THE STOCK THAT SPEAKS THE LANGUAGE T is a thousand years since the death of the great Englishman, King Alfred, in whose humble translations we may see the beginnings of English literature. Until it has a literature, however unpretending and however artless, a language is not conscious of itself; and it is therefore in no condition to maintain its supremacy over the dialects that are its jealous rivals. And it is by its literature chiefly that a language forever binds together the peoples who speak it-by a literature in which the characteristics of these peoples are revealed and preserved, and in which their ideals are declared and passed down from generation to generation as the most precious heritage of the race. The historian of the English people asserts that what made Alfred great, small as was his sphere of action, was "the moral grandeur of his life. He lived solely for the good of his people." He laid the foundations for a uniform system of law, |