be satisfied with this vindication of himself, and expressed her concern, that she should have credited idle reports to his disadvantage.'

In 1587, the King of Spain having made vast preparations, which kept all Europe in suspense, as not knowing on what nation the storm would break, Walsingham employed his utmost endeavours to discover this important secret. At last, he received intelligence from Madrid, that the King had informed his council of his having despatched an express to the Supreme Pontiff, acquainting his Holiness with the true design of his preparations, and begging his blessing upon it; which design however, for some particular reasons, he could not disclose to them till the courier's return. The secret being thus traced to it's recess, Walsingham, through a Venetian priest retained at Rome as his spy, procured a copy of the original letter, which was stolen out of the Pope's cabinet. After this, by his dexterous management he caused the Spanish bills to be protested at Genoa, and thus happily retarded the menaced invasion for an entire year.

This seems to have been the last public transaction, in which he was concerned; and of his private life no interesting anecdotes have been preserved. It remains only to add, that every attempt to promote the trade and navigation of England met at his hands protection and encouragement. By him Hakluyt's voyages and discoveries in foreign parts, and Gilbert's settling of Newfoundland, were promoted; and he assisted these adventurers from his private purse. He, likewise, founded a Divinity-Lecture at Oxford, and a Library at King's College, Cambridge.

Upon his death (which happened April 6, 1590) a remarkable proof was given, how far he had pre

ferred the public to his own interest; for though, in addition to his post of Secretary of State, he held the office of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, he died so poor, that his friends were obliged to bury him by night in St. Paul's Church, lest his body should be arrested for debt! The want of generosity, and even of justice, manifested by Queen Elizabeth, as deducible from this circumstance, reflects no honour upon her character.

By his lady, who was of the family of St. Barbe, he left only one daughter, who (as it has been stated in a former Memoir) was married, successively, to Sir Philip Sidney; to Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex; and to Richard Bourke, Earl of Clanrickarde in Ireland. By the first she had one daughter, married to Roger Earl of Rutland; by the second, a son and two daughters; and by the last, a son and a daughter.

His Negotiations, or State-Papers, were collected by Sir Dudley Digges, Master of the Rolls, and published in folio, in 1655. A work is likewise ascribed to him entitled, Arcana Aulica, or Walsingham's Manual of Prudential Maxims,' which has been often printed; but it is not probable, that he was it's author. Howell, however, in his edition of Sir Robert Cotton's Posthuma,' 1651, has published a small tract under the name of Honesty, Ambition, and Fortitude anatomised,' 1590, which he expressly attributes to his pen; and which, being short and not very commonly met with, is subjoined to this Memoir.

'What it is directly that I will write, I know not. For, as my thoughts have never dwelt long upon one thing, and so my mind hath been filled with the

imagination of things of a different nature, so there is a necessity that this offspring of so uncomposed a parent must be mishaped, answerable to the original whence it is derived. Somewhat I am resolved to write, of some virtues, and some vices, and some indifferent things. For knowing that a man's life is a perpetual action, which every moment is under one of these three heads, my imaginations have ever chiefly tended to find out the natures of these things, that I might (as much as my frailty, the inseparable companion of man's nature, would give me leave) wear out this garment of my body, with as little inconvenience to my soul as I could, and play this game of conversation (in which every one, as long as he lives, makes one) with the reputation of a fair gamester, rather than of a cunning one.

Of Honesty.

And, first, I will write of Honesty; not in it's general sense (in which it comprehends all moral virtue) but in that particular, in which (according to our phrase) it denominates an honest man. There is required in an honest man, not so much to do every thing he would be done unto, as to forbear any thing that he would not be content to suffer: for the essence of honesty consists in forbearing to do ill; and to do good acts is a proper passion, and no essential part of honesty. As chastity is the honesty of women, so honesty is the chastity of men. Either of them, once impaired, is irrecoverable. For a woman that hath lost her chastity may as easily recover it, as a man that hath once taken liberty of being a knave, can be restored to the title of an honest man. For honesty

doth not consist in the doing of one, or one thousand acts, never so well; but in spinning on the delicate threads of life, though not exceeding fine, yet free from breaks and strains. We do not call him an honest man, but a worthy man, that doth brave eminent acts: but we give him the title of an honest man, of whom no man can truly report any ill.

'The most eminent part of honesty is truth, not in words (though that be necessarily required) but in the course of his life: in his profession of friendship; in his promise of rewards and benefits to those, that depend upon him; and gratefully acknowledging those good turns, that he receives from any man. The greatest opposite to honesty is falsehood; and, as that is commonly waited upon with cunning and dissimulation, so is honesty with discretion and assurance.

It is true, that custom makes some apparently false some through impudence, and too much use; and other some for want of discretion, which if they had had, should have been employed in covering it. And there be some, in whom (though it be impossible, honesty should be a fault in society) their indiscreet managing of it makes it holden for a thing that's merely a vice, a wonderful troublesome companion. An honest man is as near an aptitude to become a friend, as gold is to become coin: he will melt with good offices well done, and will easily take the stamp of friendship; and having once taken it, though it may be bended and bruised, yet still will keep his stamp clean without rust or canker, and is not ashamed to be enclosed in it, but is contented to have all his glory seen through it only.

'It is of itself a competent estate of virtue, able to supply all necessary parts of it to a man's own par

ticular; and a man that is born to it, may raise himself to an eminency in all virtues, though of itself it will not furnish a man with the abilities of doing a glorious thing. It is a pity, that honesty should be abstracted from the lustre of all other virtues. But if there be such an honesty, the fittest seat for it is the country, where there will be little need of any greater ability, and it will be least subject to corruption. And therefore, since it is the foundation upon which a man may build that part of his life which respects conversation, he that builds upon it (let his actions be never so mean) shall be sure of a good, though not of a great, reputation: whereas letting it perish, let the rest of the building of his life be never so eminent, it will serve but to make the ruin of his good name more notorious.

Of Ambition.

Love, honour, and praise are the greatest blessings of this world: all other contents reflect, primarily, upon the body; and please the soul, only because they please some one or more senses. But those therefore only delight the senses, because the soul by discourse was first pleased with them. For, in itself, there is more music in a railing song thrust upon a good air, than in the confused applause of the multitude. But because the soul, by discourse, finds this clamor to be an argument of the estimation, which those that so commend it have of it, it likes itself better, and rejoiceth the more in itself, because it sees other men value it. For there are two ways of proving: the one by reason, and the other by witness; but the more excellent proof is that of reason.