style differs very little from that of other men of his
day, who kept clear at once of euphuism and burlesque. Being chiefly
narrative, it is rather plainer than Hooker, who has some few points of
resemblance with Raleigh, but considerably freer from the vices of
desultoriness and awkward syntax, than most writers of the day except
Hooker. But its most interesting characteristic to the student of
literature must always be the way in which it leads up to, without in the
least foretelling, the bursts of eloquence already referred to. Even
Milton's alternations of splendid imagery with dull and scurrilous
invective, are hardly so strange as Raleigh's changes from jog-trot
commonplace to almost inspired declamation, if only for the reason that
they are much more intelligible. It must also be mentioned that Raleigh,
like Milton, seems to have had little or no humour.

The opening and closing passages of the _History_ are almost universally
known; a quainter, less splendid, but equally characteristic one may be
given here though Mr. Arber has already extracted it:--

"The four complexions resemble the four elements; and the seven
ages of man, the seven planets. Whereof our infancy is compared
to the moon; in which we seem only to live and grow, as plants.

"The second age, to Mercury; wherein we are taught and
instructed.

"Our third age, to Venus; the days of Love, Desire and Vanity.

"The fourth, to the Sun; the strong, flourishing and beautiful
age of man's life.

"The fifth, to Mars; in which we seek honour and victory; and in
which our thoughts travel to ambitious ends.

"The sixth age is ascribed to Jupiter; in which we begin to take
account of our times, judge of ourselves, and grow to the
perfection of our understanding.

"The last and seventh, to Saturn; wherein our days are sad and
overcast; and in which we find by dear and lamentable experience,
and by the loss which can never be repaired, that, of all our
vain passions and affections past, the sorrow only abideth. Our
attendants are sicknesses and variable infirmities: and by how
much the more we are accompanied with plenty, by so much the more
greedily is our end desired. Whom, when Time hath made unsociable
to others, we become a burden to ourselves: being of no other use
than to hold the riches we have from our successors. In this time
it