ing church authority, I was obliged to make as plain and perfpicuous as poffibly I could, yet not wholly neglecting the numbers, though I had not frequent occafion for the magnificence of verfe. The third, which has more of the nature of domeftic converfation, is, or ought to be, more free and familiar than the two former. There are in it two episodes, or fables, which are interwoven with the main defign; fo that they are properly parts of it, though they are alfo diftinct ftories of themfelves, In both of these I have made use of the common places of fatire, whether true or falfe, which are urged by the members of one church against the other."

Mr. Dryden fpeaks of his own converfion in the following terms:

But, gracious God, how well doft thou provide,

For erring judgments an unerring guide;
Thy throne is darkness, in th' abyfs of light;
A blaze of glory that forbids the fight.

Oh! teach me to believe thee thus concealed,
And fearch no further than thyfelf revealed;
But her alone for my director take
Whom thou haft promis'd never to forfake!
My thoughtless youth was wing'd with vain
defires;

My manhood, long mifled by wand'ring

fires,

Follow'd

Follow'd falfe lights; and when their glimpse

was gone,

My pride ftruck out new sparkles of her own. Such was I, fuch by nature ftill I am,

Be thine the glory, and be mine the fhame; Good life be now my tafk, my doubts are done *.

This poem was attacked by Mr. Charles Montague, afterwards earl of Hallifax, and Mr. Matthew Prior, who joined in writing the Hind and Panther, tranfverfed to the Country Mouse, and City Moufe, Lond. 1678, 4to. In the preface to which, the author obferves, That Mr. Dryden's poem naturally falls into ridicule; and, that, in this burlesque, nothing is reprefented monstrous and unnatu ral, that is not equally fo in the original. They afterwards remark, That they have this comfort under the feverity of Mr. Dryden's fatire, to see his abilities equally leffened with his opinion of them; and that he could not be a fit champion against the Panther till he had laid afide his judgment.

Mr. Dryden is fuppofed to have been engaged in tranflating M. Varillas's Hiftory of Herefies, but to have dropped that defign. This we learn from a paffage in Burnet's reflections on the ninth book of the firft volume of M. Varillas's Hiftory, being a reply to his anfwer.

Original Poems.

I fhalt

I fhall here give the picture the doctor has drawn of this noble poet; which is, like a great many of the doctor's other characters,. rather exhibited to please himself, than according to the true refemblance. The doctor

fays,

I have been informed from England, that a gentleman, who is famous both for poetry and several other things, has spent threemonths in tranflating M. Varillas's Hiftory; but, as foon as my reflections appeared, he difcontinued his labours, finding the credit of his author being gone. Now, if he thinks it is recovered by his anfwer, he will, perhaps, go on with his tranflation; but this may be, for ought I know, as good an entertainment for him, as the converfation he has fet on foot between the Hinds and Panthers, and all the reft of the animals, for whom M. Varillasmay ferve well enough as an author; and this history, and that poem, are fuch extraordinary things of their kind, that it will be but fuitable to fee the author of the worst poem become the tranflator of the worst history that the age has produced. If his grace and his wit improve fo proportionably, we shall hardly find, that he has gained much by the change he has made, from having no religion, to chufe one of the worft. It is true he had fomewhat to fink from in matter of wit; but, as for his morals, it is fcarce poffible for him to grow a worfe man than he was. He has

lately

lately wreaked his malice on me for spoiling his three months labour; but in it he has done me all the honour a man can receive from him; which is, to be railed at by him. If I had ill-nature enough to prompt me to with a very bad wifh for him, it should be, that he would go and finish his tranflation. By that it will appear whether the English nation, which is the most competent judge of this matter, has, upon feeing this debate, pronounced in M. Varillas's favour or me. It is true, Mr. Dryden will fuffer a little by it; but, at least, it will ferve to keep him in from other extravagancies; and, if he gains little honour by this work, yet he cannot lofe fo much by it as he has done by his last employ

ment.

When the revolution was compleated. Mr. Dryden having turned papift, became difqualified for holding his place, and was accordingly difpoffeffed of it; and it was conferred

on a man to whom he had a confirmed averfion. In confequence whereof he wrote a fatire against him, called Mac Flecknoe; which is one of the feverest and best written satires in our language.

Mr. Richard Flecknoe, the new laureat, with whofe name it is inscribed, was a very indifferent poet of thofe times; or, rather, as Mr. Dryden expreffes it,

In profe and verfe was own'd, without dif

pute,

Thro' all the realms of nonfense, absolute.

refuge of notorious blockheads, reduced to the last extremity of fenfe, turn my own lines againft me; and, in utter defpair of my own fatire, make me fatirize myself."

The whole poem is a fevere invective against the earl of Shaftfbury, who was uncle to that earl who wrote the Characteristics. Mr. Elkanah Settle wrote an answer to this poem, entitled the Medal Reversed. However contemptible Settle was as a poet, yet fuch was the prevalence of parties at that time, that, for fome years, he was Dryden's rival on the stage.

In 1682, came out his Religio Laici, or a Layman's Faith. This piece is intended as a defence of revealed religion, and the excellency and authority of the fcriptures, as the only rule of faith and manners, against Deifts, Papifts, and Prefbyterians. He acquaints us, in the preface, that it was written for an ingenious young gentleman, his friend, upon his tranflation of Father Simons's Critical Hiftory of the Old Testament, and that the ftyle of it was epiftolary.

.

In 1684, he published a tranflation of M. Maimbourg's Hiftory of the League, in which he was employed by the command of king Charles II. on account of the plain parallel between the troubles of France and thofe of Great Britain. Upon the death of Charles II. he wrote his Threnodia Auguftalis, a poem, facred to the happy memory of that prince. Soon after the acceffion of James II. our au