The Glory of English Prose | Page 5

was denied you; and either lay it at
Sherburne, if the land continue, or in Exeter Church by my father and
mother. I can write no more. Time and Death call me away.
"The Everlasting, Infinite, Powerful and Inscrutable God, that
Almighty God that is goodness itself, mercy itself, the true life and
light, keep you and yours, and have mercy on me and teach me to
forgive my persecutors and false accusers, and send us to meet in His
Glorious Kingdom. My true wife, farewell. Bless my poor boy, pray for
me. My true God hold you both in His Arms.
"Written with the dying hand of, sometime thy husband, but now alas!
overthrown, yours that was, but now not my own.
"WALTER RALEGH."
Sir Walter Ralegh, long before he came to his untimely end, had
written in his great History of the World a wonderful passage about
death; it is justly celebrated, and is familiar to all men of letters
throughout the world, so I will quote a portion of it for you:--
"The Kings and Princes of the world have always laid before them the
actions, but not the ends, of those great ones which preceded them.
They are always transported with the glory of the one, but they never
mind the misery of the other, till they find the experience in
themselves.
"They neglect the advice of God, while they enjoy life, or the hope of it;
but they follow the counsel of Death upon the first approach. It is he
that puts into man all the wisdom of the world, without speaking a
word; which God, with all the Words of His Law, promises and threats,
doth not infuse.
"Death which hateth and destroyeth man is believed; God which hath
made him and loves him is always deferred. It is, therefore, Death alone

that can suddenly make man to know himself. He tells the proud and
insolent that they are but abjects, and humbles them at the instant;
makes them cry, complain and repent; yea, even to hate their
fore-passed happiness.
"He takes account of the rich, and proves him a beggar; a naked beggar
which hath interest in nothing but in the gravel that fills his mouth. He
holds a glass before the eyes of the most beautiful and makes them see
therein their deformity and rottenness, and they acknowledge it.
"O eloquent, just and mighty Death! whom none could advise, thou
hast persuaded; what none have dared thou hast done; and whom all the
world have flattered, thou only hast cast out of the world and despised;
thou hast drawn together all the far-stretched greatness, all the pride,
cruelty and ambition of man, and covered it all over with these two
narrow words--HIC JACET."
Sir Walter Ralegh was born only a few miles down below Ottery St.
Mary, in the same beautiful valley from which you and I, Antony, and
the poet have come. The peal of bells in the old church tower at
Otterton was given by him to the parish; and when "the lin lan lone of
evening-bells" floats across between the hills that guard the river Otter,
it should fall upon our ears as an echo of the melody that strikes upon
our hearts in Ralegh's words.
Your loving old
G.P.
4
MY DEAR ANTONY,
In looking through some very old Acts of Parliament not long ago I
was rather surprised to find that in those old times our forefathers drew
up their statutes in very stately English.
In our own times Acts of Parliament frequently violate the simplest
rules of grammar, and are sometimes so unintelligible as to need the
labours of learned judges to find out what they mean!

But it seems that in the great days of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth Acts of
Parliament were often written in resounding periods of solemn
splendour of which the meaning is perfectly clear.
In the twenty-fourth year of the great Henry, the Act denying and
forbidding any jurisdiction of the Pope of Rome in England was
passed.
This Act, depriving the Pope of all power in England, marked a
turning-point in history.
It is headed with these words:--
THE PRE-EMINENCE, POWER, AND AUTHORITY OF THE
KING OF ENGLAND. 1532.
"Where by divers sundry old authentic histories and chronicles it is
manifestly declared and expressed that this realm of England is an
Empire, and so hath been accepted in the world, governed by one
supreme head and King having the dignity and royal estate of the
imperial crown of the same, unto whom a body politic compact of all
sorts and degrees of people, divided in terms and by names of
spiritualty and temporalty being bounden and owen to bear next to God
a natural and humble obedience; he being also institute and furnished