Ralegh is alleged to have written on the state, power, and riches of Spain. He has had attributed to him a _Premonition to Princes; A Dialogue_, in 1609, _between a Jesuit and a Recusant; A Discourse on Spanish Cruelties to Englishmen in Havanna_, and others on the relations of France, England, and Spain, and the meaning of the words Law and Right. He expatiated in the field of practical morals in his celebrated _Instructions to his Son and to Posterity_. The treatise makes an unpleasant impression with its hard, selfish, and somewhat sensual dogmatism. 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 exemplifications of it. The former, as it stands, is an apology for 'neither affirming, nor denying, but doubting.' 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 performance of more mark. The profusion of its learning is enough to prevent surprise, whatever the quantity of knowledge displayed by the writer elsewhere. It is memorable for a fine burst of indignation at the denial by some men that women possess souls, and for several marvellous subtleties. For instance, the necessity of the theory that man begets soul as well as body, is alleged, since the contrary is said to involve the blasphemous absurdity that God assists adultery by having 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 Mahomet_ has been, and on very sufficient grounds. The _Dutiful Advice of a Loving Son to his Aged Father_ falls within a different category. It is not more likely than Steele's counterfeit letter in the _Englishman_ to Prince Henry against the phrase 'God's Vicegerent,' 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 admirer of Ralegh's style, with no purpose either of ridicule or of imposture. [Sidenote: _Posthumous Publications._]