All the biographers of Alfred speak of his zealous efforts in behalf of education.  He established a school for the young nobles of his court, and taught them himself.  His teachers were chiefly learned men drawn from the continent, especially from the Franks, and were well paid by the king.  He made the scholarly Asser—­a Welsh monk, afterwards bishop of Sherborne, from whose biography of Alfred our best information is derived—­his counsellor and friend, and from his instructions acquired much knowledge.  To Asser he gave the general superintendence of education, not merely for laymen, but for priests.  In his own words, he declared that his wish was that all free-born youth should persevere in learning until they could read the English Scriptures.  For those who desired to devote themselves to the Church, he provided the means for the study of Latin.  He gave all his children a good education.  His own thirst for knowledge was remarkable, considering his cares and public duties.  He copied the prayer-book with his own hands, and always carried it in his bosom, Asser read to him all the books which were then accessible.  From an humble scholar the king soon became an author.  He translated “Consolations of Philosophy” from the Latin of Boethius, a Roman senator of the sixth century,—­the most remarkable literary effort of the declining days of the Roman Empire, and highly prized in the Middle Ages.  He also translated the “Chronicle of the World,” by Orosius, a Spanish priest, who lived in the early part of the fifth century,—­a work suggested by Saint Augustine’s “City of God.”  The “Ecclesiastical History” of Bede was also translated by Alfred.  He is said to have translated the Proverbs of Solomon and the Fables of Aesop.  His greatest literary work, however, was the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the principal authority of the reign of Alfred.  No man of his day wrote the Saxon language so purely as did Alfred himself; and he was distinguished not only for his knowledge of Latin, but for profound philosophical reflections interspersed through his writings, which would do honor to a Father of the Church.  He was also a poet, inferior only to Caedmon.  Nor was his knowledge confined to literature alone; it was extended to the arts, especially architecture, ship-building, and silver-workmanship.  He built more beautiful edifices than any of his predecessors.  He also had a knowledge of geography beyond his contemporaries, and sent a Norwegian ship-master to explore the White Sea.  He enriched his translation of Orosius by a sketch of the new geographical discoveries in the North.  In fact, there was scarcely any branch of knowledge then known in which Alfred was not well instructed,—­being a remarkably learned man for his age, and as enlightened as he was learned.