But it had not. Only the machinery was
defective. The driving power remained, latent but ready
for action. One indication of a surviving interest in these
matters at this time is the gift of some nine books to
St. Augustine's Abbey by King Athelstan--an interesting
little collection including Isidore de Natura Rerum, Persius,
Donatus, Alcuin, Sedulius, and possibly a work by Bede.
The machinery, however, was soon to be improved.
Dunstan, Oswald, Edgar, and Ethelwold set matters right
by reforming and extending the monastic system, and
by making it the means of encouraging education and
learning.
[1] Hunt, Hist. of Eng. Church, i. 326.
The leaders were Dunstan and Ethelwold. In youth
the former was renowned for his eagerness in studying, and
for the wealth and knowledge he acquired. He was a
"lover of ballads and music," "a hard student, an indefatigable
worker, busy at books"; spending his leisure in reading
sacred authors, and in correcting manuscripts, sometimes
at daybreak. He was also very skilful at working in metal
and at drawing and illuminating. Maybe the picture of
him kneeling before the Saviour which is preserved in the
Bodleian Library is by his own hand; this, however, is not
certain.
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