ciplined troops of the
former, and defeated them in a desperate encounter at Muta. His throne
was now firmly established, and an impetus given to the Arabian nations
that in a few years induced them to invade, and enabled them to subdue,
a great portion of the globe. India, Persia, the Greek Empire, the whole
of Asia Minor, Egypt, Barbary, and Spain, were reduced by their
victorious arms. The Muezzin[10] was heard throughout an empire greater
than Alexander's; and though the temporal power of his successors has
now faded to a shadow, the religion which he founded still holds sway
throughout all that empire, and is even endeavoring to extend itself.
Although Mahomet did not live to see such mighty conquests, he laid the
first foundations of this wide-spreading dominion, and established over
the whole of Arabia, and some part of Syria, the religion he had
proclaimed.

[Footnote 10: The Muezzin is the Mahometan official who
announces to the faithful the hour of prayer. Three times in
the day and twice at night he goes up to the balcony of one of
the minarets of the mosque, and chants the call. It is a simple
but solemn melody, which floats down from the height of his
turret upon the sleeping or bustling city with vast
impressiveness, and receives immediate and universal
obedience.]

ALFRED THE GREAT

By SIR J. BERNARD BURKE, LL.D.

(849-901)

[Illustration: Family scene. [TN]]

No name in English history is so popular, and so justly popular, as that
of Alfred the Great. That he taught his people to defend themselves and
defeat their enemies, is the least of his many claims to our grateful
admiration; he did much more than this; he gave the first impulse to the
spirit of civilization, and taught a horde of wild barbarians that there
were other and worthier pursuits than war or the pleasures of the table.
In fact, he was one of those highly gifted men that would seem to be
raised up especially by Providence to meet certain emergencies, or to
advance the career of nations. Such was the hero, so beautifully
recorded by the pen of Edmund Burke, and of whose history we now purpose
to give a slight sketch for the amusement of those who might turn in
weariness from a more ample record.

Alfred the Great was born at Wantage, in Berkshire, in the year 849, one
of the most dreary and calamitous periods of English chronicle. He was
the youngest s