had shown, however, a considerable taste for literature, in his keen attention to the poems commonly recited in the royal presence. By one of these, beautifully written, his mother-in-law, Judith, endeavoured to shame the gross illiteracy of her new connexions. "I will give this," she said, "to that one of you, young people, who shall first learn it by heart." Alfred gazed eagerly upon the manuscript, fascinated particularly by an illuminated capital. "Now, will you really give this?" he asked. Judith declared herself in earnest. Nothing more was needed by the resolute and intelligent boy. He applied himself instantly to learn his letters, nor did he rest until able to repeat accurately the poem that had so happily captivated his eye. He now found his eager thirst of knowledge met by a mortifying repulse. Reading to any extent, or to much advantage, required a knowledge of Latin. Upon overcoming this new difficulty he soon accordingly determined. But instruction was not easily obtained, even by a prince. The taste for learning, and the facilities for its cultivation which England once owed to Theodore, had become extinct. Alfred, however, feeling ignorance insupportable, was im led by a generous energy to set he diligently sought instructors. How effectually he profited by their aid, his literary labours most nobly testify. These evidences of learned industry are, indeed, sufficient for immortalizing any name in a dark and tempestuous age. As the works of an author, unable even to read until fully twelve years old, and who grew into manhood before he had mastered Latin, they claim a distinguished place among victories of the human intellect. -SOAMES Anglo-Saxon Church. A soft Answer turneth away When Sir Matthew Hale dismissed a jury, because he was convinced that it had been illegally chosen, to favour the Protector, the latter was highly displeased with him, and when Sir Matthew returned from the circuit, Cromwell told him in anger that he was not fit to be a judge; to which, all the answer he made was, that it was very true. A WORD IN SEASON. SOME years ago, a young man of social temper and affable manners was travelling by one of the stagecoaches. He had early entered into the military life, had seen real service, and evinced by his deportment that he was no stranger to the society of gentlemen. He had, however, a fault too common, and too absurd, to find an advocate among men of sense; he was in the constant habit of swearing. While the horses were changing, a gentleman, who sat on the same seat with him, took him by the arm, and requested the favour of his company in a short walk. When they were so far retired as not to be overheard, his fellow-traveller observed, "Although I have not the honour of your acquaintance, I perceive, sir, that your feelings are those of a gentleman; and that nothing can be more répugnant to your wishes than giving unnecessary pain to one of your company." The young officer started, and replied, "Most certainly, sir; I hope I have committed no offence of that sort!" "You will pardon me," replied the other, "for pointng out an instance in which you have not altogether avoided it." 3 "Sir," said he, "I shall be much your debtor for so friendly an act; for, upon my honour, I cannot conjecture in what I have transessed." "If you, sir," continued the gentleman, “had a dear friend, to whom you were under unspeakable obligations, should you not be deply wounded by any disrespect to him, or even by hearing his name introduced and used with a frequency of repetition and a levity of air incompatible with the regard due to his character?" "Undoubtedy, and I should not permit it; but I know not that I am chargeale with indecorum to any of your friends." "Sir, my God is my best friend, to whom I am under infinite obligations. I think you must rellect that you have frequently, ance we commenced our journey, aken His name in vain. This has given to me heartfelt pain." "Sir," plied the young man, with a very genuous emphasis, "I have done Frong. I confess the impropriety. I am ashamed of a practice, which sensible has no excuse; but I ve imperceptibly fallen into it; I really make use of oaths witht being conscious that I do so. I will endeavour to abstain from it in fature, and as you sit next to me on the coach, I shall thank you to touch my elbow as often as I trespass." This was agreed upon. The horn nded, and the travellers resumed their places. In the space of four five miles, the officer's elbow was ed every few seconds. He al ways coloured, but bowed, and received the hint without the least symptom of displeasure, and in a few miles more so mastered his propensity to swearing, that not an oath was heard from his lips during the rest of the journey. H. W. "ALL FOR THE BEST." No one can have lived long in the world without having observed how frequently it happens that events which, at the time they happened, were the source of bitter disappointment, have, eventually, proved very blessings to us; and that many of those things which have been most anxiously desired, but which it has pleased God to withhold from us, would have proved, if granted, the origin of endless evils. The recollection of such circumstances in our own individual case, while it renders us deeply grateful to Divine Providence for the past, should make us trust with perfect confidence to the same Infinite Wisdom for the future. It would be difficult perhaps to find an anecdote bearing more strongly on what we have just observed, than one which is mentioned in the life of BERNARD GILPIN, that great and good man, whose pious labours in the counties of Westmoreland, Cumberland, Northumberland and York, at the period of the Reformation, procured for him the title by which he is still remembered in those parts, as "The Apostle of the North."-It appears that it was a frequent saying of his, when exposed to losses or troubles—“ Ah, well! God's will be done: nothing happens which is not intended for our good: it is all for the best!" Towards the close of Queen Mary's reign, BERNARD GILFIN was accused of heresy before the merciless Bishop Bonner: he was speedily apprehended, and he left his quiet home, "nothing doubt ing," as he said, "but that it was all for the best," though he was well aware of the fate that might await him; for we find him giving directions to his steward "to provide him a long garment, that he might go the more comely to the stake," at which he would be burnt. While on his way to London, by some accident he had a fall and broke his leg, which put a stop for some time to his journey. The persons in whose custody he was, took occasion thence maliciously to retort upon him his habitual remark. What," said they, "is this all for the best;-you say, Master, that nothing happens which is not for our good; think you your broken leg is so intended?"—"Sirs, I make no question but it is," was the meek reply: and so in very truth it proved; for before he was able to travel, Queen Mary died, the persecution ceased, and he was restored to his liberty and friends. ANECDOTE OF AN ARAB. My conversation with Abdulla Aga was interrupted by the arrival of a medical gentleman, who had long resided at Abusheher, and who was not more remarkable for skill in his profession than a kindness of heart, which led him to devote his time to the poorer inhabitants of the country who sought his aid. He had just been setting the broken leg of an Arab, of whom he gave us a very characteristic anecdote. "The patient," said the doctor, "complained more of the accident which had befallen him than I thought becoming in one of his tribe. This I remarked to him, and his answer was truly amusing. "Do not think, Doctor, I should have uttered one word of com plaint, if my own high-bred colt, in a playful kick, had broken both my legs; but to have a bone broken by a brute of a jackass is too bad, and I will complain.' This distinction of feeling as to the mode in which bones are broken is not confined to the Arabs. I once met an artillery-man, after an action in India, with his arm shattered, who was loudly lamenting his bad fortune. I pointed in an upbraiding manner to some fine fellows on the ground whose luck had been worse. "It is not the wound, sir," he replied, in a passion, "of which I complain; had I lost a limb by a cannon-ball I should not have said a word; but to lose one by a rascally rocket would make any one mad!"Sketches of Persia. THE ARABS AND THEIR WHEN Sir John Malcolm, British A Toman is a nominal coin nearly the value of a pound sterling. satisfied, "you need not tempt me" it is not a faculty to be envied. Take my advice, and never draw caricature; by the long practice of it, I have lost the enjoyment of beauty. I never see a face but distorted; I never have the satisfaction to behold the human face divine." We may suppose that such language from Hogarth, would come with great effect: his manner was very earnest, and the confession is well deserving of remembrance.— BISHOP SANDFORD. any further-it is of no use; you are a fine Elchee; you have fine horses, camels, and mules, and I an told you have loads of silver and gold: now," added he, "you want my colt, but you shall not have him for all you have got." So ying, he rode off to the desert, whence he had come, and where he, no doubt, amused his brethren with an account of what had passed between him and the European Envoy.—Sketches of Persia. SHERLOCK, the pious father-in-law of the excellent Bishop Wilson, exhorts all attendants upon public worship in these words: "Remember whose service it is you are ding, and continue therein from the beginning to the end, that you ay reap the benefit of the whole office, both of the absolution in the beginning, and of the blessing at the end, and of the amens through"The Hebrews have a sayng, that whosoever says amen, with all his might, opens the doors of Paradise." never It is recorded of the Hon. Robert Boyle, a man no less learned in the laws and works of nature, than he Was well acquainted with the evidences of Christianity, that he pronounced the name of God withat making a short but visible pause in his speech, Surely the conduct the great philosopher, Robert Boyle, is a reproof to those who use the name of God thoughtlessly, and any common occasion. IT behoves us always to bear in mind, that while actions are always standard of right and wrong, the to be judged by the immutable judgments which we pass upon men must be qualified by considerations of age, country, situation, and other accidental circumstances, and it will then be found that he who is most charitable in his judgment, is generally the least unjust.-SOUTHEY. It is only our mortal duration that we measure by visible and measurable objects; and there is nothing mournful in the contemplation for one who knows that the Creator made him to be the image of his in the desire for immortality, he own eternity, and who feels, that has sure proof of his capacity for it.-SOUTHEY, NATIONAL happiness must be produced through the influence of religious laws.-SOUTHEY, MEN are Atheistical, because they are first vicious, and question the Truth of Christianity, because they hate the practice of it.-SOUTH, THE mind of a proud man is like a mushroom, which starts up in a night: his business is first to fo get himself, and then his friends.— THE great moral satirist, Hogarth, |