Part 17 (1/2)

[Sidenote: _Political Disquisitions_]

Physical science did not occupy all his leisure He wrote much At different periods of his imprisonment, which cannot be precisely fixed, he composed a variety of treatises He discussed many questions of politics, theoretical and practical In his _Prerogative of Parliaments_ he undertook to prove by an elaborate survey of past relations between the Crown and the Legislature, that the royal power gains and does not lose through regular and amicable relations with the House of Couainst the proposed double family alliance between Savoy and the House of Stuart Of that, and of his _Discourse of the Invention of shi+ps_, his _Observations concerning the Royal Navy and Sea Service_, and the _Letter to Prince Henry on the Model of a shi+p_, I have already spoken He composed _A Discourse on War in General_, which is very sententious From his notebooks he collected, in his _Arts of the Empire_ and _The Prince_, better known as _Maxihts which had occurred to hi An essay on the _Seat of Governnificency and Opulency of Cities_, show equal exuberance of learning, chiefly classical, though they cannot be said to be very conclusive The former reads as if it had been meant for an introduction to a contemplated aeneral, but econo Trade and Commerce with the Hollander_ _and other Nations_ be by him That remains a matter of doubt Both Oldys and a recent Ger titles, to John Keye vintner, who is said to have composed, about 1601, _Observations upon the Dutch Fishery_ Ralegh more commonly has the credit of it The dissertation, first printed inaccurately, and under a different heading, in 1650, shows ht be expected, not a few econoenerous one of abstracting the carrying trade froes, if he should be e's coffers with a couple of millions in two or three years

[Sidenote: _Moral and Metaphysical Essays_]

Ralegh is alleged to have written on the state, power, and riches of Spain

He has had attributed to hiue_, in 1609, _between a Jesuit and a Recusant; A Discourse on Spanish Cruelties to Englishland, and Spain, and the ht He expatiated in the field of practical morals in his celebrated _Instructions to his Son and to Posterity_ The treatise makes an unpleasant imatism In extenuation it must be recollected that it was addressed to a hot and impetuous youth He cultivated a taste for metaphysics _The Sceptic_ and _A Treatise on the Soul_ are exey for 'neither affir' Probably the intention, not carried out, was to have composed an answer in defence of faith It is affirmed, as matter beyond scepticism, that bees are born of bulls, and wasps of horses _The Treatise on the Soul_ is a perfor is enough to prevent surprise, whatever the quantity of knowledge displayed by the writer elsewhere It is nation at the denial by some men that women possess souls, and for several marvellous subtleties For instance, the necessity of the theory that ed, since the contrary is said to involve the blasphe to bestow souls upon its fruits In the Oxford edition of Ralegh's works, _A Discourse of Tenures which were before the Conquest_ is also included So versatile was Ralegh that he has thus been assumed to have even amassed the lore of a black-letter lawyer Its authenticity nevertheless does not seem to have been questioned That of the _Life and Death of Mahorounds

The _Dutiful Advice of a Loving Son to his Aged Father_ falls within a different category It is not lisherent,'

or Bolingbroke's attacks, in Ralegh's name, upon Walpole in the _Craftsman Extraordinary_, to have been put forth with any notion that it would be believed to be his Some editors have supposed it to be a libel upon him by an enemy Any reader who peruses it dispassionately will see that it is sufficiently reverent pleading against the postponement of repentance to the hour of death, written by an adh's style, with no purpose either of ridicule or of imposture

[Sidenote: _Posthumous Publications_]

Dissertations which were undoubtedly his circulated in manuscript, and were printed posthuht about the Isles of Azores_, the _Discovery of Guiana_, and the _History of the World_, alone of his ative of Parlialand_ was not published till 1628, and then first at Middleburg Milton had the _Arts of Empire_ printed for the first time in 1658, under the title of _The Cabinet Council, by the ever-renowned Knight Sir Walter Ralegh_ Dr Brushfield, in his excellent _Ralegh Bibliography_, suggests that Wood may have meant this essay by the _Aphoris been published in 1661 by Milton, and as identical with _Maxiether David Lloyd, in his _Observations on the Statesland_, published in 1665, states that John Hae of transcribing 3452 sheets of Ralegh's writing The published essays with his name attached to theested as a possible hypothesis that Hampden's collection comprised the manuscript materials for both parts of the History Some compositions of his are known to have been lost That has been the fate of his _Treatise of the West Indies_, mentioned by himself in the dedication of his _Discovery of Guiana_, and also of a _Description of the River of the Aned to hiretted, if Jonson or Drummond is to be believed, is the life Jonson, at Hawthornden, alleged 'SW', that is, Sir Walter, to have written of Queen Elizabeth, 'of which there are copies extant' As a writer of prose, no less than as a poet, he had little literary vanity He wrote for a purpose, and often for one pair of eyes When the occasion had passed he did not care to register the author's title

[Sidenote: _History of the World_]

The weightiness of thought, the enormous scope, the stateliness without pedantry or affectation, and the nobility of style, of one literary product of his iainst any such casualty Of all the enterprises ever achieved in captivity none can rienius, and as much elasticity of spirit Their works did not exact the same constancy and inflexibility of effort Mr

Macvey Napier has well said: 'So vast a project betokens a consciousness of intellectual pohich cannot but excite ad the gigantic co An accepted theory has been that his primary idea was a history of his own country, not of the world It has been usual to cite a sentence of the preface in proof The passage does not confir with the Creation, I have proceeded with the history of our world; and lastly proposed, some few sallies excepted, to confine my discourse within this our renowned island of Great Britain' Here is no inti before hilish history, and that the history of the world was an enlarged introduction If his oords are to be believed, his survey of universal antiquity was as lish history Only, as he proceeded, the mass of details would necessarily thicken, and he would be co to choose, he naturally selected the nation which he regarded as the heir of successive empires, a race more valiant than the warriors, whether of Macedon or of Rome But he distinctly preferred as a historical subject antiquity to recent ti a modern history shall follow truth too near the heels, it may haply strike out his teeth'

[Sidenote: _Breviary of the History of England_]

It has been conjectured that he had already, before the History received its final shape, experimented on the more contracted or concentrated theme to which he purposed ultimately to devote himself Archbishop Sancroft possessed a short land under William the First_ This was printed in 1693 without the Archbishop's consent, under the title _An Introduction to the Breviary of the History of England, with the Reign of King Williae, considered the work in all its parts , and worthy of hih's, and the tone is less elevated, there is a resemblance in the diction But eneral sie Sancroft had the manuscript from an old Presbyterian in Hertfordshi+re, 'which sort of men were always the more fond of Sir Walter's books because he was under the displeasure of the Court' Other h

The book, which shows research, but is not very accurate, is al portion of the poet Saland_, printed in 1618, and entered originally in the Register of the Stationers as a _Breviary of the History of England_ Daniel introduces his narrative with the words: 'For the work itself I can challenge nothing therein, but only the serving, and the observation of necessary circuh it is not very likely, ment to Daniel for use in his history Clearly he had forland himself In an undated letter from the Tower he asks Sir Robert Cotton to lend him thirteen authors, 'wherein I can read any of our written antiquities, or any old French history, wherein our nation is e soever' It is not impossible that the _Breviary_, if in any way it were his, led hiantic enterprise, which by its expansion, unfortunately or fortunately, usurped all the leisure he had prospectively appropriated to his native annals But the composition of an elaborate history by hih the choice of the particular subject may have been

[Sidenote: _Studies for the History_]

Whatever the original design, the History in its final shape de Necessarily the preparation for it and its composition eh is alleged to have begun to collect and arrange his matter in 1607 The date is purely conjectural Sir John Pope Hennessy iations h quotes in his book Peter Comestor's _Scholastica Historia_, an abstract of Scripture history, which has been found, with other remnants of an old h's bedroohal Mr Sa in 1852, states that the discovery was made a few years before, and that the books had probably been 'hidden at the period of the Refor notes fro his frequent Irish exiles' An objection is that, according to Mr Hayman, the authority cited by Sir John, Comestor's voluh resided at Youghal, and have remained concealed till he had been dead for two centuries In one sense he had been in training for the enterprise during his whole life; in another the actual work doubtless was acco term of imprisonment He had always been a lover of books In the midst of his adversities he spared 50 as a contribution towards the establishment of the Bodleian Library When he was most deeply immersed in affairs he had made time for study As Aubrey says, probably with co, and was up betie he carried a trunk full of books During his active life, when business occupied thirteen hours of the twenty-four, he is said by shi+rley to have reduced his sleeping hours to five He was thus able to devote four to study, beside two for conversation He loved research; and his name is in a list of members of the Society of Antiquaries forh subsequently dissolved, was the precursor of the present learned body bearing the name In the Tower he could read without stint He possessed a fair library Froton, he drew more true comfort than ever from his courtly companions in their chiefest bravery

[Sidenote: _Care for Accuracy_]

For necessarily had been desultory For his History it had to be concentrated He distrusted the exactness of his infor to accept advice freely For criticism, Greek, Mosaic, Oriental and remoter antiquities, he consulted the learned Robert Burhill Hariot had since 1606 been lodging or boarding in the Tower at the charge of the munificent Earl of Northui' For chronology, h relied upon hi in phrase or diction,' he would refer his doubt to that accomplished serjeant-at-law, John Hoskyns or Hoskins Hoskyns, now res to the class of paragons of one age, whose excellence later ages have to take on trust He is described by an adenious and admired poet of his time Wotton loved his company Ben Jonson considered him his 'father'

in literature: ''Twas he that polished me' In the summer of 1614 he becah's fellow prisoner He is said to have revised the History before it went to press Ralegh's intense desire to secure accuracy, his avowal of it, and its notoriety, have given occasion for charges against his title to the credit of the total result Ben Jonson and Algernon Sidney are the only independent authorities for the caluht up by other writers, especially by Isaac D'Israeli, who seeht, as Mr Bolton Corney showed, on the flimsiest evidence, of an ie, in no way inconsistent with fervid aded pretender

[Sidenote: _Borrowed Learning_]

Ben Jonson was associated incidentally in the work He prefaced it with a set of anonyorical frontispiece

Thehis papers They have always been included in his _Underwoods_ Though the version there differs materially from that prefixed to the History, no reasonable doubt of his authorshi+p of both exists His omission openly to claim the lines is supposed, not unreasonably, by Mr Edwards, to have been due to his fear of the prejudice his favour at Court ht sustain froh's But a year after Ralegh's death he boasted over his liquor to civil sneering Drummond at Hawthornden, of other 'considerable' contributions He had written, he said, 'a piece to him of the Punic War, which Sir Walter altered and set in his book' In general, the best wits of England were, he asserted, engaged in the production Algernon Sidney, in his posthu Government_, repeated this insinuation of borrowed pluh, he stated, was 'so well assisted in his _History of the World_, that an ordinary ' This is all bare assertion, and refuted by the internal evidence of the volume itself, which in its reht, testifies to its eh had hiht to have disarmed suspicion, the extent to which alone he was indebted for assistance In his preface he adnorant of Hebrew When a Hebrew passage did not occur in Arias Montanus, or in the Latin character in Sixtus Senensis, he was at a loss 'Of the rest,' he says, 'I have borrowed the interpretation of some of my learned friends; yet, had I been beholden to neither, yet were it not to be wondered at; having had an eleven years' leisure to attain to the knowledge of that or any other tongue' As a whole, the History nised as truly his own, his not only in its hts and reflections, but in the narrative and general texture It cannot be the less his that some of the 660 authors it cites may have been searched for him by assistants

[Sidenote: _Period of Publication_]

As early as 1611 he must have settled the scheme, and even the title, of the book On April 15 in that year notice was given in the Registers of the Stationers' Company of '_The History of the World_, written by Sir Walter Rawleighe' Part may be presumed to have been by that time written, and shown to Prince Henry Three years passed before actual publication Cah it is almost impossible to think Camden in error, yet, if the story of the perusal of the manuscript by Serjeant Hoskyns be true, and apply, as has been presumed, to the period of the Serjeant's imprisonment, the publication must have been half a year or more later The later date would also accord better with a ru of 1615 The publisher was Walter Burre, of the sign of the Crane in St Paul's Churchyard Burre published several works for Ben Jonson; and out of that circumstance has been constructed the statement that Jonson superintended the publication of the History for Ralegh The foruely put by Alexander Ross at 'twenty or thirty shi+llings' The edition was struck off in two issues, the errata of the first being corrected in the second None of the extant copies of either issue possess a title-page, or contain any mention of the writer's name The explanation may be the lect the personal glory of authorshi+p, apprehension of the odium in which his name was held at Court, or a reason which will be raved frontispiece by Renold Elstracke, the raphy A naval battle in the North Atlantic is depicted, and the course of the river Orinoko, with various syures Ben Jonson's lines point its application All the pages of the volu, 'The First Part of the History of the World'

[Sidenote: _Defects_]

[Sidenote: _Merits_]

For , which was the wonder and adh's time the historical ed

The mass of historical evidences has been immensely increased, and their quality is as different as their quantity Ralegh had studied the researches of his learned conteht on the reconciliation of apparent inconsistencies From the point of view of his own time he was successful Often he satisfied others better than hies with vexation his inability to divide exactly the seventy years of the Jewish captivity as of Babylon Had he been not e, but himself a pioneer, his dissertations and conclusions would equally have been drowned in the flood of later knowledge His information is become superannuated The er delight or surprise