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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 expresses, without disguise or
reservation, what was then the author's serious and firm, though, as
it unfortunately proved, not his unalterable religious opinion. The
remarkable line in the "Hind and Panther," seems to refer to the state
of his mind at this period; and this system of divinity was among the
"new sparkles which his pride had struck forth," after he had abandoned
the fanatical doctrines in which he was doubtless educated.[2] It is
therefore probable, that, having formed for himself, on grounds which
seemed to warrant it, a rational exposition of the national creed,
he was willing to communicate it to the public at a period, when
moderation of religious zeal was so essentially necessary to the repose
of the nation.

Considered in this point of view, the _Religio Laici_ is one of the
most admirable poems in the language. The argumentative part is
conducted with singular skill, upon those topics which occasioned the
principal animosity between the religious sects; and the deductions
are drawn in favour of the church of England with so much apparent
impartiality, that those who could not assent, had at least no title
to be angry. The opinions of the various classes of free-thinkers
are combated by an appeal to those feelings of the human mind, which
always acknowledge an offended Deity, and to the various modes in
which all ages and nations have shewn their sense of the necessity
of an atonement by sacrifice and penance. Dryden, however, differs
from most philosophers, who suppose this consciousness of guilt to be
originally implanted in our bosoms: he, somewhat fantastically, argues,
as if it were some remnants of the original faith revealed to Noah,
and preserved by the posterity of Shem. The inadequacy of sacrifices
and oblations, when compared with the crimes of those by whom they are
made, and with the grandeur of the omnipotent Being, to whom they are
offered, paves the way for the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ,
the fundamental doctrine of the Christian religion. The fitness of
this vicarious sacrifice to accomplish the redemption of man, and
vindicate the justice and mercy of God; the obvious impossibility that
the writings, or authors, by which it has been conveyed to us, should
be less than inspired; the progress of the Christian faith itself,
though militating against the corrupt dispositions of humanity, and
graced with none of those attractions by which Mahomet, and other
false prophets, bribed their followers, are then successively urged
as evidences of the Christian religion. The poet then recurs to an
objection, at which he had hinted in his preface. If the Christian
religion is necessary to salvation, why is it not extended to all
nations of the earth? And suppose we grant that the circumstance of
the revealed religion having been formerly preached and embraced in
great part of the world where it is now unknown, shall be sufficient
to subject those regions to be judged by its laws, what is to become
of the generations who have lived before the coming of the Messiah?
what of the inhabitants of those countries on which the beams of the
gospel have never shone? To these doubts, I hope most Christians will
think our author returns a liberal, and not a presumptuous answer,
in supposing that the heathen will be judged according to the light
which it has pleased God to afford them; and that, infinitely less
fortunate than us in the extent of their spiritual knowledge, they will
only be called upon to answer for their conformity with the dictates
of their own conscience. The authority of St Athanasius our author
here sets aside, either because in the ardour of his dispute with
Arius he carried his doctrine too far, or because his creed only has
reference to the decision of a doctrinal question in the Christian
church; and the anathema annexed applies not to the heathen world,
but to those, who, having heard the orthodox faith preached, have
wilfully chosen the heresy. Dryden next takes under review the work
of Father Simon; and, after an eulogy on the author and translator,
pronounces, that the former was not a bigotted Catholic, since he
did not hesitate to challenge some of the traditions of the church
of Rome. To these traditions, these "brushwood helps," with which
the Catholics endeavoured to fence the doctrines of their church,
our author proceeds, and throws them aside as liable to error and
corruption. The pretensions of the church of Rome, by her pope and
general councils, infallibly to determine the authenticity of church
tradition, is the next proposition. To this the poet answers, that
if they possess infallibility at all, it ought to go the length of
restoring the canon, or correcting the corrupt copies of scripture; a
reply which seems to concede to the Romans; as, without denying the
grounds of their claim, it only asserts, that it is not sufficiently
extended. Upon, the ground, however, that the plea of infallibility, by
which the poet is obviously somewhat embarrassed, must be dismissed,
as proving too much, the holy scriptures are referred to as the sole
rule of faith; admitting such explanations as the church of England
has given to the contested doctrines of Christianity. The unlettered
Christian, we are told, does well to pursue, in simplicity, his path to
heaven; the learned divine is to study well the sacred scriptures, with
such assistance as the most early traditions of the church, especially
those which are written, may, in doubtful points, afford him. It is in
this argument chiefly, that there may be traced a sort of vacillation
and uncertainty in our author's opinion, boding what afterwards took
place--his acquiescence in the church authority of Rome. Nevertheless,
having vaguely pronounced, that some traditions are to be received,
and others rejected, he gives his opinion against the Roman see, which
dictated to the laity the explications of doctrine as adopted by the
church, and prohibited them to form their own opinion upon the text,
or even to peruse the sacred volume which contains it. This Dryden
contrasts with the opposite evil, of vulgar enthusiasts debasing
scripture by their own absurd commentaries, and dividing into as many
sects, as there are wayward opinions formed upon speculative doctrine.
He concludes, that both extremes are to be avoided; that saving faith
does not depend on nice disquisitions; yet, if inquisitive minds are
hurried into such, the scripture, and the commentary of the fathers,
are their only safe guides:

    And after hearing what our church can say,
    If still our reason runs another way,
    That private reason 'tis more just to curb,
    Than by disputes the public peace disturb;
    For points obscure are of small use to learn,
    But common quiet is mankind's concern.

In considering Dryden's creed thus analyzed, I think it will appear,
that the author, though still holding the doctrines of the church
of England, had been biassed, in the course of his enquiry, by those
of Rome. His wish for the possibility of an infallible guide,[3]
expressed with almost indecent ardour, the difficulty, nay, it would
seem, in his estimation, almost the impossibility, of discriminating
between corrupted and authentic traditions, while the necessity of the
latter to the interpretation of scripture is plainly admitted, appear,
upon the whole, to have left the poet's mind in an unpleasing state
of doubt, from which he rather escapes than is relieved. He who only
acquiesces in the doctrines of his church, because the exercise of his
private judgement may disturb the tranquillity of the state, can hardly
be said to be in a state to give a reason for the faith that is in him.

The doctrine of the _Religio Laici_ is admirably adapted to
the subject: though treating of the most abstruse doctrines of
Christianity, it is as clear and perspicuous as the most humble prose,
while it has all the elegance and effect which argument is capable
of receiving from poetry. Johnson, usually sufficiently niggard of
praise, has allowed, that this "is a composition of great excellence
in its kind, in which the familiar is very properly diversified with
the solemn, and the grave with the humorous; in which metre has
neither weakened the force, nor clouded the perspicuity of argument;
nor will it be easy to find another example, equally happy, of this
middle kind of writing, which, though prosaic in some parts, rises to
high poetry in others, and neither towers to the skies, nor creeps
along the ground."[4] I cannot help remarking, that the style of the
_Religio Laici