literature. At least we see this love of right more distinctly in Early English than in Celtic literature.

2. The earliest English literature we have is a Scandinavian story or saga, as it is called-the Story of Beowulf. It tells how Beowulf, a young Norwegian viking, tall and strong as a young oak, goes to Denmark and frees the king from the attacks of a monster which dwells at the bottom of a lonely lake, and which every night has stalked into the king's banqueting-hall, and, seizing thirty of the sleeping knights, has carried them off and devoured them. In the second part of the story we are told how Beowulf killed a fiery dragon which had long wasted his land, and guarded a great treasure in its cave. But in the struggle Beowulf was fatally wounded by the dragon's poisoned fangs, and, dying, left the treasure to his people, who sang a song of mourning for their beloved chief, a king among men, and the mildest and kindest of rulers. The scenery of Beowulf's adventures is very like that around Whitby in Yorkshire. Perhaps it is an old Scandinavian story brought over by the English and put into Early English verse.

At

3. Parts of the poem, Beowulf, seem to show that the English were already Christians. A few of the Celts had been Christians, and had instructed some of the new settlers in their belief. a later time, St. Augustine came from Rome and taught the English in the south. Religious houses or mission-stations were established throughout the country, where good men and women lived and told the people around them about God and his commands, and tried to make them followers of Christ. Such houses became the centres of light and also of English literature; for those who dwelt there had learned to love reading and study, and had more time for it than the poor ignorant people, who had to work in the fields often all day long. And yet, strangely enough, it was one of those same field-workers, a poor untaught farmer or ploughman, who wrote one of the first and noblest songs in our Early English literature. He had been converted by the good nuns of Whitby, at the head of whom was Mother Hilda, a noble woman, whom all in her house loved.

4. One night this ploughman, whose name was CAEDMON, was

at a feast, and as usual after supper the harp was passed round among the guests, and each sang in turn some song in praise of their heathen gods-Thor, the god of thunder, and Odin, the father of the gods; Freya, the goddess of youth and love, and Baldur, the young god of spring. At last it came to Caedmon's turn. He had heard of a God greater than these, and could no longer sing of heathen gods; but he had not yet learned a song of his Creator, so, sad and in silence, he left the hall, and, going to the stable, spent the night there, guarding the horses of the guests from the wolves and bears that still prowled in English forests. While thinking of this great God of whom the good nuns had told him, and wishing he could sing a song worthy of the Almighty Maker, Caedmon fell asleep.

5. In his dreams there came to him a messenger who bade him sing. "What shall I sing?" asked Caedmon. "Sing of how God made all things," was the reply. While he still dreamed, the verses came to him; and when he awoke, remembering the dream-song, he wrote it down, adding more about God the Creator of all things and his love and power. Then going

to the priory, he told Mother Hilda of his dream, and showed her the verses he had made. The good people of the house saw that God had given this poor farmer the gift of song; and, to try him, they told him some more Bible stories, and asked him to put them into verse. Next day he returned with his task completed.

6. From that time Caedmon lived in Mother Hilda's house, and made poetry and songs to win the people of his country to the love and service of God, putting into verse Old Testament stories, which we all hear as little children, of the Creation, of the sacrifice of Isaac, of Moses and the Israelites. Such beautiful lines as these he wrote of the three who passed through the fiery furnace, wherein

"They unhurt

Walked as in shining of the summer sun,

When day breaks and the winds disperse the dew."

So he lived, until at last the God of whom he loved to sing sent for our poet, and happily and peacefully he passed away, as he himself said, "in charity with all the servants of God."

He was a

7. While Caedmon was living at Whitby, a little boy was growing up in another religious house, at Wearmouth, near Durham. He was only seven years old when he was placed there under the care of the good monks, and there he lived for three years. When he was ten, he was taken to Jarrow-on-Tyne, where he spent the rest of his life-fifty-two years. bright little fellow, never grumbling at his lessons, though in those days there were no easy school-books with pictures and everything to help one, and no teachers who had learned to teach as well as to learn. Besides doing his lessons, little BEDE-for that was his name—would have to help with the work in the house, in the garden, and in the fields.

8. At nineteen years of age Bede became a deacon, and at thirty a priest. For a time he led the singing every day in the church, and soon began the great work of his life—the teaching of the children and students in the monastery schools. Remembering how, as a little lad, he had had to labour his way to knowledge through great heavy volumes, the good master set himself to do this work once and for all for his pupils. Taking first the information they wanted from those big books, he put it into small text-books which they could easily understand. One of these books was the first and, for long, the only English school-book that taught people about the world in which we live about nature and her great laws. But Bede's greatest work was his Ecclesiastical History of the English People.

9. In this Ecclesiastical (or Church) History, Bede told in the clearest and simplest way the story of his country from the landing of the English up to his own times. He was most anxious to write only what was true-what he had heard from friends in different parts of the country, or what he had seen himself. He tells us a great deal about Augustine and the first missionaries in England, and how the different kingdoms of England became Christian. The History ends with a list of the forty-five useful books which Bede had written, and a prayer that the writer may at some time or another appear before Christ, the fountain of all wisdom.

10. Besides his books, Bede left behind him the memory of (853)

a pure, beautiful, faithful life, and his influence was still felt by his pupils and friends throughout the land. He had gathered around him in Jarrow as many as six hundred students, who loved "the venerable Bede," as he has been called, more as a father than as a teacher. One of these pupils, Cuthbert, wrote a letter to a schoolfellow telling of the peaceful death of " our father and master," whom God loved, and how up to the very end he faithfully did his work. He was dictating to one of his pupils a translation of the Gospel of St. John, and was eager to finish it while he still had breath to do so. On the morning of his death, one chapter still remained undone. take his pen and write quickly. At last the master, there is yet one sentence not written." was the answer. Soon afterwards the boy said, "The sentence is now written: it is ended." He replied, "It is well; you have said the truth. It is ended." And then on the pavement of his little cell, praising God, he breathed his last, and so departed to the heavenly kingdom.

He bade the boy boy said, "Dear "Write quickly,"

11. Bede died in 735, and in the same year ALCUIN, another famous scholar, as eager as Bede to do God's work, was born. But as he spent most of his time abroad with the Frankish king Charles the Great (or Charlemagne), we do not hear so much of him. There were many other good and wise men in England, and some of their sacred songs are preserved in what is called the "Exeter Book," which belongs to the library of Exeter Cathedral. One of these poets, Aldhelm of Malmesbury, used to go out with his harp as a gleeman, and, standing on the bridge, sing sacred songs so beautifully, that people who had slipped out of church to escape the sermon gathered round to listen to him.

12. Nor must we forget the good king ALFRED THE GREAT, who tried in every way to educate his people, and wrote and translated many books for them. All the books of the time were either religious books, or sacred poetry, or histories and school-books; and all had the one purpose-to lead the people to a higher life and to a greater trust in God. Most of the writers were men who lived in the religious houses, away from the

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temptations and stir of everyday English life. They wrote sometimes in First English, and sometimes, though more rarely, in Latin. But an event was near which was to change the national life and the national language, -- something which would knit the writers more closely with the daily life of the people around them, and bring forth two new kinds of writings -chronicles or stories of the national life, and romances or stories of individual life. That event was the Norman Conquest.

CHAPTER IV.

CHRONICLES AND ROMANCES.

1. Although the Normans were, like the English, a Teutonic people, they had given up their own language after they settled in France, and spoke a kind of French-Norman-French, we call it. When William the Conqueror came over to England, he brought a number of Norman noblemen, who, of course, spoke their own language; so French became for a time the language of the Court, the Parliament, the law courts, and the upper classes. But the great body of the English people still spoke their own language, and after a few years the Normans took to speaking English, though they kept a great many of their French words, which we still have in our English language.

2. Before the two languages became one, however, books had to be written which both Normans and English could understand; so it came that our histories or chronicles of England were written in Latin, which all educated people could read. These chronicles were records of history, generally kept by the monks of the monasteries. As each monk died, another would take up the work, writing down each event as it happened. One of these chroniclers was WILLIAM OF MALMESBURY, who was born in 1095, nearly thirty years after the Battle of Hastings. He had charge of the library at Malmesbury, and seems to have studied hard and to have read and written a great deal