ssex,
tossing his cap into the sea for very joy when the command is given, in
compliance with his earliest entreaties, for the assault on Cadiz, and
with that failing of memory so becoming to a brave man, forgetting the
cautions of his sovereign, and rushing into the thickest of the fight;
the naval supremacy of England completely established by the defeat of
the Armada, and the great deep itself made a monument of the nation's
glory.

The boast of the age of Elizabeth was the splendid specimens of humanity
which it produced. "There were giants in those days." Individuals seemed
to condense in themselves the attainments of hosts. The accomplishments
and prowess of the men of those times inspire us with something like the
feeling of wonder with which the soldier of the present day handles the
sword of Robert Bruce, or the gigantic armor of Guy of Warwick. When
we read the beautiful verses "addressed to the author of the _Faerie
Queene_," by Raleigh, it is difficult to believe that they were penned by
the same person whose system of tactics was adopted so triumphantly at
the Spanish invasion; who was equally eminent as a general, a seaman, an
explorer, and a historian; and who shone unsurpassed for knightly graces
and accomplishments amid the stars of the court. Such instances were
not rare and prodigious. Raleigh was not the Crichton of his age; if
the compliment belongs to anyone peculiarly, it is Sidney; but as we
read over the list of distinguished persons to whom Spenser addressed
dedicatory stanzas to be "sent with the _Faerie Queene_," we become more
and more at a loss to distinguish the greatest among them; and we could
believe that many ages had been searched for so noble a catalogue.

The principles which formed society were precisely such as were best
calculated for the finest developments of character. The old high,
fervid spirit of chivalry was not lost; there were the same sense of
honor, the same knightly bearing, the same passion for glory, and the
same admiration for courage and prowess that had prevailed in the
earlier days of its sway. But these were tempered by milder and more
attractive virtues and accomplishments; the clerkly learning, which had
held so humble a rank in the days when nobles could scarcely sign their
names, had now risen into far higher estimation. Great warriors were now
no longer ashamed to know how to read and write; on the contrary, the
possession of learning and literature, the