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the most distinguished of those who added eminence in literature to high talent for active business, was SIR WALTER RALEIGH, a man whose character will

whom she sent to attend the Duke of Anjou back to the Netherlands, after refusing that nobleman her hand. In 1584 he again joined in an adventure for the discovery and settlement of unknown countries. With the help of his friends, two ships were sent out in quest of gold mines, to that part of North America now called Virginia. Raleigh himself was not with these vessels; the commodities brought home by which produced so good a return, that the owners were induced to fit out, for the next year, another fleet of seven ships, under the command of Raleigh's kinsman, Sir Richard Grenville. The attempt made on this occasion to colonise America proved an utter failure, and, after a second trial, the enterprise was given up. This expedition is said to have been the means of introducing tobacco into England, and also of making known the potato, which was first cultivated on Raleigh's land in Ireland.

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always make him occupy a prominent place in the history of his country. He was born in 1552, at Hayes Farm, in Devonshire, of an ancient family; and from his youth was distinguished by great intellectual acuteness, but still more by a restless and adventurous disposition. He became a soldier at the age of seventeen; fought for the Protestant cause in the civil wars of France and the Netherlands; and afterwards, in 1579, accompanied his half brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, on a voyage to Newfoundland. This expedition proved unfortunate, but by familiarising him with a maritime life, had probably much influence, in leading him to engage in those subsequent expeditions by which he rendered himself famous. In 1580 he assisted in suppressing the Earl of Desmond's rebellion in Ireland, where he obtained an estate, and was for some time governor of Cork. After this, having occasion to visit London, he attached himself to the court, and with the aid of a handsome person and winning address, contrived to insinuate himself into the favour of Elizabeth. A well-known anecdote illustrates the gallantry and tact by which he was characterised. One day, when he was attending the queen on a walk, she came to a miry part of the road, and for a moment hesitated to proceed. Raleigh, perceiving this, instantly pulled off his rich plush cloak, and, by spreading it before her feet, enabled her to pass on unsoiled. This mark of attention delighted the queen, from whom, as it has been facetiously remarked, his cloak was the means of procuring for him many a good suit. Raleigh was one of the courtiers

Hayes Farm-the Birthplace of Raleigh. Meanwhile, the prosperity of Raleigh at the English court continued to increase. Elizabeth knighted him in 1584; and, moreover, by granting monopolies, and an additional Irish estate, conferred on him solid marks of her favour. In return for these benefits, he zealously and actively exerted himself for the defence of her majesty's dominions against the Spaniards in 1588; having not only been one of those patriotic volunteers who sailed against the formidable and far-famed Armada in the English channel, but, as a member of her majesty's council of war, contributed, by his advice and experience, to the maturing of those defensive arrangements which led to the discomfiture of the enemy. Next year, he accompanied a number of his countrymen who went to aid the expelled king of Portugal in an attempt to regain his kingdom from the Spaniards. After his return, Elizabeth continued her largesses to him, till at length his troublesome importunities drew from her the question, When, Sir Walter, will you cease to be a beggar?' With his usual tact, he replied, When your gracious majesty ceases to be a benefactor.' By taking bribes, and otherwise abusing his power and the influence which he had at court, he became unpopular with the nation at large.

About this time he exerted himself to reduce to practice an idea thrown out by Montaigne, by setting up an 'office of address,' intended to serve

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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, and Beautiful Empire of Guiana: this 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

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

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stanced; and, moreover, that it was not left for Mr D'Israeli to discover the fact, that Raleigh had obtained such assistance from the individuals whom he specifies.

sources.

Both in style and matter, this celebrated work is vastly superior to all the English historical productions which had previously appeared. Its style, though partaking of the faults of the age, in being frequently stiff and inverted, has less of these defects than the diction of any other writer of the time. Mr Tytler, with justice, commends it as 'vigorous, purely English, and possessing an antique richness of ornament, similar to what pleases us when we see some ancient priory or stately manor-house, and compare it with our more modern mansions.' The work,' he adds, is laborious without being heavy, learned without being dry, acute and ingenious without degenerating into the subtle but trivial distinctions of the schoolmen. Its narrative is clear and spirited, and the matter collected from the most authentic The opinions of the author on state-policy, on the causes of great events, on the different forms of government, on naval or military tactics, on agriculture, commerce, manufactures, and other sources of national greatness, are not the mere echo of other minds, but the results of experience, drawn from the study of a long life spent in constant action and vicissitude, in various climates and countries, and from personal labour in offices of high trust and responsibility. But perhaps its most striking feature is the sweet tone of philosophic melancholy which pervades the whole. Written in prison during the quiet evening of a tempestuous life, we feel, in its perusal, that we are the companions of a superior mind, nursed in contemplation, and chastened and improved by sorrow, in which the bitter recollection of injury, and the asperity of resentment, have passed away, leaving only the heavenly lesson, that all is vanity."

We shall commence our quotations from Raleigh with one in which the merits of the book are not re

presented, but which is instructive, as showing the childishness with which men argued in those days upon subjects they understood not, and could not

understand.

That the flood hath not utterly defaced the marks of

Paradise, nor caused hills in the earth.

And first, whereas it is supposed by Aug. Chrysamensis, that the flood hath altered, deformed, or rather annihilated this place, in such sort, as no man can find any mark or memory thereof (of which opinion there were others, also, ascribing to the flood the cause of these high mountains, which are found on all the earth over, with many other strange effects); for my own opinion, I think neither the one nor the other to be true. For, although I cannot deny but that the face of Paradise was, after the flood, withered and grown old, in respect of the first beauty (for both the ages of men and the nature of all things time hath changed), yet, if there had been no sign of any such place, or if the soil and seat had not remained, then would not Moses, who wrote of Paradise 850 years after the flood, have described it so particularly, and the prophets, long after Moses, would not have made so often mention thereof. And though the very garden itself were not then to be found, but that the flood, and other accidents of time, made it one common field and pasture with the land of Eden, yet the place is still the same, and the rivers still remain the same rivers. By two of which (never doubted of), to wit, Tigris and Euphrates, we are sure to find in what longitude

Pp. 339 and 346.

But that

Paradise lay; and of one of these rivers, which afterward doth divide itself into four branches, we are sure that the partition is at the very border of the garden itself. For it is written, that out of Eden went a river to water the garden, and from thence it was divided, and became into four heads. Now, whether the word in the Latin translation (inde), from thence, be referred to Eden itself, or to Paradise, yet the division and branching of those rivers must be in the north or south side of the very garden (if the rivers run, as they do, north and south); and therefore these rivers yet remaining, and Eden manifestly known, there could be no such defacing by the flood, as is supposed. Furthermore, as there is no likelihood that the place could be so altered, as future ages know it not, so is there no probability that either these rivers were turned out of their courses, or new rivers created by the flood, which were not; or that the flood, as aforesaid, by a violent motion, when it began to decrease, was the cause of high hills or deep valleys. For what descent of waters could there be in a spherical and round body, wherein there is nor high nor low? seeing that any violent force of waters is either by the strength of wind, by descent from a higher to a lower, or by the ebb or flood of the sea. there was any wind (whereby the seas are most enraged), it appeareth not; rather the contrary is probable; for it is written, 'Therefore God made a wind to pass upon the earth, and the waters ceased.' So as it appeareth not that until the waters sank there was any wind at all, but that God afterward, out of his goodness, caused the wind to blow, to dry up the abundant slime and mud of the earth, and make the land more firm, and to cleanse the air of thick vapours and unwholesome mists; and this we know by experience, that all downright rains do evermore disand level the swelling and mountainous billow of the sever the violence of outrageous winds, and beat down sea; for any ebbs and flows there could be none, when the waters were equal and of one height over all the face of the earth, and when there were no indraughts, bays, or gulfs, to receive a flood, or any descent or violent falling of waters in the round form of the earth and waters, as aforesaid; and therefore it seemeth most agrecable to reason, that the waters rather stood in a quiet calm, than that they moved with any raging or overbearing violence. And for a more direct proof that the flood made no such destroying alteration, Joseph avoweth, that one of those pillars erected by Seth, the third from Adam, was to be seen in his days; which pillars were set up above 1426 years before the flood, counting Seth to be an hundred years old at the erection of them, and Joseph himself to have lived some forty or fifty years after Christ; of whom, although there be no cause to believe all that he wrote, yet that, which he avouched of his own time, cannot (without great derogation) be called in question. And therefore it may be possible, that some foundation or ruin thereof might well be seen: now, that such pillars were raised by Seth, all antiquity hath avowed. It is also written in Berosus (to whom, although I give little credit, yet I cannot condemn him in all), that the city of Enoch, built by Cain, about the mountains of Lebanus, was not defaced by length of time; yea, the ruins thereof, Annius (who commented upon that invented fragment) saith, were to be seen in his days, who lived in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile; and if these his words be not true, then was he exceeding impudent. For, speaking of this city of Enoch, he concludeth in this sort:-Cujus maximæ et ingentis molis fundamenta visuntur, et vocatur ab incolis regionis, civitas Cain, ut nostri mercatores et perigrini referunt'-["The foundation of which huge mass is now to be seen, and the place is called by the people of that region the City of Cain, as both our strangers and merchants report.']

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 Thermopyla.]

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 After such time as Xerxes had transported the army Tower, in consequence of having projected a second over the Hellespont, and landed in Thrace (leaving expedition to Guiana, from which the king hoped to the description of his passage alongst that coast, and derive some profit. His purpose was to colonise how the river of Lissus was drunk dry by his multi- the country, and work gold mines; and in 1617 a tudes, and the lake near to Pissyrus by his cattle, fleet of twelve armed vessels sailed under his comwith other accidents in his marches towards Greece), mand. The whole details of his intended proceedI will speak of the encounters he had, and the shame-ings, however, were weakly or treacherously comful and incredible overthrows which he received. As first at Thermopyla, 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 Tegeate and Mantineans, and 1000 Arcadians, and other Peloponnesians, to the number of 3100 in the whole; besides 100 Phocians, 400 Thebans, 700 Thespians, and all the forces (such as they were)

municated 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 upon the old sentence, and Raleigh was accordingly

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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.

*

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, those best known are his Maxims of State, the some of which have never been published. Among Cabinet Council, the Sceptic, and Advice to his Son. The last contains much admirable counsel, sometimes tinctured, indeed, with that worldliness and strengthened in a mind naturally disposed to be caution which the writer's hard experience had advises his son are the choice of friends and of a mindful of self-interest. The subjects on which he wife, deafness to flattery, 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 Re-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.

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.

If thou be rich, it will give thee pleasure in health,

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