And he set his mind to these details of his defence at the time when his mind was eager to bring down to the realm of reality those high dreams by which Guiana caused him to be obsessed. A few days afterwards he writes to Sir Robert Cecil: "I beseich you lett us know whether wee shalbe travelers or tinkers; conquerors or novices. For if the winter pass without making provision there can be no vitling in the summer; and if it be now fore-slowed, farewell Guiana for ever.... Honor and gold and all good, for ever hopeless." A great man, this Elizabethan, whose imperial dreams did not prevent him from mastering the little businesses under his hand! Visions of Eldorado did not blurr his view of Minnett or lessen his interest in the clash-mills of Mr. Crymes. Not only was Ralegh Lord Warden of the Stannaries and Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall, but he was also what Edwards calls Captain of Industry in Ireland. The work connected with these duties was what may be looked upon as the _business_ of his life. Each entailed work and responsibility which would suffice the energy of an ordinary man of business, a little above the modern average of capacity. It was typical of Ralegh's immense vitality that he dealt with them with as much thoroughness and ease as he managed his own household, and always he inspired them with new ideas and new life, even as his garden was the first in which orange-trees were cultivated. His imagination made him an originator. He was never content with the old way of doing things--he found a better. He was always seeing old facts for the first time, as though he had never seen them before, as all men of vigorous intellect do. Consequently he trusted his own opinion, and he had good cause to trust it.