was selected to extend them in Ireland. In his son
Philip the English ideal of noble culture seemed to have realised
itself; he combined a very remarkable literary power peculiar to
himself, and talents suited for the society of men of the world (which
well fitted him for the duties of an ambassador), with disinterested
kindness to others, and a chivalrous courage in war, which gained him
universal admiration both at home and in presence of the enemy.

Leicester's good word is also said to have opened an entrance to court
for young Walter Ralegh and to have promoted his first successes.
Ralegh combined in his own person the aspirations of the age in a most
vivid manner. He was ambitious, fond of show, with high aims, deeply
engaged in the factions of the court; but at the same time he had a
spirit of noble enterprise, was ingenious and thoughtful. In
everything new that was produced in the region of discoveries and
inventions, of literature and art, he played the part of a fellow
worker: he lived in the circle of universal knowledge, its problems
and its progress. In his appearance he had something that announced a
man of superior mind and nature.

Around Cecil were grouped the statesmen who had been promoted by him,
and worked in sympathy with him: for instance Bacon the Keeper of the
Seals, whom the Queen regarded as the oracle of the laws, and who also
amused her by many a witty word; Mildmay, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, who though adhering to the principles now adopted yet
gladly favoured the claims of Parliament, and even the tendencies of
the Puritans; Francis Walsingham, Secretary of State, who had once
suffered exile for his Protestantism and now supported it after his
return with all the resources of the administration; it is said of him
that he heard in London what was whispered in the ear at Rome; he met
the crafty Jesuits with a network of secret counter-action which
extended over the world; there has never been a man who more
vigilantly and unrelentingly hunted down religious and political
conspiracies; to pay his agents, in choosing whom he was not too
particular, he expended his own property. Cecil and Bacon had married
two daughters of that Antony Cooke, who had once taken part in Edward
VI's education: the other sisters, wedded to Hobby and Killigrew, men
who were engaged in the most important embassies, extended the
connexion of these statesmen. Walsingham was allied by marriage with
Mildmay, a