ing his wife the worst injury a woman
can undergo. The star of his hopes was the future of his elder son, and
the boy squandered his life on an idle skirmish. He courted admiration,
and, till he was buried in prison or the grave, was the best hated man
in the kingdom.

Had he been less vivacious and many-sided, he might have succeeded
better, suffered less, and accomplished more. With qualities less
shining he would have escaped the trammels of Court favouritism, and its
stains. With powers less various he would have been content to be
illustrious in one line. As a poet he might have rivalled instead of
patronizing Spenser. In prose he might have surpassed the thoughtful
majesty of Hooker. As an observer of nature he might have disputed the
palm with Bacon. He must have been recognized as endowed with the
specific gifts of a statesman or a general, if he had possessed none
others as remarkable. But if less various he would have been less
attractive. If he had shone without a cloud in any one direction, he
would not have pervaded a period with the splendour of his nature, and
become its type. More smoothness in his fortunes would have shorn them
of their tragic picturesqueness. Failure itself was needed to colour all
with the tints which surprise and captivate. He was not a martyr to
forgive his persecutors. He was not a hero to endure in silence, and
without an effort at escape. His character had many earthy streaks. His
self-love was enormous. He could be shifty, wheedling, whining. His
extraordinary and indomitable perseverance in the pursuit of ends was
crossed with a strange restlessness and recklessness in the choice of
means. His projects often ended in reverses and disappointments. Yet,
with all the shortcomings, no figure, no life gathers up in itself more
completely the whole spirit of an epoch; none more firmly enchains
admiration for invincible individuality, or ends by winning a more
personal tenderness and affection.

INDEX.

Abbot, George, Archbishop of Canterbury;
previously Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield,
and of London, 293, 344, 356, 367, 372.

Acuna, Diego Palomeque de, 320, 321, 324.

AEmilius, 278.

Aguilar, Garcia de, 322.

Albert, Archduke, 156, 186, 224, 251.

Alexander the Great, 278.

Allen, Thomas, 295.

Alley, Captain Peter, 317, 322.

Amadas, Captain Philip, 43, 45.

_Amazons, River of the_, 270.

Anderson, Sir Edmund, Chief Justice,