s a feature not to be
overlooked in the glory of Elizabeth.

These long and hazardous voyages of discovery, of hostility, or of
commerce, began henceforth to afford one of the most honorable
occupations to those among the youthful nobility or gentry of the
country, whose active spirits disdained the luxurious and servile
idleness of the court: they also opened a welcome resource to younger
sons, and younger brothers, impatient to emancipate themselves from the
galling miseries of that necessitous dependence on the head of their
house to which the customs of the age and country relentlessly condemned
them.

Thus Shakespeare in his Two Gentlemen of Verona,

..."He wondered that your lordship
Would suffer him to spend his youth at home,
While other men of slender reputation
Put forth their sons to seek preferment out:
Some to the wars to try their fortune there;
_Some to discover islands far away_;
Some to the studious universities.
For any or for all these exercises,
He said, that Protheus your son was meet:
And did request me to importune you
To let him spend his time no more at home;
Which would be great impeachment to his age,
In having known no travel in his youth."

But the advancement of the fortunes of individuals was by no means the
principal or most permanent good which accrued to the nation by these
enterprises. The period was still indeed far distant, in which voyages
of discovery were to be undertaken on scientific principles and with
large views of general utility; but new animals, new vegetables, natural
productions or manufactured articles before unknown to them, attracted
the attention even of these first unskilful explorers. Specimens in
every kind were brought home, and, recommended as they never failed to
be by fabulous or grossly exaggerated descriptions, in the first
instance only served to gratify and inflame the vulgar passion for
wonders. But the attention excited to these striking novelties gradually
became enlightened; a more familiar acquaintance disclosed their genuine
properties, and the purposes to which they might be applied at
home;--Raleigh introduced the potatoe on his Irish estates;--an
acceptable however inelegant luxury was discovered in the use of
tobacco; and somewhat later, the introduction of tea gradually brought
sobriety and refinement into the system of modern English manners.

Many allusions to the prevailing passion