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    THE

    WORKS

    OF

    JOHN DRYDEN,

    NOW FIRST COLLECTED

    _IN EIGHTEEN VOLUMES_.

           *       *       *       *       *

    ILLUSTRATED

    WITH NOTES,

    HISTORICAL, CRITICAL, AND EXPLANATORY,

    AND

    A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,

    BY

    WALTER SCOTT, ESQ.

           *       *       *       *       *

    VOL. X.

    LONDON:
    PRINTED FOR WILLIAM MILLER, ALBEMARLE STREET,
    BY JAMES BALLANTYNE AND CO. EDINBURGH.

    1808.




CONTENTS

OF

VOLUME TENTH.


                                                                   PAGE.

    Religio Laici, or a Layman's Faith, an Epistle,                    1
    Preface,                                                          11

    Threnodia Augustalis, a Funeral Pindaric Poem, sacred
    to the happy Memory of King Charles II.                           53
    Notes,                                                            79

    The Hind and the Panther, a Poem, in Three Parts,                 85
    Preface,                                                         109
    Notes on Part I.                                                 139
    Part II.                                                         159
    Notes on Part II.                                                185
    Part III.                                                        195
    Notes on Part III.                                               240

    Britannia Rediviva, a Poem on the Birth of the
    Prince,                                                          283
    Notes,                                                           302

    Prologues and Epilogues,                                         309

    Mack-Flecknoe, a Satire against Thomas Shadwell,                 425
    Notes,                                                           441




RELIGIO LAICI:

OR,

A LAYMAN'S FAITH.

AN EPISTLE.

_Ornari res ipsa negat; contenta doceri._




ARGUMENT.

TAKEN FROM THE AUTHOR'S MARGINAL NOTES.


    Opinions of the several Sects of Philosophers concerning the
    _Summum bonum_.--System of Deism.--Of Revealed Religion.--Objection
    of the Deist.--Objection answered.--Digression to the Translator
    of Father Simon's Critical Edition of the Old Testament.--Of the
    Infallibility of Tradition in general.--Objection in behalf of
    Tradition, urged by Father Simon.--The Second Objection.--Answered.




RELIGIO LAICI.


The _Religio Laici_, according to Johnson, is almost the only work of
Dryden which can be considered as a voluntary effusion. I do not see
much ground for this assertion. Dryden was indeed obliged to write by
the necessity of his circumstances; but the choice of the mode in which
he was to labour was his own, as well in his Fables and other poems,
as in that which follows. Nay, upon examination, the _Religio Laici_
appears, in a great measure, a controversial, and almost a political
poem; and, being such, cannot be termed, with propriety, a voluntary
effusion, any more than "The Medal," or "Absalom and Achitophel."
It is evident, Dryden had his own times in consideration, and the
effect which the poem was likely to produce upon them. Religious
controversy had mingled deeply with the party politics of the reign
of Charles II. Divided, as the nation was, into the three great sects
of Churchmen, <DW7>s, and Dissenters, their several creeds were
examined by their antagonists with scrupulous malignity, and every
hint extracted from them which could be turned to the disadvantage of
those who professed them. To the Catholics, the dissenters objected
their cruel intolerance and jesuitical practices; to the church of
England, their servile dependence on the crown, and slavish doctrine
of non-resistance. The Catholics, on the other hand, charged the
reformed church of England with desertion from the original doctrines
of Christianity, with denying the infallibility of general councils,
and destroying the unity of the church; and against the fanatics,
they objected their anti-monarchical tenets, the wild visions of
their independent preachers, and their seditious cabals against the
church and state. While the church of England was thus assailed by
two foes, who did not at the same time spare each other, it probably
occurred to Dryden, that he, who could explain her tenets by a plain
and philosophical commentary, had a chance, not only of contributing
to fix and regulate the faith of her professors, but of reconciling to
her, as the middle course, the Catholics and the fanatics. The Duke
of York and the <DW7>s, on the one hand, were urging the king to the
most desperate measures; on the other, the popular faction were just
not in arms. The king, with the assistance and advice of Halifax, was
trimming his course betwixt these outrageous and furious torrents.
Whatever, therefore, at this important crisis, might act as a sedative
on the inflamed spirits of all parties, and encourage them to abide
with patience the events of futurity, was a main point in favour of
the crown. A rational and philosophical view of the tenets of the
national church, liberally expressed, and decorated with the ornaments
of poetry, seemed calculated to produce this effect; and as I have
no doubt, as well from the preface, as from passages in the poem,
that Dryden had such a purpose in view, I have ventured to place the
_Religio Laici_ among his historical and political poems.[1]

I would not, from what is above stated, be understood to mean, that
Dryden wrote this poem merely with a view to politics, and that he
was himself sceptical in the matters of which it treats.--On the
contrary, I have no doubt, that it