The truth is, the greatest geniuses of the age of James I. were as deeply concerned in these investigations as his Majesty.  Had the great Verulam emancipated himself from all the dreams of his age?  He speaks indeed cautiously of witchcraft, but does not deny its occult agency; and of astrology he is rather for the improvement than the rejection.  The bold spirit of Rawleigh contended with the superstitions of the times; but how feeble is the contest where we fear to strike!  Even Rawleigh is prodigal of his praise to James for the king’s chapter on magic.  The great mind of Rawleigh perceived how much men are formed and changed by education; but, were this principle admitted to its extent, the stars would lose their influence!  In pleading for the free agency of man, he would escape from the pernicious tendency of predestination, or the astral influence, which yet he allows.  To extricate himself from the dilemma, he invents an analogical reasoning of a royal power of dispensing with the laws in extreme cases; so that, though he does not deny “the binding of the stars,” he declares they are controllable by the will of the Creator.  In this manner, fettered by prevalent opinions, he satisfies the superstitions of an astrological age, and the penetration of his own genius.  At a much later period Dr Henry More, a writer of genius, confirmed the ghost and demon creed, by a number of facts, as marvellously pleasant as any his own poetical fancy could have invented.  Other great authors have not less distinguished themselves.  When has there appeared a single genius who at once could free himself of the traditional prejudices of his contemporaries—­nay, of his own party?  Genius, in its advancement beyond the intelligence of its own age, is but progressive; it is fancifully said to soar, but it only climbs.  Yet the minds of some authors of this age are often discovered to be superior to their work; because the mind is impelled by its own inherent powers, but the work usually originates in the age.  James I, once acutely observed, how “the author may be wise, but the work foolish.”

Thus minds of a higher rank than our royal author had not yet cleared themselves out of these clouds of popular prejudices.  We now proceed to more decisive results of the superior capacity of this much ill-used monarch.

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THE HABITS OF JAMES THE FIRST THOSE OF A MAN OF LETTERS.

The habits of life of this monarch were those of a man of letters.  His first studies were soothed by none of their enticements.  If James loved literature, it was for itself; for Buchanan did not tinge the rim of the vase with honey; and the bitterness was tasted not only in the draught, but also in the rod.  In some princes, the harsh discipline James passed through has raised a strong aversion against literature.  The Dauphin, for whose use was formed the well-known edition of the classics, looked on the