Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

she gives to all her children. The expectation of the vulgar, that they shall live again, and be just the same flesh and blood which now they are, is justifi able upon no principles of reason or nature. What is there in the whole compass of things which yields a similitude of dust and ashes rising up again into regular bodies, and to perpetual immortality? On the other side, that the intellectual soul should be the whole man, how justifiable soever it may be in other respects, yet it is not the common sense of nature, and therefore most certainly no part of natural religion.

But it may be worth enquiring, how nature comes to be thus defective in this material point. Did not God intend men originally for religious creatures; and, if he did, is it not reasonable to expect an original and consistent scheme of religion? which yet in the point now before us seems to be wanting, The account of this we cannot learn from reason or nature: but in the sacred history the fact is cleared beyond dispute.

*

Lastly, If we consider how our Saviour has enlightened this doctrine, it will appear that he has removed the difficulty at which nature stumbled. As death was no part of the state of nature, so the difficulties arising from it were not provided for in the religion of nature. To remove these was the proper work of revelation; these our Lord has effectually Hh

VOL. III.

**

*

cleared by his Gospel, and shewn us that the body may and shall be united to the spirit in the day of the Lord, so that the complete man shall stand before the great tribunal, to receive a just recompence of reward for the things done in the body. This has restored religion, which had hardly one sound foot to stand on, and made our faith and our reason consistent, which were before at too great a distance. Nature indeed taught us to hope for immortality; but it was in spite of sense and experience, till the great Prince of our peace appeared, who brought life and immortality to light through his Gospel,

DRYDEN.

JOHN DRYDEN, the celebrated poet, son of Erasmus Dryden, of Tichmersh in Northamptonshire, baronet, was born at Aldwinkle in that county, in 1631. He was educated at Westminster, where he was king's scholar, under the famous Dr. Busby; whence he was elected, in 1650, scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge.

In 1662, he was chosen fellow of the Royal Society; and on the death of sir William Davenant, in 1668, was made poet-laureat and historiographer to Charles II. Soon after the accession of James II. Dryden was converted to popery; in consequence of which, he was dismissed at the revolution from his office of poet-laureat. His life is so well known that it were

needless to add other particulars. He died

in 1701.

The prose works of Dryden were collected, in 1800, into four volumes octavo, by Mr. Malone, with notes and illustrations; to which is prefixed an account of the life and writings of the author. This publication contains also a collection of his letters, the greater part of which was never before published. It were superfluous to specify the several particulars in this collection. It is sufficient to observe, that the most valuable of the prose productions of Dryden, is his "Essay on Dramatic Poesy," from which alone I shall make my selections. This celebrated essay contains the relation of a dialogue, supposed to have taken place between Eugenius, Crites, Lisideius, and Neander, who, on occasion of the engagement between the English and Dutch fleets, June 3, 1665, about eight leagues to the east of Lowestoff in Suffolk, are represented to have taken a barge, and proceeded down the Thames towards Greenwich, that they may listen more attentively to the low and hollow murmurings, arising from the reports of the distant canon. When the noise had ceased, and they had congratulated each other by anticipation on the

victory of their country, the conversation began with Crites' expressing his apprehension, that they should now be inundated with a deluge of bad verses on that memorable occasion. After some desultory talking, the dispute is limited to dramatic poetry, when Lisideius* defines a play to be:

[ocr errors]

A just and lively image of human nature, representing its passions and humours, and the changes of fortune to which it is subject, for the delight and instruction of mankind."

I have room only for his admirable characters of our principal dramatists.

The characters in this dialogue allude to real personages, who are thus identified by Mr. Malone :-" The person hid under the feigned name of Eugenius, as we shall presently find, was Charles, earl of Dorset. Crites and Lisideius, perhaps, were meant to represent Wentworth, earl of Roscommon, (or as he corrects himself in a subsequent note, more probably sir Robert Howard) and John Sheffield, earl of Mulgrave, afterwards duke of Bucks and Normandy, under the character of Neander, who, in the latter part of this essay, appears as a strenuous advocate for rhyming tragedies; Our author himself, I conceive, is shadowed."

« ПредишнаНапред »