admiration, for the tempered mixture of patience and noble spirit with which he bore the oppressive measure dealt to him. He had before been unpopular; but it was recorded by an eye-witness that “he behaved himself so worthily, so wisely, and so temperately, that in half a day the mind of all the company was changed from the extremest hate to the extremest pity.” The sentence of death thus unfairly and disgracefully obtained was not immediately carried into execution. James was not satisfied with the evidence adduced on the trial; and believing at the same time that Raleigh had been plotting against him, he set his royal wit to dive into the mystery. Of the singular scene which our British Solomon devised it is not necessary to speak, since Raleigh was not an actor in it. But as no more evidence could be obtained against him even by the King’s sagacity, he was reprieved, and remanded to the Tower, where the next twelve years of his life were spent in confinement. Fortunately, he had never ceased to cultivate literature with a zeal not often found in the soldier and politician, and he now beguiled the tedium of his lot by an entire devotion to those studies which before had only served to diversify his more active and engrossing pursuits. Of his poetical talents we have already made short mention: to the end of life he continued the practice of pouring out his mind in verse, and there are several well-known and beautiful pieces expressive of his feelings in prison, and in the anticipation of immediate death, especially ‘The Lie,’ and the beautiful little poem called ‘The Pilgrimage.’ He also possessed a strong turn for mathematics, and studied them with much success in the society and under the guidance of his friend Thomas Hariot, one of the most accomplished mathematicians of the age. Chemistry was another favourite pursuit in which, according to the standard of his contemporaries, he made great progress. But the most important occupation of his imprisonment was the composition of his ‘History of the World.’ Notwithstanding the quaintness of the style and the discursive manner in which the subject is treated, it is impossible to read this volume without admiring the wonderful extent of the author’s reading, not only in history, but in philosophy, theology, and even the ponderous and untempting stores of Rabbinical learning. Many of the chapters relate to subjects which few persons would expect to find in a history of the world; yet these will often be found among the most interesting and characteristic portions of the book; and its deep learning is relieved and set off by passages of genuine eloquence, which display to the best advantage the author’s rich imagination and grasp of mind. The work extends from the Creation to the end of the second Macedonian war. Raleigh meant to bring it down to modern times; but the untimely death of Henry Prince of Wales, for whose use it was composed,