SIR WALTER RALEIGH.

THIS unfortunate ornament of his country was born at Hayes farm, in the parish of Budley, Devonshire, in 1552. As a gentleman commoner of Oriel college, Oxford, he distinguished himself by his application; and, after remaining a short time, in 1569 he became one of the troop of a hundred gentlemen volunteers, whom queen Elizabeth permitted to go to France for the assistance of the Protestants: Raleigh did not return till the end of the year 1575.

In 1578, he served under the prince of Orange against the Spaniards. Soon after this, he had an opportunity of trying his fortune at sea with his half-brother, sir Humphry Gilbert. In 1580, he was actively employed in quelling the Irish insurgents, and had a captain's commission under lord Grey de Wilton. On his return home, being introduced at court, he gained the favour of queen Elizabeth by an act of gallantry: the queen, whilst walking, had reached a marshy spot, which she hesitated to cross; when Raleigh, with admirable presence of mind, instantly spread his rich cloak on the ground, and the queen, smiling, passed over.

In 1583, he engaged in a second expedition to Newfoundland, with his brother Gilbert; but was obliged to return to port by the breaking out of a contagious disorder among the whole crew. Queen Elizabeth having patronised Raleigh's design of settling a colony in Virginia, in April 1585 he despatched several fleets successively to that quarter; but the apprehensions of a Spanish invasion, in 1588, prevented the sailing of supplies, and retained sir Walter at home, who performed essential service in destroying the armada. In 1589, he sailed with Antonio of Portugal and the armament intended for his restoration; and on his return he brought Spenser, the poet, from Ireland, whom he introduced at court. About 1593, he married Elizabeth, the beautiful daughter of sir Nicholas Throgmorton, and one of the queen's maids of honour; and in 1594 his eldest son Walter was born.

After the death of queen Elizabeth, Raleigh was so far from being a favorite with her successor James I. that this prince left him exposed to all the machinations of his enemies. In November 1603, he was accused and tried at Winchester for having projected the advancement of lady Arabella Stuart to the crown: being found guilty, he remained in prison twelve years, as the court durst not proceed to execution. His final release was an act of gross dissimulation in James, who employed him in an expedition against the Spaniards, and afterwards discovered it to Gondemar, the Spanish ambassador. To effect his destruction, it was resolved to pass judgement upon him in pursuance of his conviction on the charge of a conspiracy fifteen years before! He was taken out of bed, labouring under a severe fit of the ague, and so brought to the bar of the Court of King's Bench, and the next day after he had received his sentence was beheaded, at the age of 60, in Old Palace Yard, Westminster; exhibiting on this occasion a degree of fortitude almost to indifference. His History of the World is to this day respected by the ablest critics. He also wrote several miscellaneous pieces in prose, chiefly political, and some poems, published collectively by Dr. Birch in 1751.

This illustrious man was at once a scholar, a statesman, a navigator, and a soldier; and his fate will long remain a blot upon the reign of the pedant under whom he suffered.

RAPHAEL.

THE divine Raphael, as this illustrious Italian painter is usually called, though his true Italian name is Raffaello Sanzio, was born at Urbino, on Good Friday, in the year 1483. His father, John Sanzio, being an indifferent painter, and equally sensible of his own deficiency and the promising talents of his son, placed him early under Pietro Perugino; and the able pupil, soon perceiving the full extent of his master's capacity, went to Sierra for farther improvement. From hence, while engaged to make the cartoons for the pictures of the library, he was tempted suddenly to visit Florence, by the fame of Michael Angelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Inspired by their works, and attached to the chaste designs of the ancient statues and bas-reliefs, he formed a style of his own, which rendered him one of the chief painters the world has ever known.

Being alike eminent as an architect, he was employed by pope Leo X. to build St. Peter's, at Rome, and lived in the greatest splendour imaginable. He had many scholars, and most of the eminent masters were ambitious of working under him. Such was his fame, that Cardinal Bibiano offered him his niece in marriage, and he is said to have engaged himself; but Leo X. having given him reason to expect a cardinal's hat, he contrived to delay the performance of his promise. It was for this pontiff that he made his celebrated series of thirteen large historical cartoons from the sacred writings, representing the origin and progress of the Christian religion, to be executed in tapestry, intended as an additional decoration for the hall of Constantine: seven of which are now in his majesty's palace of Hampton court; but the others were probably mutilated or lost, and the tapestries were dispersed by the French Vandals, in 1798, when they sacked the Vatican. Raphael's manners were peculiarly pleasing, and he was a very handsome man; but, immoderately addicted to licentious amours, his constitution was destroyed, and he was taken off in the flower of his age. He died on his birth-day, in 1520; and was buried, with great funeral pomp, in the church of the Rotunda, at Rome. In his will, after leaving to his mistress, called la Bella Fornarina, the daughter of a baker at Rome, sufficient to render her independent, he bequeathed the remainder of his property to a relation at Urbino, and two of his scholars, Julio Romano and Francisco Penni.

Raphael is said to have surpassed all modern painters, by possessing more excellences than any other; and it is thought by many, that he nearly equalled the best ancients. His naked figures possess not all the learning of Michael Angelo, and he falls short of that sublime master's grandeur and dignity of conception; but his design is more pleasing and pure. He painted not with so good, so full, and so graceful a manner, as Corregio; nor did he produce that charming contrast of light and shadow, or the inimitable strong and free colouring, which distinguish the works of Titian: but he had, beyond comparison, a better disposition in his pieces than either of those great men, or any that have succeeded them. His choice of attitudes, of heads, of ornaments; the suitableness of his draperies; his manner of designing; his varieties, his contrasts, his expression; formed the perfection of beauty and of grace.

Sir Joshua Reynolds has been denominated our British Raphael; and, though we see him fall short of the sweetest painter of the modern world, it is, perhaps, because he nobly dared to attempt a still higher flight, on the vigorous pinion of his darling Michael Angelo. "The general opinion," says Mr. Fuseli, "has placed Raphael at the head of his art; not because he possessed a decided superiority over every other painter, in every branch, but because no other artist ever arrived at uniting with his own peculiar excellence all the other parts of the art in an equal degree with him."