XIX 



CHAPTER II. 



FROM THE DEATH OF HIS FATHER TILL HE ENGAGED 

 IN ACTIVE LIFE. 1580 to 1590. 



DISCOVERING, upon his arrival in England, that, by the 1580. 

 sudden death of his father, he was left without a sufficient &*. 20. 

 provision to justify him in devoting his life to contem 

 plation, (a) it became necessary for him to select some 

 pursuit for his support, &quot; to think how to live, instead of 

 living only to think. &quot;(c) 



Law and Politics were the two roads open before him ; 

 in both his family had attained opulence and honor. Law, 

 the dry and thorny study of law, had but little attraction 

 for his discursive and imaginative mind. With the hope, 

 therefore, that, under the protection of his political friends, 

 and the Queen s remembrance of his father, and notice of 

 him when a child, he might escape from the mental slavery 

 of delving in this laborious profession, he made a great 

 effort to secure some small competence, by applying to 

 Lord Burleigh to recommend him to the queen, and inter 

 ceding with Lady Burleigh to urge his suit with his uncle, (d) 



(a) Rawley Biog. Brit. 



(c) This is an expression of his own, I forget where. 



(d) My singular good Lord, 



My humble duty remembered, and my humble thanks presented for 

 your lordship s favour and countenance, which it pleased your lordship, at 

 my being with you, to vouchsafe me, above my degree and desert : My 



