century and a half before the birth of our Saviour, comprehending a period of nearly 4000 years. In the first book, which is rather theological and philosophical than strictly historical, he discourses of the being and attributes of God, and of the exhibition of his power and goodness in the work of creation. "God," says he, "whom the wisest men acknowledge to be a power uneffable, and virtue infinite; a light, by abundant clarity invisible ; an understanding which itself can only comprehend; an essence eternal and spiritual, of absolute pureness and simplicity, was and is pleased to make himself known by the work of the world: in the wonderful magnitude whereof (all which he embraceth, filleth, and sustaineth) we behold the image of that glory which cannot be measured, and withal, that one, and yet universal nature which cannot be defined. In the glorious lights of heaven we perceive a shadow of his Divine countenance; in his merciful provision for all that live, his manifold goodness; and lastly, in creating and making existent the world universal by the absolute act of his own word, his power, and almightiness; which power, light, virtue, wisdom, and goodness, being all but attributes of one simple essence and one God, we in all admire, and in part discern, per speculum creaturarum; that is, in the disposition, order, and variety of celestial and terrestrial bodies. * * By these potent effects we approach to the knowledge of the Omnipotent Cause, and by these motions their Almighty Mover. * By his own Word, and by this visible world, is God perceived of men, which is also the understood language of the Almighty vouchsafed to all his creatures, whose hieroglyphical characters are the unnumbered stars, the sun, and moon, written on these large volumes of the firmament, written also on the earth and the seas, by the letters of all those living creatures and plants which inhabit and reside therein. Therefore, said that learned Cusanus, Mundus universus nihil aliud est quam Deus explicatus,-the world universal is nothing else but God exprest. And the invisible things of God,' says St Paul, are seen by his creation of

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the world, being considered in his creatures.' Of all which there was no other cause preceding than his own will; no other matter than his own power; no other workman than his own Word; no other consideration than his own infinite goodness. The example and pattern of these his creatures, as he beheld the same in all eternity in the abundance of his own love, so was it at length in the most wise order by his unchanged will moved, by his high wisdom disposed, and by his Almighty power perfected and made visible.”* This is excellent writing, -noble and just ideas upon the highest theme which can employ the human intellect,-expressed with great strength and dignity of language; and yet the author of it has been arraigned by critics, who have chosen rather to copy the scurrility of Coke than to examine his own opinions, as a "notorious unbeliever suspected of atheism."+ Here, and throughout the work, the style partakes of the fault of the age, being rather stiff and cumbrous; yet it is vigorous, purely English, and possesses 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. In his first book, which embraces the period from the creation to the building of Nineveh, and more especially in the early portion of it, Raleigh displays an intimate acquaintance with Scripture, and with the writings of the Fathers. He shows, at the same time, that he had studied the works of the most celebrated schoolmen with that freedom of thought which, emancipating itself from the prejudices of the age, rejected the errors of their philosophy, whilst it admitted their refined dexterity of intellect. Most of these authors, says he, "were rather curious in the nature of terms, and more subtile in distinguishing upon the parts of doctrine already laid down, than discoverers of any thing hidden, either in philosophy or divinity: of whom it may be

History of the World, vol. ii. pp. 1, 2, 3.

+ Lodge's Illustrations, vol. iii. p. 216. See Remarks on Hume's character of Raleigh, at the end of this volume.

truly said, Nihil sapientiæ odiosius acumine nimio,'Nothing is more odious to true wisdom than too acute sharpness.'"*

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One of the most remarkable features in this work, especially in the first book, is that fine poetical imagination, which irradiates the most abstruse discussions, and gives a bright colouring to subjects, which in the hands of other writers become cold and forbidding. In his chapter on Fate, for example, what can be more beautiful than the mode in which he introduces his belief in the uses and influences of the stars? “And certainly it cannot be doubted," says he," but the stars are instruments of far greater use than to give an obscure light, and for men to gaze on after sunset. And if we cannot deny but that God hath given virtues to springs and fountains, to cold earth, to plants and stones, minerals, and to the vilest parts of the basest living creatures, why should we rob the beautiful stars of their working powers? for seeing they are many in number, and of eminent beauty and magnitude, we may not think that, in the treasury of his wisdom, who is infinite, there can be wanting (even for every star) a peculiar virtue and operation, as every herb, plant, fruit, and flower, adorning the face of the earth, hath the like. For as these were not created to beautify the earth alone, and to cover and shadow her dusty face, but otherwise for the use of man and beast, to feed them and cure them; so were not those mysterious and glorious bodies set in the firmament to no other end than to adorn it, but for instruments and organs of his Divine Providence, so far as it hath pleased his just will to determine. Origen, upon this place of Genesis, Let there be light in the firmament,' &c., affirmeth, that the stars are not causes (meaning perchance binding causes), but are as open books, wherein are contained and set down all things whatsoever to come; but not to be read by the eyes of human wisdom. * And though, for the capacity of men, we know somewhat,

* History of the World, vol. ii. pp. 16, 17, 44.

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yet in the true and uttermost virtues of plants and herbs, which ourselves sow and set, and which grow under our feet, we are in effect ignorant; much more in the powers and working of the celestial bodies. For hardly,' saith Solomon, can we discern the things that are upon the earth, and with great labour find we out those things which are before us, who can then investigate the things that are in heaven?' * * But in this question of fate, the middle course is to be followed: that, as with the heathen, we do not bind God to his creatures in this supposed necessity of destiny; so, on the contrary, we do not rob those beautiful creatures of their powers and offices."*

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Some striking examples of this pleasing manner of blending together the philosophy of the Fathers with his own rich imagination are to be found in his chapter entitled, "That Man is, as it were, a little World." "Man,' says Gregory Nanzianzene, is the bond and chain which tieth together both natures;' and because in the little frame of man's body there is a representation of the universal, and (by allusion) a kind of participation of all the parts thereof, therefore was man called Microcosmos, or the little world ; for out of the earth and dust was formed the flesh of man, and therefore heavy and lumpish; the bones of his body we may compare to the hard rocks and stones, and therefore strong and durable ; his blood, which disperseth itself by the branches of veins through all the body, may be resembled to those waters which are carried by brooks and rivers over all the earth ; his breath to the air; his natural heat to the enclosed warmth which the earth hath in itself, which, stirred up by the heat of the sun, assisteth nature in the speedier procreation of those varieties which the earth bringeth forth; our radical moisture, oil, or balsamum (whereon the natural heat feedeth and is maintained), is resembled to the fat and fertility of the earth; the hairs of man's body, which adorns or overshadows it, to the grass which

* History of the World, vol. ii. pp. 28, 29.

our

covereth the upper face and skin of the earth; determinations, to the light, wandering, and unstable clouds, carried every where with uncertain winds; our eyes, to the light of the sun and moon, and the beauty of our youth to the flowers of the spring, which either in a very short time, or with the sun's heat, dry up and wither away, or the fierce puffs of wind blow them from the stalks; the thoughts of our mind, to the motions of angels; and our pure understanding (formerly called mens, and that which always looketh upwards), to those intellectual natures which are always present with God; and lastly, our immortal souls (while they are righteous) are by God himself beautified with the title of his own image and similitude. And although in respect of God there is no man just, or good, or righteous, for behold he found folly in his angels,' saith Job, yet with such a kind of difference as there is between the substance and the shadow, there may be found a goodness in man."

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From this Raleigh proceeds to the opinion of Aristotle and Pythagoras, Homo est mensura omnium rerum, the four complexions resembling the four elements, and the seven ages of man the seven planets; a fanciful idea, upon which he dilates with much beauty. "Our infancy is compared to the moon, in which we seem only to live and grow as plants; the second age to Mercury, wherein we are taught and instructed; our third age to Venus, the days of love, desire, and vanity; the fourth to the sun, the strong, flourishing, and beautiful age of man's life; the fifth to Mars, in which we seek honour and victory, and in which our thoughts travel to ambitious ends; the sixth age is ascribed to Jupiter, in which we begin to take account of our times, judge of ourselves, and grow to the perfection of our understanding; the last and seventh to Saturn, wherein our days are sad and overcast, and in which we find, by dear and lamentable experience, and by the loss which can never be repaired, that of all our vain passions and affections past, the sorrow only abideth. For this tide of man's life, after it once turneth and declineth, ever runneth with a

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