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We have adopted the spelling of Sir Walter's name, as given by Oldys
and Cayley. This is the spelling in the Indictment for High Treason
as well as in the Royal Commission for the voyage to Guiana. In Hall's
British Poets a fac simile of Sir Walter's autograph is given, in which it
is spelled "Ralegh."

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SIR WALTER RALEGH.

WE have opened the volume of History, this evening, at a page crowded with the record of great deeds, and glowing with the story of illustrious men.

The period immediately preceding, was one of the most momentous in the annals of the race, for the events which distinguished it, were of a weight and character, not merely to impress, powerfully, the age in which they occurred, but to extend their influence through all subsequent time,-tinging the opinions, moulding the institutions, and affecting the destinies of man.

It was a period of varied and startling action, mental, moral and physical. The invention of Printing had given impetus to Letters. The revival of Letters, opportunity to investigation, and impulse to thought. With increasing knowledge, came new and just perceptions of mental freedom; and the withes of superstition, in which the spirit of man had been bound for ages, were rent asunder in the first struggles of the awakening giant. From his gloomy

cell, the monk of Eisleben came forth with his latin Bible, and his indomitable heart; and, amid the war of creeds, the conflict of principles, and the convulsions of society, the Sampson of the Reformation held his appointed way. In the stern conflict which ensued, men of commanding genius, everywhere sprang up. On the one side fought Erasmus, Melancthon, Zuinglius, Calvin; on the other, Lainez, Xavier, Loyola. The collision of such minds could not fail to produce the most important results. The untiring effort and unshaken faith of the first, strengthened and carried on the Reformation; the splendid genius, and super-human zeal of the last, conceived and built up the order of the Jesuits.

The age was, further, illustrated by the success of Columbus. The mariner of Genoa, had given a new world to the sovereignty of Spain. A great problem had been solved, and the Geography as well the Religion of the world, was in a condition of agitation and reform. The immense field, thus suddenly opened to the daring and adventurous, soon became the theatre of some of the most interesting and momentous incidents in History. With unscrupulous hand, Pizarro had gathered the abundant wealth of Peru, and the sceptre of the fallen Incas passed into the iron grasp of the soldier of fortune. Through the lovely valley and the thronged City of Mexico, the fiery Cortéz had passed in his path of blood; and the expiring fires of the Teocallis threw their red glare, alike upon the means and the end of conquest:-the heaped spoils of the Indian Emperor, and the fearful scenes of the "night of woe."

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