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 260 Readings in European History foreign to the human understanding and gave them roon in his heart. The seven liberal arts had been long forgotten : he brought them again to light. Whatever historians, orators, poets, philosophers had to tell that was novel or great he closely investigated, aided by teachers of the language in which the books were written. His Latin style was well-nigh perfect, and his influence made the style of others polished and clear. He was in no wise haughty, but was dignified, courteous, affable, charm- ing. After meals most men, even, so we understand, emi- nent ones, are given to rest awhile. Bruno, on the contrary, busied himself tirelessly with reading and thinkirig. He would not give up the morning hours at any price and never yielded to drowsiness. Jests and buffoonery which make everybody shake with laughter when put into the mouths of various persons in tragedy and comedy, he read through gravely and seriously. He thought their meaning was worth- less ; he estimated the style as the main thing. He took his library everywhere with him. When he followed the king he had, wherever the royal tents were pitched, the source and the materials for his studies, the source in the sacred books, the materials in secular ones. . . . Even when he traveled he was not idle ; and in a crowd he was as if alone. We could not say this of many men. . . . He allowed himself no luxuries. He refused over and over again in the king's palace to wear the fine and soft clothing in which he had been nurtured. Among servants clad in purple and soldiers gleaming with gold he wore the mean garb and the sheepskins of a rustic. He especially spurned the comforts of the couch. He rarely frequented the bath with those who wished to make their skin white and shining. This is the more wonderful because he had been used from the cradle to the greatest daintiness and to royal splendor. Always and everywhere, in public and in private, he bore himself as one who would avoid human praise ; yet he served as an example to his inferiors. Many men profited by his words and yet more by his example.