HOW TO GET STRONG
ceive Christianity; awarding bishoprics for that purpose; to the end of his reign he was engaged in war, and in putting down insurrection.
"At twenty-six he became the monarch of the greater part of modern France and the Rhine provinces. By unwearied activity in successive conquests he increased his inheritance, till no so great an empire has ever been ruled by any one man in Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire from his time to ours.
"Of his fifty-three expeditions, eighteen were against the Saxons. The fame of Cæsar rests chiefly on his eight campaigns in Gaul. But Cæsar had the disciplined Legions of Rome to fight with. Charlemagne had no such disciplined troops. Yet he had as many difficulties to surmount as Cæsar. Charlemagne fought the Saxons for thirty-three years; and though he never lost a battle they still held out. Every one makes mistakes, however great his genius. Alexander made the mistake of pushing his arms into India; and Napoleon made a great blunder in invading Russia. Charlemagne's fame is steadily gaining after a lapse of a thousand years. His active mind gave attention to all matters great and small. His untiring diligence; his surpassing swiftness in apprehension and decision, enabled him to despatch an amount of business perhaps never undertaken by another monarch; unless by Frederick II. of Prussia; or by Napoleon Bonaparte.
"He liked to have learned men about him, and made some progress himself in several branches of literature. He spoke Latin as fluently as his own German; had a fair knowledge of Greek; studied theology, astronomy, grammar, rhetoric, and logic; was a great collector of national ballads. The conquests of the great Karl are by no means his only title to admiration and respect. That which raises him above all the monarchs of his age is the wisdom of his laws; whereby he replaced anarchy by order; and bound together in one a multitude of races, differing in origin, language, laws, and religion. Fully aware that education is the best method of civilizing a people; he used all his endeavors to introduce among his subjects a taste for literature and the fine arts; in which commendable labor he was greatly aided by Alcuin, a native of York, and disciple of the Venerable Bede. Many new subjects of study were introduced in this reign. Hitherto almost the only literature of the empire consisted of sermons, legends, and morals. Alcuin introduced rhetoric, grammar, jurisprudence,272
