Page:King Alfred's Old English version of St. Augustine's Soliloquies - Hargrove - 1902.djvu/58

LII ALFRED'S VERSION OF THE SOLILOQUIES his exile, and yet is not more unhappy. But I myself saw that, or more untrustworthy men told it to me than those were who told that which we are seeking after. Now must I not do one of two things either believe some man or none? Methinks that I know who built the city of Rome, and also many other things which happened before our days, all of which I cannot reckon. It is not because I myself saw it that I know who built the city. Nor even do I know of what kin I am, nor who my father or my mother was except from hearsay. I know that my father begot me, and that my mother bore me, but yet I do not know it for the reason that I myself saw it, but because some one told it to me. Not so trustworthy were the men who told it me, however, as they were who told that which we have now long been searching after - and yet I believe it.

'Therefore he seems to me a very foolish man and very inexcusable, who will not increase his knowledge while he is in this world, and always wish and desire that he may come to the everlasting life, where naught shall be hidden from us.'

'Here end the sayings which Alfred, the king, selected from the book which we call in. . .'

Now having seen the character and extent of the alterations made by Alfred, we are in a position to answer the question why he made such changes. Three sufficient reasons may be given:

1. It is his general practice as a translator. This will be clear upon a scrutiny of his various translations. But here, as in so many other particulars, the Boethius is the best parallel to the Soliloquies. It is useless to enter upon a discussion of this point, for Sedgefield's excellent version of Alfred's Boethius need only be glanced at in

1 68. 11-70. 5.

2 W. J. Sedgefield: King Alfred's Old English Version ofBoethius' De Consolatione Philosophiae, Oxford, 1899.