One day—­it was eight or nine years after Alfred’s victory over Guthrum and settlement of the kingdom—­the king and Asser were engaged in conversation in the royal apartments, and Asser quoted some Latin phrase with which, on its being explained, Alfred was very much pleased, and he asked Asser to write it down for him in his book.  So saying, he took from his pocket a little book of prayers and other pieces of devotion, which he was accustomed to carry with him for daily use.  It was, of course, in manuscript.  Asser looked over it to find a space where he could write the Latin quotation, but there was no convenient vacancy.  He then proposed to Alfred that he should make for him another small book, expressly for Latin quotations, with explanations of their meaning, if Alfred chose to make them, in the Anglo-Saxon tongue.  Alfred highly approved of this suggestion.  The bishop prepared the little parchment volume, and it became gradually filled with passages of Scripture, in Latin, and striking sentiments, briefly and tersely expressed, extracted from the writings of the Roman poets or of the fathers of the Church.  Alfred wrote opposite to each quotation its meaning, expressed in his own language; and as he made the book his constant companion, and studied it continually, taking great interest in adding to its stores, it was the means of communicating to him soon a very considerable knowledge of the language, and was the foundation of that extensive acquaintance with it which he subsequently acquired.

Alfred made great efforts to promote in every way the intellectual progress and improvement of his people.  He wrote and translated books, which were published so far as it was possible to publish books in those days, that is, by having a moderate number of copies transcribed and circulated among those who could read them.  Such copies were generally deposited at monasteries, and abbeys, and other such places, where learned men were accustomed to assemble.  These writings of Alfred exerted a wide influence during his day.  They remained in manuscript until the art of printing was invented, when many of them were printed; others remain in manuscript in the various museums of England, where visitors look at them as curiosities, all worn and corroded as they are, and almost illegible by time.  These books, though they exerted great influence at the time when they were written, are of little interest or value now.  They express ideas in morals and philosophy, some of which have become so universally diffused as to be commonplace at the present day, while others would now be discarded, as not in harmony with the ideas or the philosophy of the times.