66 may assure yourselves of a clear victory without the "least reply. Rail at me abundantly, and not break "a custom to do it with wit." By this method you will "gain a considerable point, which is wholly to wave "the answer of my arguments. If God has not bles"sed you with the talent of rhyming, make use of 86 my poor stock, and welcome; let your verses run 86 upon my feet, and for the utmost refuge of notori"ous blockheads, reduced to the last extremity of 66 sense, turn my own lines against me, and, in utter "despair of my own satire, make me satirize myself." The whole poem is a severe invective against the Earl of Shaftsbury, who was uncle to that Earl who wrote the Characteristics. Mr. Elkanah Settle wrote an an❤ swer to this poem, entitled The Medal Reversed. However contemptible Settle was as a poet, yet such was the prevalence of parties at that time, that, for some 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 Scriptures, as the only rule of faith and manners, against Deists, Papists, and Presbyterians. He acquaints us in the preface, that it was written for an ingenious young gentleman, his friend, upon his translation of Father Simon's Critical His ory of the Old Testament, and that the style of it was epistolary.

In 1684 he published a translation of M. Maim

bourg's History of the League, in which he was employed by the command of King Charles II. on ac count of the plain parallel between the troubles of France and those of Great Britain. Upon the death of Charles II. he wrote his Threnodia Augustalis, a poem, sacred to the happy memory of that prince. Soon after the accession of James II. our Author turned Roman Catholic, and by this extraordinary step drew upon himself abundance of ridicule from wits of the opposite faction; and in 1689 he wrote a Defence of the Papers written by the late King of blessed memory, found in his strong box. Mr. D. yden, in the above mentioned piece, takes occasion to vindicate the authority of the Catholic Church, in decreeing matters of faith upon this principle, that the church is more visible than the Scriptures, because the Scriptures are seen by the church; and to abuse the Refor mation in England, which he affirms was erected on the foundation of lust, sacrilege, and usurpation. Dr. Stillingfleet hereupon answered Mr. Dryden, and treated him with some severity. Another author affi ms, that Mr. Dryden's tract is very light, in some places ridiculous; and observes, that his talent lay towards controversy no more in prose, than, by the Hind and Panther, it appeared to do in verse. This poem of the Hind and Panther is a direct defence of the Romish Church, in a dialogue between a Hind, which represents the Church of Rome, and a Pan

ther, which supports the character of the Church of England. The first part of this poem consists most in general characters and narration, "which" says he, "I have endeavoured to raise, and give it the majestie "turn of heroic poetry. The second, being matter of "dispute, and chiefly concerning church authority, "I was obliged to make as plain and perspicuous as "possibly I could, yet not wholly neglecting the "numbers, though I had not frequent occasion for "the magnificence of verse. The third, which has

"more of the nature of domestic conversation, 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 design, so that "they are properly parts of it, though they are also "distinct stories of themselves. In both of these I "have made use of the common places of satire, "whether true or false, which are urged by the mem"bers of the one church against the other."

This poem was attacked by Mr. Charles Montague, afterwards Earl of Hallifax, and Mr. Matthew Prior, who joined in writing the Hind and Panther, transversed to the Country Mouse and CityMouse, Lond. 1678, 4to. In the preface to which the authors observe, "that Mr. Dryden's poem naturally falls into "ridicule; and that in this burlesque nothing is re"prefented monstrous and unnatural that is not equally so in the original." They afterwards re

mark, that they have this comfort under the severity of Mr. Dryden's satire, to see his abilities equally lessened with his opinion of them, and that he could not be a fit champion against the Panther till he had laid aside his judgment.

Mr. Dryden is supposed to have been engaged in translating M. Varillas's History of Heresies, but to have dropped that design. This we learn from a pas. sage in Burnet's Reflections on the ninth book of the first volume of M. Varillas's History, being a reply to his answer.

When the Revolution was completed, Mr. Dryden, having turned Papist, became disqualified for holding his place, and was accordingly dispossessed of it; and it was conferred on a man to whom he had a confirmed aversion; in consequence whereof he wrote a satire against him, called Mac Fleckno, which is one of the severest and best-written satires in our language.

In the year wherein he was deprived of the Laurel he published the life of St. Francis Xavier, translated from the French of Father Dominic Bouhours. In 1693 came out a translation of Juvenal and Persius; in which the first, third, sixth, tenth, and sixteenth satires of Juvenal, and Persius entire, were done by Mr. Dryden, who prefixed a long and ingenious discourse, by way of dedication, to the Earl of Dorset. In this address our Author takes occasion a while to drop his reflections on Juvenal, and to lay before his

Lordship a plan for an epic poem. He observes, that his genius never much inclined him to the stage, and that he wrote for it rather from necessity than inclination. He complains that his circumstances are such as not to suffer him to pursue the bent of his own genius, and then lays down a plan upon which an epic poem might be written: to which, says he, I am more inclined. Whether the plan proposed is faulty or no, we are not at present to consider; one thing is certain, a man of Mr. Dryden's genius would have covered, by the rapidity of the action, the art of the design, and the beauty of the poetry, whatever might have been defective in the plan, and produced a work which might have been the boast of the nation; and we cannot help regretting on this occasion, that Dryden's fortune was not easy enough to enable him, with convenience and leisure, to pursue a work that might have proved an honour to himself, and reflected a portion thereof on all who should have appeared his encouragers on this occasion.

In 1695 Mr. Dryden published a translation in prose of Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting, with a preface containing a parallel between painting and poetry; and Mr. Pope has addressed a copy of verses to Mr. Jervas in prasie of this translation. In 1697 his translation of Virgil's works came out. This translation has passed through many editions, and, of all the attempts which have been made to render Virgil into English,