new expedition to South America, he was allowed to undertake it; but, when it had proved unsuccessful, the vacillating James I, in order to gratify the hatred of Ralegh's constant enemies, the Spaniards, and especially of the ambassador Gondomar, allowed him to be executed under the old sentence (1618). During his twelve years of imprisonment Ralegh devoted himself to literary and scientific occupations, and, with the aid of many learned friends, of whom Jonson was one, produced his

The "History of the World."

History of the World (1614). The variety of style in this work may prove that the finer passages are due to his helpers: but it seems unfair without proof to rob Ralegh of the credit of a very singular masterpiece of English prose. The history comes down only to the Second Macedonian War. "There is little," says Hallam, "now obsolete in the words of Ralegh, nor, to any great degree, in his turn of phrase; the periods, where pains have been taken with them, show that artificial structure which we find in Sidney and Hooker: he is less pedantic than most of his contemporaries, seldom low, never affected."

Tales.

§4. The immense outburst of intellectual activity which renders the middle of the sixteenth century so memorable an epoch in the history of philosophy, was not without a parallel Travellers' in the rapid extension of geographical knowledge. England, which gave birth to Bacon, the successful conqueror of new worlds of philosophical speculation, was foremost among the countries whose bold navigators explored unknown regions of the globe. Innumerable expeditions, sometimes fitted out by the State, but far more generally undertaken by private speculation, exhibited incredible skill, bravery, and perseverance in opening out new passages for commerce, and, in particular, in the endeavour to solve the great commercial and geographical problem of finding a north-west passage to the Eastern hemisphere. The commercial rivalry between England and Spain, and, subsequently, between England and Holland, brought into existence an illustrious band of navigators, whose exploits, partaking of the double character both of privateering and of trade, laid the foundation of that naval skill which made England the mistress of the seas. Drake, Frobisher, Davis, Ralegh, were the worthy ancestors of Cook, Franklin, and Nelson. The recital of their dangers and discoveries was frequently recorded, simply and picturesquely, by these hardy navigators; and the same age that laid the foundation of our naval greatness produced also a branch of our literature which is neither the least valuable nor the least characteristicthe narration of maritime discovery. RICHARD Collections of HAKLUYT (1552?-1616) and SAMUEL PURCHAS (1575-1626) were indefatigable chroniclers and compilers, who left to posterity large collections of invaluable materials concerning the naval adventure of those times; while the navigator, SIR JOHN DAVIS (d. 1605), wrote from personal

voyages, etc.

experience as the explorer of the Northern Ocean, and the discoverer of a strait whose name is still a monument to his glory. The style of all these narratives is simple, grave, and unadorned; the narrative, in itself so full of intense dramatic excitement, has the charm of a brave old seaman's description of the toils and dangers he has passed; and the tremendous perils so simply encountered with means so insignificant are painted with an artless mixture of professional sang-froid and childlike trust in Providence. The occasional acts of cruelty and oppression, which are mainly to be attributed to a somewhat incipient stage of civilisation, are more than redeemed by the indomitable courage and invincible perseverance of these illustrious navigators.

§ 5. In the theological differences which sprang out of the demand for Church reform at the end of the fifteenth century, and culminated in the great separation of the sixteenth, the Anglican divines took a central position, equi- Position of distant from the unquestioning devotion to authority of England. advocated by the Roman communion and from the

the Church

extreme importance attached to private judgment by the definitely Protestant theologians. This position had a very important influence upon the Church of Elizabethan England: it defined its situation as a compromise between two opposite extremes. The politic and independent attitude of the English Church at this dangerous crisis secured it something of its solidity and influence. Naturally, the growth of a national spirit in religious matters, to say nothing of the persecuting zeal of Henry VIII, exposed the Church of England to the violent hostility of the central power whose authority it had rejected; and Henry's rackings and burnings were avenged in the reign of Mary. But no sooner was the Church recognised as the guardian of the State's religion, than it was exposed to attacks from the very opposite point of the theological compass, and, later on, succumbed for a time to the determined enmity of a religious school with whose doctrines it had very little in common. Elizabeth, indeed, continued her father's political warfare with Rome; but the real religious opposition came from the gradually increasing hostility of Puritanism, which, during her reign, insensibly acquired more and more power. The University of Cambridge, for instance, was at this time overwhelmed by a wave of Puritan doctrine, which, combined with the Platonic philosophy, was the guiding influence of a great poet like Spenser, and showed its abiding result in Sir Walter Mildmay's foundation of Emmanuel College. The great champion of Anglicanism against the encroachments of the Genevan school of theology was RICHARD HOOKER, born at Heavi- RICHARD tree, a suburb of Exeter. His parents were poor, HOOKER but he gained a clerkship at Corpus Christi College, (1554-1600). Oxford, in 1567, and subsequently became a scholar, Life. fellow, and lecturer. However, about 1581 he married, and was obliged to vacate his fellowship for the country living of Drayton

siastical

Beauchamp in Buckinghamshire. His eloquence and vast learning were not forgotten, and from 1585 to 1591 he was Master of the Temple. His colleague at the Temple Church, one Walter Travers, was unfortunately an attached adherent of the Calvinistic doctrines of Church government; and Hooker's mildness and modesty, which rendered controversy and disputation insupportable to him, urged him to implore his Ordinary to remove him from his post. For the last nine years of his life, from 1591 to 1600, he lived quietly in a country parsonage, first at Boscombe in Wiltshire, and then at Bishopsbourne, a few miles south of Canterbury. It was here, for the most part, that he executed the great work which has placed him among the most eminent of the Anglican divines, and among the best prose writers of his age. The title of this work is A Treatise on the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, and its object is to inThe "Eccle vestigate and define the fundamental principles upon Polity." which is founded the right of the Church to the obedience of its members, and the duty of the members to pay obedience to the Church. It appeared in three parts the first four books in 1594, the fifth in 1597, the last three long after his death. Although its principal object is to establish the relative rights and duties of the Anglican Church in particular, and to defend its organisation against Roman attacks on the one hand and Calvinistic error on the other, Hooker has dug deep into the eternal granite on which are founded all law, all obedience, and all right, political as well as religious. The Ecclesiastical Polity is a monument of close and cogent logic, supported by immense and varied erudition, and is written in a style so free from vulgar pedantry, so clear, vigorous, and unaffected save by occasional Latinisms, as to form a remarkable contrast with most of the contemporary works of theology, so overloaded with quotation and deformed by conceits and the vice of antithesis. It is the first great monument of English prose after the Reformation, the earliest masterpiece of a new art. It is to be regretted that this magnificent work was never finished by the author, or, at least, if finished, has descended to us in a somewhat mutilated form; for the Sixth Book, although in all probability Hooker's, is supposed to be a fragment taken by an injudicious editor from the materials of an entirely different work.

§ 6. The political life of FRANCIS BACON forms a contrast so striking to his purely intellectual or philosophical career, that it would be difficult to find, in the records of historical FRANCIS BACON biography, two things so diametrically opposed. He (1561-1626). was the son of Elizabeth's favourite and trusted Life. minister, the Lord Keeper, Sir Nicholas Bacon. Sir Nicholas was a fair specimen of that peculiar class of able statesmen with whom the great Queen surrounded her administration, a type which, as already has been said, is found in persons like Burghley, Walsingham, Ellesmere, and Smith—

men of great practical knowledge of the world, of powerful, if not, perhaps, inventive faculties, and possessing a prudence and moderation in their religious opinions which was of much importance in the agitated condition of affairs consequent upon the Reformation. Francis Bacon was a nephew of Burghley, for his mother, Anne Cooke, was a younger sister of Burghley's wife. The boy, from his earliest childhood, gave earnest of those powers of intellect and that readiness of mind which afterwards distinguished him among men. He went to Trinity College, Cambridge, at an age which even at that time was very early. But, even as a boy, he is said Bacon at Cambridge. to have shown plain indications of that enquiring spirit which attracted him to the investigation of natural laws, and a gravity and presence of mind which drew the attention of the Queen; and it is reported that, while studying at Cambridge, he was struck with the defects of the philosophical methods founded upon the scholastic or Aristotelian system which was then universally adopted in scientific investigation. Then, perhaps, first dawned upon his mind the dim outline of that great reformation in philosophy which he was afterwards destined to bring about. His father, in 1576, sent him with Sir Amias Paulet's embassy to France; and a His travels. residence of about four years in France, Germany,

Enters

and Italy, not only gave him the opportunity of examining the state and inclinations of the principal European Courts and acquiring a remarkable stock of political knowledge, but rendered him the still more valuable service of enlarging his knowledge of mankind and giving him an acquaintance with the state of philosophy and letters. He was recalled from abroad by his father's death in 1579, and found himself under the necessity of entering upon some active career. He appears to have felt that the natural bent of his the law. genius inclined to the study of science; and he begged his kinsman and natural protector, Burghley, to obtain for him the means of pursuing his desire. The Treasurer, however, was jealous of his nephew's extraordinary abilities, and feared that they might eclipse or interfere with those of his son Robert, who was just then entering upon his long and brilliant career. He therefore treated his nephew with harshness and indifference, and insisted upon his embracing the profession of the law. Francis studied at Gray's Inn, of which he was already a member; and that wonderful aptitude, which found no labour too arduous and no subtlety too refined, very soon made him the most distinguished advocate of his day, and a popular teacher of legal science. The jealousy of his kinsmen, the Cecils, both father and son, appears to have veiled itself, in some degree, perhaps, unconsciously, under the pretext that Bacon was a flighty and bookish young man, too fond of projects and theories to be likely to become a useful servant of the State. But the countenance which was refused to Bacon

by his uncle and cousin, he obtained from the generous and enthusiastic friendship of Essex, who used all his influence to obtain for his friend the post of Attorney General, and, failing in this attempt, consoled him for the disappointment by the gift of a considerable estate. During this period of his life Bacon continued to rise rapidly, both in professional reputation as a lawyer, and in fame for his eloquence and philosophy. He sat in the House of Commons from 1584 onwards, and gave evidence, not only of his unequalled powers as a speaker, but also of that cowardly and interested subservience to the Court which was the great blot upon his glory and the cause of his ultimate disgrace. There is nothing in history more melancholy than to trace the way in which Bacon natur- this man of sublime intellect truckled to every ally a timefavourite with power to help or to hurt, and betrayed in succession all those to whom self-interest had attached him for the moment. After submitting, with a subserviency unworthy of a man of the least spirit, to the haughty reproaches of the Cecils, he abandoned their faction for that of Essex, whom he flattered and betrayed. When the unhappy Earl, after his frantic conspiracy and revolt, was tried for high treason, Bacon, although he felt for his benefactor as warm an attachment as was compatible with a mean and servile nature, not only abandoned him, but volunteered with malignant eagerness in the foremost ranks of his enemies, and employed all his immense powers as an advocate and pamphleteer to precipitate his ruin and blacken his memory. Bacon, it is only fair to say, was not a malignant man: he was a needy, flexible, and unscrupulous courtier; and showed, in his after-career, the same ignoble readiness to betray the duties of the judge which he now showed in forgetting his obligations as a friend.

server.

Bacon thus gradually and steadily rose in the service of the State; and, at the accession of James I, like so many people who had been neglected under the Cecil régime, he Bacon's pros- was taken into favour. He was knighted at the perity under James I. coronation, and, following his habitual methods, attached himself to James' favourites-first to the ignoble Carr, and afterwards to the haughty Buckingham. In 1606 he married Alice Barnham, the daughter of a London alderman, and, with her, a considerable fortune. He sat in more than one Parliament, and was successively made Solicitor General and Attorney General. In 1617 he became Lord Keeper, and in 1618, Lord High Chancellor of England and Baron Verulam, to which title was added, three years afterwards, the higher style of Viscount St. Albans. Although the whole of his public career was stained with acts of the basest servility and corruption, it is not uninstructive to mention that Bacon was one of the last ministers of the law in England, if not the very last, to employ and to defend the application of torture in judicial procedure. He occupied