But of all things ’tis most sad
That they foolish are so blind,
So besotted and so mad,
That they cannot surely find
Where the ever-good is nigh
And true pleasures hidden lie.

Therefore, never is their strife
After those true joys to spur;
In this lean and little life
They, half-witted, deeply err
Seeking here their bliss to gain,
That is God Himself in vain.

Ah!  I know not in my thought
How enough to blame their sin,
None so clearly as I ought
Can I show their fault within;
For, more bad and vain are they
And more sad than I can say.

All their hope is to acquire
Worship goods and worldly weal;
When they have their mind’s desire,
Then such witless Joy they feel,
That in folly they believe
Those True Joys they then receive.

Works of Alfred the Great, Jubilee Edition (Oxford and Cambridge, 1852).

A SORROWFUL FYTTE

From ‘Boethius’

Lo!  I sting cheerily
In my bright days,
But now all wearily
Chaunt I my lays;
Sorrowing tearfully,
Saddest of men,
Can I sing cheerfully,
As I could then?

     Many a verity
       In those glad times
     Of my prosperity
       Taught I in rhymes;
     Now from forgetfulness
       Wanders my tongue,
     Wasting in fretfulness,
       Metres unsung.

     Worldliness brought me here
       Foolishly blind,
     Riches have wrought me here
       Sadness of mind;
     When I rely on them,
       Lo! they depart,—­
     Bitterly, fie on them! 
       Rend they my heart. 
     Why did your songs to me,
       World-loving men,
     Say joy belongs to me
       Ever as then? 
     Why did ye lyingly
       Think such a thing,
     Seeing how flyingly
       Wealth may take wing?

Works of Alfred the Great, Jubilee Edition (Oxford and Cambridge, 1852).

CHARLES GRANT ALLEN

(1848-)

The Irish-Canadian naturalist, Charles Grant Blairfindie Allen, who turns his industrious hand with equal facility to scientific writing, to essays, short stories, botanical treatises, biography, and novels, is known to literature as Grant Allen, as “Arbuthnot Wilson,” and as “Cecil Power.”

His work may be divided into two classes:  fiction and popular essays.  The first shows the author to be familiar with varied scenes and types, and exhibits much feeling for dramatic situations.  His list of novels is long, and includes among others, ‘Strange Stories,’ ‘Babylon,’ ’This Mortal Coil,’ ‘The Tents of Shem,’ ‘The Great Taboo,’ ’Recalled to Life,’ ‘The Woman Who Did,’ and ‘The British Barbarians.’  In many of these books he has woven his plots around a psychological theme; a proof that science interests him more than invention.  His essays are written for unscientific readers, and carefully avoid all technicalities and tedious discussions.  Most persons, he says, “would much rather learn why birds have feathers than why they have a keeled sternum, and they think the origin of bright flowers far more attractive than the origin of monocotyledonous seeds or esogenous stems.”