to you as one that for myself have given over the delight in the world,' show that he had estimated royal reconciliations at their true value, and anticipate the beautiful and pathetic words with which he is said to have taken leave of the world. Short and hurried as this letter is, we feel it is one of those trifles which, as Plutarch observes, throw far more light on character than actions of importance often do. Between 1580 and the appearance of Meres's work in 1598 there was much activity in critical literature. Five years before the date of Sidney's letter George Gascogne had published his _Certayne Notes of Instruction concerning the makyng of Verse in Rhyme_. This was succeeded in 1584 by James I.'s _Ane Short Treatise conteining some rewles and cautelis to be observit_. Then came William Webbe's _Discourse of English Poesie_, 1586, which had been preceded by Sidney's charming _Defence of Poetry_, composed in or about 1579, but not published till 1593. This and Puttenham's elaborate treatise, _The Art of English Poesie contrived into three books_ (1589), had indeed marked an epoch in the history of criticism. Memorable, too, in this branch of literature is Harington's _Apologie for Poetry_ (1591), prefixed to his translation of the _Orlando Furioso_. But it was not criticism only which had been advancing. The publication of the first part of Lyly's _Euphues_ and of Spenser's _Shepherd's Calendar_ in 1579 may be said to have initiated the golden age of our literature. The next twenty years saw Marlowe, Greene, Peele, Kyd, Shakespeare, Chapman, Decker, and Ben Jonson at the head of our drama; Spenser, Warner, Daniel, and Drayton leading narrative poetry; the contributors to _England's Helicon_, published a year later, at the head of our sonneteers and lyric poets; and Sidney, Lyly, Greene, and Hooker in the van of our prose literature. The history of Meres's work, a dissertation from which is here extracted, is curious. In or about 1596, Nicholas Ling and John Bodenham conceived the idea of publishing a series of volumes containing proverbs, maxims, and sententious reflections on religion, morals, and life generally. Accordingly in 1597 appeared a small volume containing various apothegms, extracted principally from the Classics and the Fathers, compiled by Nicholas Ling and dedicated to Bodenham. It was entitled _Politeuphuia_: _Wits Commonwealth_. In the following year appeared '_Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury_: _Being the Second Part of Wits Commonwealth_. By Francis Meres, Maister of Arts in both Universities.' On the title-page is the motto '_Vivitur ingenio, cetera mortis erunt_.' It was printed by P. Short for Cuthbert Burbie. From the address to the reader, which does not appear in the first edition, though it was apparently intended for that edition, we learn that it had been undertaken because of the extraordinary popularity of _Wits Commonwealth_, which 'thrice within one year had runne thorough the Presse.' Meres's work differs importantly from _Wits Commonwealth_. It is not merely a compilation, but contains original matter, generally by way of commentary. The extracts are much fuller, many being taken from modern writers, notably Robert Greene, Lyly, Warner, and Sir Philip Sidney. In 1634 the work was re-issued under another title, _Wits Commonwealth, The Second Part: A Treasurie of Divine, Moral, and Phylosophical Similes and Sentences generally useful. But more particular published for the Use of Schools_. In 1636 it was again reprinted. The only part of Meres's work