to have hated him, and has taken every opportunity of depreciating him. "I do affirm (says he, in the Dedication of THE TALE OF A TUB, to Prince Posterity,) upon the word of a sincere man, that there is now actually in being a certain poet called John Dryden, whose translation of Virgil was lately printed in a large folio well-bound, and if diligent search were made, for aught I know, is yet to be seen." In his BATTLE OF THE BOOKS, he again speaks of this translation with equal contempt; and in his RHAPSODY ON POETRY, thus undervalues Dryden's critical labours:

"Put on the Critick's brow, and sit
"At Will's, the puny judge of wit.
"Learn Aristotle's rules by rote,
"And at all hazards boldly quote.
"Judicious Rymer oft review,
"Wise Dennis, and profound Bossu.
"Read all the Prefaces of Dryden,♦
"For these our criticks much confide in;
"Though merely writ, at first, for filling,
"To raise the volume's price a shilling."

torney.) was called, Dryden Swift, in honour of his mother; a circumstance which confirms the tradition concerning the relationship between these two celebrated

men.

Swift, in one of his letters, calls Dryden his near relation; but in the last age, a greater account was made of consanguinity than at present. A second or third cousin. was then considered a near relation.

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Dr. Johnson says, Swift, who conversed with Dryden, relates, that he regretted the success of his own

However pleasant and useful it may be to live sometimes with the laughers, we must not greatly rely on them for accuracy of statement; for if they can but produce a lively representation, they are not always nicely scrupulous concerning truth. The greater part of Dryden's Prefaces are prefixed to his plays, which were sold at the stated price of all other plays, and did not produce to the author any additional emolument in consequence of a prefatory appendage: nor would his Virgil, I believe, have brought him one shilling the less, though it had been given to the world without

instructions, and found his readers made suddenly too skilful to be easily satisfied." The word relates seems to refer to some passage in Swift's printed works; but I have in vain sought for any such observation in his very miscellaneous volumes. That Dryden regretted the success of his instructions, not in any of his printed pieces, but in conversation with Swift, was certainly Dr. Johnson's notion, by his adding-" who conversed with Dryden."— In the Preface, however, to ALBION AND ALBANIUS, vol. ii. p. 162, we have a sentiment somewhat similar; for he says, he will not lay down the rules for writing an Opera, lest he should thus "set up some little judges, who, not understanding thoroughly, would be sure to fall upon the faults, and not to acknowledge any of the beauties; an hard measure, which I have often found from false criticks." Again, in the Preface to ŒDIPUS:

"But we have given you more than was necessary for a Preface; and, for aught we know, may gain no more by bur instructions than that politick nation is like to do, who have taught their enemies to fight so long, that at last they are in a condition to invade them."

either Preface or Dedication of any kind. The origin of all this malignity was, Swift's having submitted to Dryden, for his perusal and judgment, (probably about the year 1692,) a parcel of Pindarick Odes, which the old bard returned some time afterwards, saying, "Cousin Swift, you will never be a poet. Three of these Odes have since been published, and are such miserable perform

Deane Swift's Essay on the Life of Swift, p. 117; and Johnson, in his Life of Dryden. He probably communicated this anecdote to his amanuensis, Shiels, who introduced it (from authentick information) in the account of Swift, inserted in Cibber's LIVES OF THE POETS, previous to the appearance of Deane Swift's Essay.

"An Ode to Sir William Temple, written in 1689; 'an Ode to King William, on his going to Ireland; and an Ode to the Athenian Society, written in 1691. The first and last of these Odes are inserted in the common editions of Swift's works; but the second long remained sheltered in Dunton's ATHENIAN ORACLE, (selected from a larger work, and published in three volumes, 8vo.) from which it has been reprinted in a book entitled LITERARY RELICKS, by G. M. Berkeley, Esq. 8vo. 1789.

It is curious to observe the different aspects under which celebrated men appear at different periods of their lives. John Dunton, the original projector of the Athenian Society, in his LIFE AND ERROURS, 8vo. 1705, giving a list of the authors of that day, with whom he had dealings, thus characterizes the celebrated writer of these Odes:

"Mr. Swift, a country gentleman, sent an Ode to the Athenian Society, which, being an ingenious poem, was prefixed to the fifth Supplement of the ATHENIAN MERCURY."

ances, that they fully justify the judgment which Dryden then formed of his kinsman. I may add, that it is not surprising that Dryden's declaration, -while he was struggling with want and oppressed by sickness, that "he thanked GoD that he possessed his soul in patience," should be sneered at by him, the greater part of whose life was embittered by disappointed ambition, and who has himself told us, that in the grave alone he expected freedom from the exacerbations of anger and disgust, which for a long series of years had lacerated his bosom.

A more heavy charge than this of Swift has been made against our author's Dedications in general. "Of dramatick immorality," says Dr. Johnson, "he did not want examples among his predecessors, or companions among his contemporaries; but in the meanness and servility of hyperbolical adulation, I know not whether, since the days in which the Roman Emperours were deified, he has been ever equalled, except by Afra Behn in an address to Eleanor Gwyn. When once he has undertaken. the task of praise, he no longer retains shame in himself, nor supposes it in his patron. As many odoriferous bodies are observed to diffuse perfumes from year to year, without sensible diminution of bulk or weight, he appears never to have impoverished his mint of flattery by his expences, however lavish. He had all the forms of excellence, intellectual and moral, combined in his mind, with endless variation; and when he had scattered on the

hero of the day the golden shower of wit and virtue, he had ready for him whom he wished to court on the morrow, new wit and virtue with another stamp. Of this kind of meanness he never seems to decline the practice, or lament the necessity: he considers the great as entitled to encomiastick homage, and brings praise rather as a tribute than a gift, more delighted with the fertility of his invention than mortified by the prostitution of his judgment."

In this animated passage, that noble spirit of independence for which this great writer was all his life distinguished, is eminently conspicuous. Actuated by these sentiments, he never dedicated any work, except the Plan of his Dictionary, which was addressed to Lord Chesterfield. But the matter has been stated far more unfavourably for Dryden, than the history of the period during which he wrote will justify. The encomiastick language which is sometimes found in his Dedications, was the vice of the time, not of the man. The

7

Butler, with his usual vivacity, thus accounts for the first introduction of Dedications of books:

"A modern critick (he observes) censures in gross, and condemns all, without examining particulars.-If they will not confess and accuse themselves, he will rack them, until they do. He is a Committee-man in the com. monwealth of letters, and as great a tyrant; so is not bound to proceed but by his own rules, which he will not endure to be disputed. He has been an apocryphal scribbler himself; but his writings wanting authority, hẹ