plied by the words, that he could not write his own
name; but that he did not acquire such a facility as he desired. [1848.]

[507] Spelman, Vit. Alfred. Append.

[508] Hist. Litteraire de la France, t. iii. p. 5.

[509] These four dark centuries, the eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh,
occupy five large quarto volumes of the Literary History of France, by
the fathers of St. Maur. But the most useful part will be found in the
general view at the commencement of each volume; the remainder is taken
up with biographies, into which a reader may dive at random, and
sometimes bring up a curious fact. I may refer also to the 14th volume
of Leber, Collections Relatives a l'Histoire de France, where some
learned dissertations by the Abbes Lebeuf and Goujet, a little before
the middle of the last century, are reprinted. [Note I.]

Tiraboschi, Storia della Letteratura, t. iii., and Muratori's
forty-third Dissertation, are good authorities for the condition of
letters in Italy; but I cannot easily give references to all the books
which I have consulted.

[510] Tiraboschi, t. iii. p. 198.

[511] Mabillon, De Re Diplomatica, p. 55. The reason alleged, indeed, is
that they were wholly occupied with studying Arabic, in order to carry
on a controversy with the Saracens. But, as this is not very credible,
we may rest with the main fact that they could write no Latin.

[512] Spelman, Vit. Alfred. Append. The whole drift of Alfred's preface
to this translation is to defend the expediency of rendering books into
English, on account of the general ignorance of Latin. The zeal which
this excellent prince shows for literature is delightful. Let us
endeavour, he says, that all the English youth, especially the children
of those who are free-born, and can educate them, may learn to read
English before they take to any employment. Afterwards such as please
may be instructed in Latin. Before the Danish invasion indeed, he tells
us, churches were well furnished with books; but the priests got little
good from them, being written in a foreign language which they could not
understand.

[513] Mabillon, De Re Diplomatica, p. 55. Ordericus Vitalis, a more
candid judge of our unfortunate ancestors than other contemporary
annalists, says that the English were, at the Conquest, rude and almost
illiterate, which he ascribes to the Danish invasion. Du Chesne, Hist.
Norm. Script. p. 518. However, Ingulfus tells us that the library of
Croyland contain