His literature, though not always free from oftentation, will be commonly found either obvious, and made his own by the art of dreffing it; or fuperficial, which, by what he gives, fhews what he wanted; or erroneous, haftily collected, and negligently scat

tered.

Yet it cannot be faid that his genius is ever unprovided of matter, or that his fancy languishes in penury of ideas. His works abound with knowledge, and sparkle with illuftrations. There is fcarcely any science. or faculty that does not fupply him with occafional images and lucky fimilitudes; every page difcovers a mind very widely acquainted both with art and nature, and in full poffeffion of great stores of intellectual wealth. Of him that knows much, it is natural to suppose that he has read with diligence; yet I rather believe that the knowledge of Dryden was gleaned from ac cidental intelligence and various converfation, by a quick apprehenfion, a a judicious felection, and a happy memory, a keen appetite of knowledge, and a powerful digestion; by vigilance that permitted nothing to

pafs without notice, and a habit of reflection that suffered nothing useful to be lost. A mind like Dryden's, always curious, always active, to which every understanding was proud to be affociated, and of which every one folicited the regard, by an ambitious. display of himself, had a more pleasant, perhaps a nearer way, to knowledge than by the filent progress of solitary reading. I do not suppose that he despised books, or intentionally neglected them; but that he was carried out, by the impetuofity of his genius, to more vivid and speedy inftructors; and that his studies were rather defultory and fortuitous than conftant and fyftematical.

It must be confeffed that he scarcely ever appears to want book-learning but when he mentions books; and to him may be tranfferred the praise which he gives his master Charles.

His converfation, wit, and parts,

His knowledge in the noblest useful arts,
Were fuch, dead authors could not give,
But habitudes of thofe that live;

Who, lighting him, did greater lights receive:
He drain'd from all, and all they knew,
His apprehenfion quick, his judgement true:
VOL. II.

That

That the most learn'd with fhame confefs His knowledge more, his reading only lefs.

Of all this, however, if the proof be demanded, I will not undertake to give it; the atoms of probability, of which my opinion has been formed, lie fcattered over all his works; and by him who thinks the question worth his notice, his works must be perused with very close attention.

Criticifm, either didactick or defenfive, occupies almost all his profe, except those pages which he has devoted to his patrons; but none of his prefaces were ever thought tedious. They have not the formality of a settled ftyle, in which the first half of the fentence betrays the other. The claufes are never balanced, nor the periods modelled; every word feems to drop by chance, though it falls into its proper place. Nothing is cold or languid; the whole is airy, animated, and vigorous; what is little, is gay; what is great, is fplendid. He may be thought to mention himself too frequently; but while he forces himself upon our esteem, we cannot refufe him to ftand high in his own. Every thing is excufed by the play of images

and

and the spritelinefs of expreffion. Though all is easy, nothing is feeble; though all seems careless, there is nothing harsh; and though, fince his carlier works, more than a century has paffed, they have nothing yet uncouth or obsolete.

He who writes much, will not eafily escape a manner, such a recurrence of particular modes as may be eafily noted. Dryden is always another and the fame, he does not exhibit a fecond time the fame elegances in the fame form, nor appears to have any art other than that of expreffing with clearness what he thinks with vigour. His ftyle could not easily be imitated, either ferioufly or ludicrously; for, being always equable and always varied, it has no prominent or difcriminative characters. The beauty who is totally free from difproportion of parts and features, cannot be ridiculed by an overcharged resemblance.

From his profe, however, Dryden derives only his accidental and fecondary praise; the veneration with which his name is pronounced by every cultivator of English literature, is paid to him as he refined the lanI 2 guage,

guage, improved the fentiments, and tuned the numbers of English Poetry.

After about half a century of forced thoughts, and rugged metre, fome advances towards nature and harmony had been already made by Waller and Denham; they had fhewn that long difcourfes in rhyme grew more pleafing when they were broken into couplets, and that verfe confifted not only in the number but the arrangement of fyllables.

But though they did much, who can deny that they left much to do? Their works were not many, nor were their minds of very ample comprehenfion. More examples of more modes of compofition were neceffary for the establishment of regularity, and the introduction of propriety in word and thought.

Every language of a learned nation neceffarily divides itself into diction scholastick and popular, grave and familiar, elegant and grofs; and from a nice distinction of these different parts, arifes a great part of the beauty of ftyle. But if we except a few minds,

the