So nimble, and so full of subtle flame,
As if that every one from whom they came
Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest.'


Anything to forget the handwriting on the wall, which will not be
forgotten. But he will do all the good which he can meanwhile,
nevertheless. He will serve God and Mammon. So complete a man will
surely be able to do both. Unfortunately the thing is impossible, as
he discovers too late: but he certainly goes as near success in the
attempt as ever man did. Everywhere we find him doing justly and
loving mercy. Wherever this man steps he leaves his footprint
ineffaceably in deeds of benevolence. For one year only, it seems,
he is governor of Jersey; yet to this day, it is said, the islanders
honour his name, only second to that of Duke Rollo, as their great
benefactor, the founder of their Newfoundland trade. In the west
country he is 'as a king,' 'with ears and mouth always open to hear
and deliver their grievances, feet and hands ready to go and work
their redress.' The tin-merchants have become usurers 'of fifty in
the hundred.' Raleigh works till he has put down their 'abominable
and cut-throat dealing.' There is a burdensome west-country tax on
curing fish; Raleigh works till it is revoked. In Parliament he is
busy with liberal measures, always before his generation. He puts
down a foolish act for compulsory sowing of hemp in a speech on the
freedom of labour worthy of the nineteenth century. He argues
against raising the subsidy from the three-pound men--'Call you this,
Mr. Francis Bacon, par jugum, when a poor man pays as much as a
rich?' He is equally rational and spirited against the exportation
of ordnance to the enemy; and when the question of abolishing
monopolies is mooted he has his wise word. He too is a monopolist of