Dissertations which were undoubtedly his circulated in manuscript, and were printed posthumously, if ever. _A Report of the Truth of the Fight about the Isles of Azores_, the _Discovery of Guiana_, and the _History of the World_, alone of his many prose writings appeared in his lifetime. The _Prerogative of Parliaments in England_ 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 _Aphorisms of State_, to which he alludes as having been published in 1661 by Milton, and as identical with _Maxims of State_. Others of his writings have disappeared altogether. David Lloyd, in his _Observations on the Statesmen and Favourites of England_, published in 1665, states that John Hampden, shortly before the Civil Wars, was at the charge of transcribing 3452 sheets of Ralegh's writing. The published essays with his name attached to them do not nearly account for this vast mass. It may be suggested 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 Amazons_, if it were correctly assigned to him by Wood. Most of all to be regretted, if Jonson or Drummond is to be believed, is the life Jonson, at Hawthornden, alleged 'S.W.', 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._]