156 SIR PHILIP SIDNEY

pennies. Ho was no moan poet when ho Hang as
love dictated, lie had acquired and assimilated various
stores of knowledge. Ho possessed an exquisite and
original taste, a notable faculty for the marshalling of
arguments, and a persuasive eloquonee in exposition,
Theso qualities inevitably found their exercise in writing;
and of all Sidney's writings the ono with \vhich we have
to deal now, is the ripest.

Judging by the style alone, I should, be inclined to
place The Defence of J^HW/ among his later works, I hit wo
have no certain grounds for fixing the year of its com-
position. Probably the commonly accepted date of lf>81
is the right one. In the year 1579 Stephen Uosson
dedicated to Sidney, without asking his permission, an
invoctivo against "poets, pipoi'H, players, and their ox-
cusers," which ho called The >SWW of Ahuw. Spenser
observes that Uosson "was for his labour scorned ; if at
least it Ho in the goodness of that nature to scorn. Such
folly is it not to regard aforohand the nature and quality
of him. to whom wo dedicate our books." It in possible
therefore that 7Vw? tirlwnl uf //few and other treatises
emanating from Puritan hostility to culture, Hiiggtwted
• this Apology. Sidney rated poetry highest among the
functions of the human intellect. His name hud been
used to give authority and currency to a clever attack
upon poets* Jle felt the weight of argument to be
OH his side, and was conscious of his ability to conduct
tho cause. With what serenity of spirit, «weetnws of
temper, humour, and easy strength of Ktylo at one time
soaring to enthusiasm, at another playing with hit* MU|>
joct, * he performed tho task, can only be appreciated
by a close perusal of the ««Ha,y. It* in indeed the modelshe comes! Go to,rs«year. I never had since the