the earth a new garment, and
ripens the fruit.

_Pepin_--What is autumn?

_Albinus_--The barn of the year.

A LETTER FROM ALCUIN TO CHARLEMAGNE

(Written in the year 796)

I, your Flaccus, in accordance with your entreaty and your gracious
kindness, am busied under the shelter of St. Martin's, in bestowing upon
many of my pupils the honey of the Holy Scriptures. I am eager that
others should drink deep of the old wine of ancient learning; I shall
presently begin to nourish still others with the fruits of grammatical
ingenuity; and some of them I am eager to enlighten with a knowledge of
the order of the stars, that seem painted, as it were, on the dome of
some mighty palace. I have become all things to all men (1 Cor. i. 22)
so that I may train up many to the profession of God's Holy Church and
to the glory of your imperial realm, lest the grace of Almighty God in
me should be fruitless (1 Cor. xv. 10) and your munificent bounty of no
avail. But your servant lacks the rarer books of scholastic learning,
which in my own country I used to have (thanks to the generous and most
devoted care of my teacher and to my own humble endeavors), and I
mention it to your Majesty so that, perchance, it may please you who are
eagerly concerned about the whole body of learning, to have me dispatch
some of our young men to procure for us certain necessary works, and
bring with them to France the flowers of England; so that a graceful
garden may not exist in York alone, but so that at Tours as well there
may be found the blossoming of Paradise with its abundant fruits; that
the south wind, when it comes, may cause the gardens along the River
Loire to burst into bloom, and their perfumed airs to stream forth, and
finally, that which follows in the Canticle, whence I have drawn this
simile, may be brought to pass... (Canticle v. 1, 2). Or even this
exhortation of the prophet Isaiah, which urges us to acquire
wisdom:--"A11 ye who thirst, come to the waters; and you who have not
money, hasten, buy and eat: come, without money and without price, and
buy wine and milk" (Isaiah iv. 1.)

And this is a thing which your gracious zeal will not overlook: how upon
every page of the Holy Scriptures we are urged to the acquisition of
wisdom; how nothing is more honorable for insuring a happy life, nothing
more pleasing in the observance, nothing more efficient against sin,
nothing more praiseworthy in any lofty station, than that men li