MA.TTHJÎW OF WESTMINSTER. A.D. 871. on the art of poetry, which she held in her hand, she said to them, " I will give this book to whichever of you can learn it first." Then Alfred, being charmed with the beauty of the initial letter of the book, answered his mother, "Will you really give that book to that one among us who shall be the most quickly able to understand it, and to repeat it in your presence?" And she ~-*plied, " I will give it." Then he, taking the book, went to a master, and read it, and, returning to his mother, repeated it from memory. After that, with continued use, without any intermission, he constantly carried about with him, and diligently pondered, the psalms and prayers of David, which he had written out in one book, and which out of hie devout spirit, he placed in his bosom. For he heard his master say that an illiterate king was like a crowned ass. Bat when, being in the flower of his age, he saw the law that was in his members to be contrary to the law of his mind, and that it was leading him captive to the law of sin, he often, at cockcrow and at the hours of matins, would rise secretly from his bed and visit the churches and relics of the saints, for the sake of praying, and remaining there a long time prostrate in prayer, he would implore the mercy of God, to strengthen his mind in the love of his blessed majesty by some inflrmity of the body which he might be able to endure, but yet not to such a degree that he should appear unworthy or unprofitable in human affairs. And when, with great devotion of mind, he had made this request to the Lord frequently, after a short interval of time, by the kindness of God, he became afflicted with the piles, with which complaint he was violently afflicted for many years, and was brought even to despair of his life. And on a certain occasion, when, by the prompting of the Deity, he went to Cornwall for the sake of hunting, and had turned aside, for the sake of praying, into a certain church, in which the holy Gueriir and the holy Neoth were living, prostrating himself, a long time in silent prayer, he implored the mercy of God, entreating him to change the annoyance of the disease which was pressing upon him, for some eUghter infirmity, which, however, should not appear externally on hie body, so that he might not be more despised by men. And when he had finished his prayer, he continued the journey which he had begun, and no long time afterwards he was, as he had prayed to be, entirely delivered from that disease, and by the divine kindness, perfectly cured. But when that info