results, but it was not a selfish ambition; it arose out of his love for his country, his zeal for its pre-eminence and glory. He entertained the grand idea, and undoubtedly believed it practicable, that England might erect in America a greater or richer empire than that of Mexico or Peru; and however absurd to our advanced knowledge this project may now appear, no one who has studied the earliest Spanish accounts of Guiana will deny that he had good grounds on which to found his opinion.

As to the charge of his being a deist, an atheist, or a freethinker, for it has been advanced under all these variations, it in all probability arose out of a youthful fault, exaggerated or misconceived. In his early days of vanity and ambition, Raleigh was a bold and reckless disputant on most subjects, not excluding religion, and he probably had the weakness to court discussion rather for the purposes of display than for the discovery of truth; he laughed at the boasted infallibility of human reason, and in his ingenious little essay entitled the Sceptic, demonstrated the uncertainty of those deductions which are based on a limited experience and superficial observation; he professed an early contempt for the dogmatism of the Aristotelian philosophy; he regarded with little respect the system of scholastic theology; and out of these materials the noted jesuit, Father Parsons, manufactured a charge of atheism, whilst Hume, Carte, and some more modern writers, have not scrupled to pronounce him a deist or a freethinker. How wide both aspersions are from the truth, has been already shown. The foibles of his youth passed away; the pride of intellect-the vanity of display-was subdued by affliction; and his profound and contemplative mind, instructed by the heavenly lesson, was brought to rest on that only stay for the broken and wounded spirit, the blessed hopes and promises of Revelation.

Such is Raleigh's general character; but where shall we look for the minuter touches, which give freshness, prominence, and individuality to the picture! Here,

alas! his biography, in common with that of other great men, is lamentably defective. How often have we to regret that of those whose genius stimulates our curiosity, and reflects an interest even on their daily dress and most ordinary habits of life, we know little or nothing. How fondly would we collect and prize the most common particulars which should introduce us into the familiar presence of Shakspeare, or Spenser, or Milton, or Bacon; and yet of the every-day life of these masterspirits of their time, so little is known, that the imagination, eager to lay hold on some visible personification of its favourite, is impelled to form a picture for itself. It is much the same with the illustrious man whose history we have been writing; yet one or two pleasing and characteristic touches have been preserved. Although his person was noble and manly, his voice was weak and somewhat shrill; his long residence at court could not conquer his strong Devonshire accent, which, with all the power of a youthful habit, clung to him to the last. His conversation and social qualities were eminently attractive; and whether he sat smoking his long silver pipe amongst his literary friends at the Mermaid, or talked with his royal mistress when she admitted him to the privy chamber, or assisted with his advice and experience at the council table, he swayed and delighted the intellects of all who came into contact with him. We know from one who was no partial judge,* that the queen loved his company, and esteemed his judgment as highly as his wit. In his youth he was violent and hasty, and did not scruple to beat at a tavern Charles Chester, a loquacious and insolent fellow, who had annoyed him by his remarks; after which he laid him on his back and sealed up his upper and nether beard with hard wax. These were youthful follies. As he advanced in life he became an indefatigable student, and, in the judgment of Secretary Cecil, himself one of the most laborious men of his age, "could toil terribly when he was busy." Not content

* Naunton, Fragmenta Regalia, p. 109.

+ Aubrey MS. Raleigh's Works, vol. viii. p. 740.

with his reading on shore, he carried with him a collection of books on his voyages, and strictly economized his time. His love of science and experiment was so ardent, that his chemical pursuits and his study of natural history were enthusiastically pursued at sea. Whatever corner of the world he sought, his curiosity was active, and his observation unremitting. In his last fatal voyage, when broken by disease and disappointment, his Manuscript Journal, which is preserved in the British Museum, shows the same unwearied love of science. He goes ashore with his Indian guide, "to discover the trees which yield balsamum, of which he had found a nut smelling like angelica, and exceeding pretious ;" and on one of its blank leaves he has sketched a representation of some of the fruits of the country. Shortly before his death, in one of his conversations with Sir Thomas Wilson in the Tower, he alludes to a machine which he had invented for turning sea water into fresh; and even in those melancholy hours he took pleasure in explaining to him a theory he had formed to account for the saltness of the ocean. His knowledge of chemistry and medicine seems to have led him into that unhappy practice of almost daily drugging himself, which is so common a weakness amongst literary and sedentary men. In his letters to his wife from the Tower, he asks her in the same sentence, to send him his manuscripts, and "his powder of steel and dumex, with some more bitony." He was fond of music, and it seems to have been an hereditary taste in his family, for his brother, Sir Carew Raleigh, performed delicately on the olpharion, an instrument probably similar to the lute; and his grandnephews, Walter and Tom, had delicate tunable voices, and played well on the violin.* In the productions of the sister art of painting he took much delight, carrying his favourite pictures with him even on his voyages, and extending his patronage to the best artists of his time, by sitting to them himself, and employing them to paint his

* Aubrey, Raleigh's Works, vol. viii. p. 737.

wife and children.* He was fond also of antiquarian studies, a purchaser of ancient records and rare charts, and not only prided himself upon the rich inlaid coat of silver mail which he wore on gala days, but had collected a fine armoury. In architecture his taste was sumptuous. Durham House, where he lived during his greatness, is described by Aubrey as a noble palace; yet he left the spacious apartments to his family, and for himself preferred a small library which enjoyed an extensive view over the river. "I well remember his study," says this amusing and garrulous author; "which was on a little turret that looked into and over the Thames, and had the prospect, which is pleasant perhaps as any in the world, and which not only refreshes the eyesight, but cheers the spirits." In his best time there was an air of dignity and command about him, "an awfulness and ascendency," as it is well expressed by Aubrey, "above other mortals," which was displeasing to many, and particularly to the king; yet by his sailors and ships' crews, as we learn from Cecil, he was wonderfully beloved. The interior of his palace was magnificent, his taste in furniture being marked by the same love of splendour which appeared in his dress. He delighted in richlycarved panels, in antique chimneypieces, in decorating the walls and ceilings of his apartments with his armorial bearings, in beds with green silk hangings, and legs like dolphins, overlaid with gold. His splendid dress, his shoes and doublet studded with precious stones, have been already described.§ Perhaps he indulged in it to a weakness; but it was an age of magnificence, and it is to be remembered that this wealth in jewels was in Raleigh the result, not of extravagance, but of the rich prizes which he had taken from the Spaniards. He glittered with the spoils of the New World; but his jewels were the insignia of his skill and bravery, the fruits not of purchase but of honourable conquest.

* See Note on the Portrait of Raleigh engraved for this Work. Appendix.

Oldys, p. 317. § Supra, p. 201.

Raleigh's Ghost, p. 10. Oldys, p. 321.

up.

It is the privilege of great men to reflect an importance and interest upon the history of their descendants, and the mind feels a pleasing curiosity in the inquiry how much or how little of the father's genius has been transmitted to his children. But in the present case we are staid on the very threshold of the question. The fiery and ambitious spirit of Raleigh's early years is discernible in his eldest son, Walter; but it was suddenly extinguished in this brave youth, who fell at Santa Thome, in his twenty-third year. Of Carew Raleigh, his only surviving son, the character seems to have been moulded by the melancholy circumstances under which he grew Born in the Tower, he opened his eyes only to see his father a prisoner; his boyhood was clouded by the melancholy circumstances under which that father's life was cruelly cut off. When introduced at court his likeness to Raleigh awoke a pang of remorse in the bosom of the monarch, and James, turning away from him, observed, that " he looked like his father's ghost." Warned by this, Carew took the advice of his kinsman, the Earl of Pembroke, and retired to the Continent till the beginning of a new reign. On his return, after this event, he petitioned parliament for his restoration in blood, upon which the king informed him that when Prince of Wales, he had pledged his word to secure Sherborne to the Earl of Bristol against the heirs of Sir Walter Raleigh, and that having received, in consequence of this stipulation, ten thousand pounds from that nobleman, he must adhere to his engagement. "The first step, therefore,” said Charles, “to your restoration, must be your renouncing all title to your father's property." Against this cruel and unjust condition, Carew strongly remonstrated; but the sovereign resolutely refused to pass the bill unless it was fulfilled; and young Raleigh, who was promised promotion at court, purchased the reversal of his attainder at the price of the estate of Sherborne, which was settled on the earl just mentioned, and yet remains in the possession of his descendants.