the purposes now executed chiefly by literary and philosophical societies. The description of this scheme, given by Sir William Petty, affords a striking picture of the difficulties and obstacles which lay in the way of men of study and inquiry two centuries ago. It seems, says Sir William, 'to have been a plan by which the wants and desires of all learned men might be made known to each other, where they might know what is already done in the business of learning, what is at present in doing, and what is intended to be done; to the end that, by such a general communication of designs and mutual assistance, the wits and endeavours of the world may no longer be as so many scattered coals, which, having no union, are soon quenched, whereas, being but laid together, they would have yielded a comfortable light and heat. For the present condition of men [in the early part of the seventeenth century] is like a field where a battle having been lately fought, we see many legs, arms, and organs of sense, lying here and there, which, for want of conjunction, and a soul to quicken and enliven them, are fit for nothing but to feed the ravens and infect the air; so we see many wits and ingenuities dispersed up and down the world, whereof some are now labouring to do what is already done, and puzzling themselves to re-invent what is already invented; others we see quite stuck fast in difficulties for default of a few directions, which some other man, might he be met withal, both could and would most easily give him. Again, one man requires a small sum of money to carry on some design that requires it, and there is perhaps another who has twice as much ready to bestow upon the same design; but these two having no means to hear the one of the other, the good work intended and desired by both parties does utterly perish and come to nothing.'

When visiting his Irish estates after his return from Portugal, Raleigh formed or renewed with Spenser an aquaintance which ripened into intimate friendship. He introduced the poet to Elizabeth, and otherwise benefited him by his patronage and encouragement; for which favour Spenser has acknowledged his obligation in his pastoral entitled 'Colin Clout's Come Home Again,' where Raleigh is celebrated under the title of the 'Shepherd of the Ocean,' and also in a letter to him, prefixed to the 'Faery Queen,' explanatory of the plan and design of that poem. In 1592, Sir Walter engaged in one of those predatory naval expeditions which, in Elizabeth's reign, were common against the enemies of England; a fleet of thirteen ships, besides two of her majesty's men-ofwar, being intrusted to his command. This armament was destined to attack Panama, and intercept the Spanish plate fleet, but, having been recalled by Elizabeth soon after sailing, came back with a single prize. On his return, Raleigh incurred the displeasure of the virgin queen by an amour with one of her maids of honour; for which offence, though he married the lady, he suffered imprisonment for some months. While banished from the court, he undertook, at his own expense, in 1595, an expedition to Guiana, concerning whose riches many wonderful tales were then current. He, however, accomplished nothing beyond taking a formal possession of the country in the queen's name. After coming back to England, he published, in 1596, a work entitled Discovery of the Large, Rich, Beautiful Empire of Guiana: this

and

production Hume has very unjustly characterised as 'full of the grossest and most palpable lies that were ever attempted to be imposed on the credulity of mankind.' It would appear that he now regained the queen's favour, since we find him holding, in the same year, a command in the expedition against Cadiz, under the Earl of Essex and Lord Effingham. In the successful attack on that town, his bravery, as

well as prudence, was very conspicuous. In 1597, he was rear-admiral in the expedition which sailed under Essex to intercept the Spanish West-India fleet; and by capturing Fayal, one of the Azores, before the arrival of the commander-in-chief, gave great offence to the earl, who considered himself robbed of the glory of the action. A temporary reconciliation was effected; but Raleigh afterwards heartily joined with Cecil in promoting the downfall of Essex, and was a spectator of his execution from a window in the Armoury. On the accession of James I., which followed soon after, the prosperity of Raleigh came to an end, a dislike against him having previously been instilled by Cecil into the royal ear. Through the malignant scheming of the same hypocritical minister, he was accused of conspiring to dethrone the king, and place the crown on the head of Arabella Stuart; and likewise of attempting to excite sedition, and to establish popery by the aid of foreign powers. A trial for high treason ensued, and upon the paltriest evidence, he was condemned by a servile jury. Sir Edward Coke, who was then attorney-general, abused him on this occasion in violent and disgraceful terms, bestowing upon him freely such epithets as viper, damnable atheist, the most vile and execrable traitor that ever lived, monster, and spider of hell. Raleigh defended himself with such temper, eloquence, and strength of reasoning, that some even of his enemies were convinced of his innocence, and all parties were ashamed of the judgment pronounced. He was, however, reprieved, and instead of being executed, was committed to the Tower, in which his wife was permitted to bear him company. During the twelve years of his imprisonment, he wrote the chief portion of his works, especially the History of the World, of which only a part was finished, comprehending the period from the creation to the downfall of the Macedonian empire, about 170 years before Christ. This was published in 1614. The excellent way in which he treats the histories of Greece and Rome, has excited just regret that so great a portion of the work is devoted to Jewish and Rabbinical learning-subjects which have withdrawn too much of the author's attention from more interesting departments of his scheme. The learning and genius of Raleigh, who, in the words of Hume, 'being educated amidst naval and military enterprises, had surpassed in the pursuits of literature even those of the most recluse and sedentary lives,' have excited much admiration; but Mr D'Israeli* has lately attempted to diminish the wonder, by asserting, on the authority of Ben Jonson and a manuscript in the Lansdowne collection, that our historian was materially aided by the contributions of his learned friends. Jonson told Drummond of Hawthornden that Raleigh 'esteemed more fame than conscience. The best wits in England were employed in making his history; Ben himself had written a piece to him of the Punic war, which he altered and set in his book.' According to the manuscript above-mentioned, a still more important helper was a 'Dr Robert Burrel, rector of Northwald, in the county of Norfolk, who was a great favourite of Sir Walter Raleigh, and had been his chaplain. All, or the greatest part, of the drudgery of Sir Walter's history, for criticisms, chronology, and reading Greek and Hebrew authors, was performed by him for Sir Walter.' Mr Tytler, in his recent 'Life of Raleigh,'† has, however, shown that there is no good reason for supposing Raleigh's obligations to his friends to have been greater than those of literary men in general, when similarly circum

* Curiosities of Literature, 9th edit., vol. v., p. 233. † Page 457, note G.

It is also avowed by Pomponius Mela (to whom I give more credit in these things), that the city of Joppa was built before the flood, over which Cepha was king, whose name, with his brother Phineas, together with the grounds and principles of their religion, was found graven upon certain altars of stone; and it is not impossible that the ruins of this other city, called Enoch by Annius, might be seen, though founded in the first age; but it could not be of the first city of the world, built by Cain, the place, rather than the time, denying it.

And to prove directly that the flood was not the cause of mountains, but that there were mountains from the creation, it is written, that 'the waters of the flood overflowed by fifteen cubits the highest mountains.' And Masius Damascenus, speaking of the flood, writeth in this manner:- Et supra Minyadam excelsus mons in Armenia (qui Baris appellatur) in quo confugientes multos sermo est deluvii tempore liberatos' ['And upon Minyada there is a high mountain in Armenia (called Baris), unto which (as it is said) that many fled in the time of the deluge, and that they saved themselves thereon.'] Now, although it is contrary to God's word, that any more were saved than eight persons (which Masius doth not avouch but by report), yet it is a testimony, that such mountains were before the flood, which were afterwards, and ever since, known by the same names; and on which mountains it is generally received that the ark rested, but untruly, as I shall prove hereafter. And again, it appeareth, that the mount Sion (though by another name) was known before the flood; on which the Talmudists report, that many giants saved them selves also, but (as Annius saith) without all authority either divine or human.

Lastly, it appeareth that the flood did not so turn upside down the face of the earth, as thereby it was made past knowledge after the waters were decreased, by this, that when Noah sent out the dove the second time, she returned with an olive leaf in her mouth, which she had plucked, and which (until the trees were discovered) she found not for otherwise, she might have found them floating on the water; a manifest proof, that the trees were not torn up by the roots, nor swam upon the waters; for it is written, 'folium olivæ raptum,' or 'decerptum'---['a leaf plucked']; which is, to take from a tree, or to tear off. By this it is apparent (there being nothing written to the contrary), that the flood made no such alteration as was supposed, but that the place of Paradise might be seen to succeeding ages, especially unto Moses, by whom it pleased God to teach the truth of the world's creation, and unto the prophets which succeeded him; both which I take for my warrant, and to guide me in this discovery.

[The Battle of Thermopyle.]

After such time as Xerxes had transported the army over the Hellespont, and landed in Thrace (leaving the description of his passage alongst that coast, and how the river of Lissus was drunk dry by his multitudes, and the lake near to Pissyrus by his cattle, with other accidents in his marches towards Greece), I will speak of the encounters he had, and the shameful and incredible overthrows which he received. As first at Thermopylæ, a narrow passage of half an acre of ground, lying between the mountains which divide Thessaly from Greece, where sometime the Phocians had raised a wall with gates, which was then for the most part ruined. At this entrance, Leonidas, one of the kings of Sparta, with 300 Lacedæmonians, assisted with 1000 Tegeatæ and Mantineans, and 1000 Arcadians, and other Peloponnesians, to the number of 3100 in the whole; besides 100 Phocians, 400 Thebans,

of the bordering Locrians, defended the passage two whole days together against that huge army of the Persians. The valour of the Greeks appeared so excellent in this defence, that, in the first day's fight, Xerxes is said to have three times leaped out of his throne, fearing the destruction of his army by one handful of those men whom not long before he had utterly despised: and when the second day's attempt upon the Greeks had proved vain, he was altogether ignorant how to proceed further, and so might have continued, had not a runagate Grecian taught him a secret way, by which part of his army might ascend the ledge of mountains, and set upon the backs of those who kept the straits. But when the most valiant of the Persian army had almost inclosed the small forces of the Greeks, then did Leonidas, king of the Lacedæmonians, with his 300, and 700 Thespians, which were all that abode by him, refuse to quit the place which they had undertaken to make good, and with admirable courage, not only resist that world of men which charged them on all sides, but, issuing out of their strength, made so great a slaughter of their enemies, that they might well be called vanquishers, though all of them were slain upon the place. Xerxes having lost in this last fight, together with 20,000 other soldiers and captains, two of his own brethren, began to doubt what inconvenience might befall him by the virtue of such as had not been present at these battles, with whom he knew that he shortly was to deal. Especially of the Spartans he stood in great fear, whose manhood had appeared singular in this trial, which caused him very carefully to inquire what numbers they could bring into the field. It is reported of Dieneces, the Spartan, that when one thought to have terrified him by saying that the flight of the Persian arrows was so thick as would hide the sun, he answered thus-'It is very good news, for then shall we fight in the cool shade."

In another of his works Raleigh tells, in the following vigorous language, wherein lies

The Strength of Kings.

They say the goodliest cedars which grow on the high mountains of Libanus thrust their roots between the clefts of hard rocks, the better to bear themselves against the strong storms that blow there. As nature has instructed those kings of trees, so has reason taught the kings of men to root themselves in the hardy hearts of their faithful subjects; and as those kings of trees have large tops, so have the kings of men large crowns, whereof, as the first would soon be broken from their bodies, were they not underborne by many branches, so would the other easily totter, were they not fastened on their heads with the strong chains of civil justice and of martial discipline.

In the year 1615, Raleigh was liberated from the Tower, in consequence of having projected a second expedition to Guiana, from which the king hoped to derive some profit. His purpose was to colonise the country, and work gold mines; and in 1617 a fleet of twelve armed vessels sailed under his command. The whole details of his intended proceedings, however, were weakly or treacherously communicated by the king to the Spanish government, by whom the scheme was miserably thwarted. Returning to England, he landed at Plymouth, and on his way to London was arrested in the king's name. At this time the projected match between Prince Charles and the Infanta of Spain occupied James's attention, and, to propitiate the Spanish government, he determined that Raleigh must be sacrificed. After many vain attempts to discover valid grounds of accusation against him, it was found necessary to proceed beheaded on the 29th of October 1618. On the scaffold his behaviour was firm and calm; after addressing the people in justification of his character and conduct, he took up the axe, and observed to the sheriff, 'This is a sharp medicine, but a sound cure for all diseases.' Having tried how the block fitted his head, he told the executioner that he would give the signal by lifting up his hand; 'and then,' added he, 'fear not, but strike home!' He then laid himself down, but was requested by the executioner to alter the position of his head: 'So the heart be right,' was his reply, it is no matter which way the head lies.' On the signal being given, the executioner failed to act with promptitude, which caused Raleigh to exclaim, 'Why dost thou not strike? Strike, man!' By two strokes, which he received without shrinking, the head of this intrepid man was severed from his body.

The night before his execution, he composed the following verses in prospect of death :

Even such is Time, that takes on trust
Our youth, our joys, our all we have,
And pays us but with age and dust;
Who in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days!

While in prison in expectation of death, either on this or the former occasion, he wrote also a tender and affectionate valedictory letter to his wife, of which the following is a portion :

You shall receive, my dear wife, my last words in these my last lines; my love I send you, that you may keep when I am dead, and my counsel, that you may remember it when I am no more. I would not with my will present you sorrows, dear Bess; let them go to the grave with me, and be buried in the dust. And seeing that it is not the will of God that I shall see you any more, bear my destruction patiently, and with a heart like yourself.

First, I send you all the thanks which my heart can conceive, or my words express, for your many travails and cares for me, which, though they have not taken effect as you wished, yet my debt to you is not the less; but pay it I never shall in this world. Secondly, I beseech you, for the love you bear me living, that you do not hide yourself many days, but by your travails seek to help my miserable fortunes, and the right of your poor child; your mourning cannot avail me, that am but dust.

*

*

Paylie oweth me a thousand pounds, and Aryan six hundred; in Jersey, also, I have much owing me. Dear wife, I beseech you, for my soul's sake, pay all poor men. When I am dead, no doubt you shall be much sought unto; for the world thinks I was very rich; have a care to the fair pretences of men, for no greater misery can befall you in this life than to become a prey unto the world, and after to be despised. I speak, God knows, not to dissuade you from marriage, for it will be best for you, both in respect of God and the world. As for me, I am no more yours, nor you mine; death hath cut us asunder, and God hath divided me from the world, and you from me. member your poor child for his father's sake, who loved you in his happiest estate. I sued for my life, but, God knows, it was for you and yours that I desired it: for know it, my dear wife, your child is the child of a true man, who, in his own respect, despiseth death, and his mis-shapen and ugly forms. I cannot write much (God knows how hardly I steal this time when all sleep), and it is also time for me to separate my thoughts from the world. Beg my dead body, which living was denied you, and either lay it in Sherburn or Exeter church, by my father and mother.

Re

I can say no more, time and death calleth me away. The everlasting God, powerful, infinite, and inscrutable God Almighty, who is goodness itself, the true light and life, keep you and yours, and have mercy upon me, and forgive my persecutors and false accusers, and send us to meet in his glorious kingdom. My dear wife, farewell; bless my boy, pray for me, and let my true God hold you both in his arms.

Besides the works already mentioned, Raleigh composed a number of political and other pieces, some of which have never been published. Among those best known are his Maxims of State, the Cabinet Council, the Sceptic, and Advice to his Son. The last contains much admirable counsel, sometimes tinctured, indeed, with that worldliness and caution which the writer's hard experience had strengthened in a mind naturally disposed to be mindful of self-interest. The subjects on which he advises his son are the choice of friends and of a wife, deafness to fiattery, the avoidance of quarrels, the preservation of estate, the choice of servants, the avoidance of evil means of seeking riches, the bad effects of drunkenness, and the service of God. We extract his

Three Rules to be observed for the Preservation of a Man's Estate.

Amongst all other things of the world, take care of thy estate, which thou shalt ever preserve if thou observe three things: first, that thou know what thou hast, what every thing is worth that thou hast, and to see that thou art not wasted by thy servants and officers. The second is, that thou never spend anything before thou have it; for borrowing is the canker and death of every man's estate. The third is, that thou suffer not thyself to be wounded for other men's faults, and scourged for other men's offences; which is, the surety for another, for thereby millions of men have been beggared and destroyed, paying the reckoning of other men's riot, and the charge of other men's folly and prodigality; if thou smart, smart for thine own sins; and, above all things, be not made an ass to carry the burdens of other men: if any friend desire thee to be his surety, give him a part of what thou hast to spare; if he press thee farther, he is not thy friend at all, for friendship rather chooseth harm to itself than offereth it. If thou be bound for a stranger, thou art a fool; if for a merchant, thou puttest thy estate to learn to swim; if for a churchman, he hath no inheritance; if for a lawyer, he will find an invasion by a syllable or word to abuse thee; if for a poor man, thou must pay it thyself; if for a rich man, he needs not therefore from suretyship, as from a man-slayer or enchanter, bless thyself; for the best profit and return will be this, that if thou force him for whom thou art bound, to pay it himself, he will become thy enemy; if thou use to pay it thyself, thou wilt be a beggar; and believe thy father in this, and print it in thy thought, that what virtue soever thou hast, be it never so manifold, if thou be poor withal, thou and thy qualities shall be despised. Besides, poverty is ofttimes sent as a curse of God; it is a shame amongst men, an imprisonment of the mind, a vexation of every worthy spirit: thou shalt neither help thyself nor others; thou shalt drown thee in all thy virtues, having no means to show them; thou shalt be a burden and an eyesore to thy friends, every man will fear thy company; thou shalt be driven basely to beg and depend on others, to flatter unworthy men, to make dishonest shifts: and, to conclude, poverty provokes a man to do infamous and detested deeds; let no vanity, therefore, or persuasion, draw thee to that worst of worldly miseries.

If thou be rich, it will give thee pleasure in health, comfort in sickness, keep thy mind and body free, save thee from many perils, relieve thee in thy elder years, relieve the poor and thy honest friends, and give means to thy posterity to live, and defend themselves and thine own fame. Where it is said in the Proverbs, 'That he shall be sore vexed that is surety for a stranger, and he that hateth suretyship is sure; it is further said, 'Th. poor is hated even of his own neighbour, but the rich have many friends.' Lend not to him that is mightier than thyself, for if thou lendest him, count it but lost; be not surety above thy power, for if thou be surety, think to pay it.

RICHARD GRAFTON.

We now revert to a useful, though less brilliant, class of writers, the English chroniclers; a continuous succession of whom was kept up during the period of which we are now treating. The first who attracts our attention is RICHARD GRAFTON, an individual who, in addition to the craft of authorship, practised the typographical art in London in the reigns of Henry VIII. and three succeeding monarchs. Being printer to Edward VI., he was employed, after the death of that king, to prepare the proclamation which declared the succession of Lady Jane Grey to the crown. For this simply professional act he was deprived of his patent, and ostensibly for the same reason committed to prison. While there, or at least while unemployed after the loss of his business, he compiled An Abridgment of the Chronicles of England, published in 1562, and of which a new edition, in two volumes, was published in 1809. Much of this work was borrowed from Hall; and the author, though sometimes referred to as an authority by modern compilers, holds but a low rank among English historians.

JOHN STOW.

His contemporary, JOHN STow, enjoys a much higher reputation as an accurate and impartial recorder of public events. This industrious writer was born in London about the year 1525. Being the son of a tailor, he was brought up to that business, but early exhibited a decided turn for antiquarian research. About the year 1560, he formed the design of composing annals of English history, in consequence of which, he for a time abandoned his trade, and travelled on foot through a considerable part of England, for the purpose of examining the historical manuscripts preserved in cathedrals and other public establishments. He also enlarged, as far as his pecuniary resources allowed, his collection of old books and manuscripts, of which there were many scattered through the country, in consequence of the suppression of monasteries by Henry VIII. Necessity, however, compelled him to resume

*Vast numbers of books were at this period wantonly destroyed. A number of them which purchased these superstitious mansions,' says Bishop Bale, 'reserved of those library books some to serve their jakes, some to scour their candlesticks, and some to rub their boots, and some they sold to the grocers and soap-sellers, and some they sent over sea to book binders, not in small numbers, but at times whole ships full. Yea, the universities are not all clear in this detestable fact; but cursed is the belly which seeketh to be fed with so ungodly gains, and so deeply shameth his native country. I know a merchantman (which shall at this time be nameless) that bought the contents of two noble libraries for forty shillings price: a shame it is to be spoken. This stuff hath he occupied instead of grey paper, by the space of more than these ten years, and yet hath he store enough for as many years to come.'Bale's Declaration, &c., quoted in 'Collier's Eccles. Hist.' ii. 166. Another illustration is given by the editor of Letters written by Eminent Persons, in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centu

his trade, and his studies were suspended till the bounty of Dr Parker, archbishop of Canterbury, enabled him again to prosecute them. In 1565 he published his Summary of English Chronicles, dedicated to the Earl of Leicester, at whose request the work was undertaken. Parker's death, in 1575, materially reduced his income, but he still managed to continue his researches, to which his whole time and energies were now devoted. At length, in 1598, appeared his Survey of London, the best known of his writings, and which has served as the groundwork of all subsequent histories of the metropolis. There was another work, his large Chronicle, or History of England, on which forty vears' labour had been bestowed, which he was very desirous to publish; but of this he succeeded in printing only an abstract, entitled Flores Historiarum, or Annals of England (1600). A volume published from his papers after his death, entitled Stow's Chronicle, does not contain the large work now mentioned, which, though left by him fit for the press, seems to have somehow gone astray. In his old age he fell into such poverty, as to be driven to solicit charity from the public. Having made application to James I., he received the royal license to repair to churches, or other places, to receive the gratuities and charitable benevolence of well-disposed people.' It is little to the honour of the contemporaries of this worthy and in

Stow's Monument in the church of St Andrew under
Shaft, London.

dustrious man, that he should have been thus lite rally reduced to beggary. Under the pressure of want and disease, Stow died in 1605, at the advanced

ries' (London, 1813). The splendid and magnificent abbey of Malmesbury,' says he, which possessed some of the finest manuscripts in the kingdom, was ransacked, and its treasures either sold or burnt to serve the commonest purposes of life. An antiquary who travelled through that town many years after the dissolution, relates that he saw broken windows patched up with remnants of the most valuable manuscripts on vellum, and that the bakers had not even then consumed the stores they had accumulated, in heating their ovens!' (Vol. i., p. 278.)