This, in short, is the classical style, and this is the style of Dryden. He develops, defines, concludes; he declares his thought, then takes it up again, that his reader may receive it prepared, and, having received, may retain it. He bounds it with exact terms justified by the dictionary, with simple constructions justified by grammar, that the reader may have at every step a method of verification and a source of clearness. He contrasts ideas with ideas, phrases with phrases, so that the reader, guided by the contrast, may not deviate from the route marked out for him. You may imagine the possible beauty of such a work. This poesy is but a stronger prose. Closer ideas, more marked contrasts, bolder images, only add weight to the argument. Metre and rhyme transform the judg ments into sentences. The mind, held on the stretch by the rhythm, studies itself more, and by means of reflection arrives at a noble conclusion. The judgments are enshrined in abbreviative images or symmetrical lines, which give them the solidity and popular form of a dogma. General truths acquire the definite form which transmits them to posterity and propagates them in the human race. Such is the merit of these poems: they please by their good expressions. In a full and solid web stand out. cleverly-connected or sparkling threads. Here Dryden has gathered in one line a long argument; here a happy metaphor has opened up a new perspective under the principal idea; further on, two similar words united together have struck the mind with an unforeseen and cogent proof; elsewhere a hidden comparison has thrown a tinge of glory or shame on the person who least expected it. These are all artifices or successes of a calculated style, which chain the attention and leave the mind persuaded or convinced.-H. A. TAINE.

VERSIFICATION.

Waller was smooth; but Dryden taught to join
The varying verse, the full resounding line,

The long majestic march, and energy divine.

ALEXANDER POPE.

Dryden knew how to choose the flowing and the sonorous words; to vary the pauses and adjust the accents; to diversify the cadence and yet preserve the smoothness of his metre. Of triplets and Alexandrines, though he did not introduce the use, he established it.... The rhymes of Dryden are commonly just, and he valued himself for his readiness in finding them; but he is sometimes open. to objection. It is the common practice of our poets to end the second line with a weak or grave syllable

"Together o'er the Alps methinks we fly,

Fill'd with ideas of fair Italy."

Dryden sometimes puts the weak rhyme in the first-
"Laugh all the powers that favor tyranny,
And all the standing army of the sky."

Sometimes he concludes a period or paragraph with the first line of a couplet, which, though the French seem to do it without irregularity, always displeases in English poetry. The Alexandrine, though much his favorite, is not always very diligently fabricated by him. It invariably requires a break at the sixth syllable-a rule which the modern French poets never violate, but which Dryden sometimes neglected

"And with paternal thunder vindicates his throne."

-DR. JOHNSON.

But see where artful Dryden next appears,
Grown old in rhyme, but charming ev'n in years.
Great Dryden next, whose tuneful muse affords

The sweetest numbers and the fittest words.

Whether in comic sounds or tragic airs

She forms her voice, she moves our smiles or tears.

If satire or heroic strains she writes,

Her hero pleases and her satire bites.

From her no harsh unartful numbers fall,

She wears all dresses and she charms in all.-ADDISON.

His versification and his numbers he could learn of nobody, for he first possessed those talents in perfection in our tongue, and they who have best succeeded in them

since his time have been indebted to his example; and the more they have been able to imitate him, the better they have succeeded.-WILLIAM CONGREVE.

Dryden's versification I take to be the most musical that has yet appeared in rhyme: round, sweet, pompous, spirited, and various, it flows with such a happy volubility. such an animated and masterly negligence, as I am afraid will not soon be excelled. From the fineness of his ear, his prose, too, is perhaps the sweetest, the most mellow and sonorous, that the English language has yet produced. -ARMSTRONG: Essays.

[For Parallel between Pope and Dryden, see Pope.]

VII.

CLASSICAL AGE OF POPE, ADDISON,

AND SWIFT.

A.D. 1700-1745.

EXALTATION OF FORM OVER MATTER.

CULMINATION OF CLASSICAL POETRY UNDER ALEXANDER

POPE.

CREATION OF THE PERIODICAL ESSAY BY JOSEPH ADDISON AND SIR RICHARD STEELE.

ENTRANCE OF LITERATURE INTO THE SPHERE OF POLITICS.-JONATHAN SWIFT.

PREVALENCE OF ENGLISH DEISM.

DAWN OF ROMANTIC POETRY IN THOMSON'S "SEASONS." COMMENCEMENT OF ENGLISH INFLUENCE ON CONTINENTAL LIFE AND LITERATURE.