advocating to retard the improvement we desire. The abuse of a thing will always bring its use into some doubt or discredit. The fopperies-the affectations-the shallowness of the blues have caused the power and attainments of really intellectual women to be doubted, or, where that could not be, to be decried and ridiculed. But the very existence of this sect goes to support the advantage of the tenets of our creed. If women were made more generally well-informed, there would be no place for empty and ignorant pretenders. If the sun and moon shone out, these thick-wicked tallow candles would be speedily eclipsed. It may be objected that all we have said merely goes to prove that talented and well-educated women are preferable to those who are silly and ill-instructed-and it may be thought that it was not necessary to waste several good pages of paper in supporting this position. But strange as it may appear, we do assert, and we challenge contradiction, that scarcely any hypothesis has less practical belief. Will any body deny that a woman who is distinguished for talent or acquirement is always sneered at as "a blue"-a pedant in petticoatsor as some other of the multifarious denominations with which the world has stigmatized the female possessor of sense and information? Is she not shrunk from by the men, and scoffed and carped at by the women? Is there not among many men-and not mere foplings-a dread of a clever woman, somewhat similar to that which is felt towards mad dogs-pent rats—and other dangerous animals?-And, finally, has not a dancing, flirting, frippery woman, if she happen to have a pretty face, more succès de société in a week, than "an intellectual woman" in her whole life-time? If these questions cannot be negatived, we trust we shall not be considered as having been discussing a truism. We shall conclude with quoting some lines we lately met with, which pretty well embody the different qualities we have been endeavouring to advocate;— "Her highly-gifted nature shone In every look, and word, and tone- An eye the most unskilled could trace SIR WALTER RALEIGH'S POEMS. We have always thought Sir Walter Raleigh too little known. He is often spoken of, it is true, and quoted as a hero and a martyr, but it is seldom we meet with one really conversant with his character and fortunes. His name is in the mouths of many, but his deeds, dispositions, and powers, are fully known but to few. His life presents a series of actions and an union of qualities, for any one of which the favourites of fame would be cited and eulogized as most deservedly illustrious. The very assemblage of talents that he possessed seems to have caused their individual excellency to be overlooked. There are few characters more thoroughly interesting than his; to the young and the old, to the statesman, the poet, the moralist, and the man of the world, his story presents a most attractive subject; and while we kindle with admiration for his talents and pity for his misfortunes, our indignation and contempt are proportionately raised against him whose littleness of mind allowed him not to appreciate, and whose meanness led him to sacrifice, this great man. With these feelings, who can dwell with strict attention upon the blemishes and defects, which, alas! upon closer inspection, are too often found to mar those brilliant characters whom our early enthusiasm has worshipped as heroes-whom we sigh to have personally known and whose shining deeds have awakened all the ardour and noble emulation of our nature. The age in which Raleigh lived is one conspicuous for genius and originality, and he is one of the most striking of the great spirits so peculiarly English, who have stamped that bold and remarkable impress upon the insular character, which subsequent times, with all their improvement and increased enlightenment on nearly all subjects, produce in no similar degree. The Reformation and the discovery of the New World were then recent, and never were events more calculated to rouse the reasoning powers, and excite and heighten the imagination. The invention of printing, too, so miraculously coincident in time, afforded every facility to the progress and diffusion of knowledge; all circumstances the most favourable that can perhaps be conceived for the developement of vigorous and independent character. Men of the most active lives engaged in the study of philosophy, with a zeal which now belongs only to professed authors, and with an industry which in this luxurious age none but bookworms can comprehend. The result of their investigations may not always have been useful to society; their time may appear to have been devoted to subtleties unworthy of dispute or regard; but the effects upon their own minds were excellent; they produced that firmness of temper, that solidity of character, so peculiarly distinguishable in the Englishman. The habit of inquiry taught them to adopt their opinions upon reasoning instead of upon prejudice; to cultivate, and consequently to rely upon, their own powers. Men learned to think for themselves, and the prerogative was too newly acquired, and, therefore, too fully and frequently exercised, to allow of that superficial adoption of systems which now often passes for the result and deductions of comprehensiveness of mind, -the fruit and the proof of deep reflection and exalted genius. From our present knowledge of America, the wonders of its discovery are comparatively little striking, and we are apt to treat with ridicule the notions at first entertained of its riches, and of the magnificence and extent of its cities. But if we pause, and consider what the impression in all its freshness was calculated to make, and reflect upon the great riches that did pour into Spain,-we shall cease to look upon our ancestors as weakly credulous in their hopes and expectations of the fame and emolument which were to arise to their country and themselves from their discoveries and settlements in America. Hume, with the coldness which belonged both to his character and habits of thought, affirms that Raleigh's account of his first voyage to Guiana proves him to have been extremely deficient either in solid understanding, or morals, or both. This is one of the many misrepresentations which that historian has, through negligence or design, given to his relation of Sir Walter Raleigh's unhappy fate. Hume's partiality for the Stuarts led him to describe all the actions of that family with a softening of their faults, and a heightening of their merits, which throws a false light upon many of the most remarkable transactions of their reigns; and upon none more strongly than upon James's treatment of Raleigh. He gives the whole story upon the authority of the declaration which the king drew up and published, to try to do away the contempt and hatred excited in the nation by the sacrifice of one of its ablest defenders to the resentment of Spain. But James was bent upon an alliance with that country, then almost more truly and naturally the enemy of England than France has ever since been. He had a strong dislike towards Raleigh-that instinctive sort of hatred which a narrow mind, and a subtle and cowardly disposition always bear to enterprising spirit and greatness of intellect and he hesitated not to propitiate the Spanish court, by granting his life to the demands of Gondomar. James then drew up his declaration with all the ingenuity and colouring which the circumstances unfortunately permitted; but the very necessity of justifying his conduct, and the more glaring fact of taking away Sir Walter's life upon his old sentence, prove that he was aware no jury would have found him guilty of the treason of which he was accused; and he therefore took his life upon the unjust condemnation he had so long kept in reserve, with all the spite and shuffling of mean and timid despotism. Raleigh, indeed, had his mind deeply impressed with the treasures of Guiana, and the account of his voyage contains much extravagant matter; but Hume still heightens it, by adding what is not found in the relation, that the city of El Dorado was said to be two days' journey in length. The description of this city, of the prophecies in favour of the English, and of the republic of Amazons, are not given by Raleigh upon his own testimony but upon that of other writers, and various oral reporters-the multitude of Spanish relations of their adventures, and their wonderful discoveries of riches and magnificence. The numbers of |