Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 3.djvu/153

 ALFRED THE GREAT 101 were reduced by their victorious arms. The Muezzin* was heard throughout an empire greater than Alexander's ; and though the temporal power of his suc- cessors has now faded to a shadow, the religion which he founded still holds sway throughout all that empire, and is even endeavoring to extend itself. Although Mahomet did not live to see such mighty conquests, he laid the first foundations of this wide-spreading dominion, and established over the whole of Arabia, and some part of Syria, the religion he had proclaimed. ' ALFRED THE GREAT BY SIR J. BERNARD BURKE, LL.D. (849-901) No name in Eng- lish history is so popular, and so just- ly popular, as that of Alfred the Great That he taught his people to defend themselves and de- feat their enemies, is the least of his many claims to our grateful admiration ; he did much more than this ; he gave the first impulse to the spirit of civilization, and taught a horde of wild barbarians that there were other and worthier pursuits than war or the pleasures of the table. In fact, he was one of those highly gifted men that would seem to be raised up especially by Providence to meet certain emergencies, or to advance the career of nations. Such was the hero, so beautifully recorded by the pen of Edmund Burke, and of whose history we now purpose to give a slight sketch for the amusement of those who might turn in weariness from a more ample record. . Alfred the Great was born at Wantage, in Berkshire, in the year 849, one of the most dreary and calamitous periods of English chronicle. He was the youngest son of Ethelwulph, a mild and virtuous prince, but full of a timid piety in the day and twice at night he goes up to the balcony of one of the minarets of the mosque, and chants the call. It is a simple but solemn melody, which floats down from the height of his turret upon the sleeping or bustling city with vast impressiveness, and receives immediate and universal obedience.
 * The Muezzin is the Mahometan official who announces to the faithful the hour of prayer. Three times