mpden, 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._]

The weightiness of thought, the enormous scope, the stateliness without
pedantry or affectation, and the nobility of style, of one literary
product of his imprisonment insured it against any such casualty. Of all
the enterprises ever achieved in captivity none can match the _History
of the World_. The authors of _Pilgrim's Progress_ and _Don Quixote_
showed more literary genius, and as much elasticity of spirit. Their
works did not exact the same constancy and inflexibility of effort. Mr.
Macvey Napier has well said: 'So vast a project betokens a consciousness
of intellectual power which cannot but excite admiration.' Ralegh may
himself not have commenced by realising the gigantic comprehensiveness
of his undertaking. An accepted theory has been that his primary idea
was a history of his own country, not of the world. It has been usual to
cite a sentence of the preface in proof. The passage does not confirm
the hypothesis. It runs: 'Beginning with the Creation, I have proceeded
with the history of our world; and lastly proposed, some few sallies
excepted, to confine my discourse within this our renowned island of
Great Britain.' Here is no intimation that he had begun by setting
before him for his text English history, and that the history of the
world was an enlarged introduction. If his own words are to be believed,
his survey of universal antiquity wa