were generally treatises on various departments of poetry, or critical essays on the characters of poets, Dryden has established for himself a claim, not only to the glory of being one of the most nervous and idiomatic writers in the language, but also to that of having been the first to write in English anything that deserves the appellation of liberal and comprehensive criticism. These prefaces were in general composed with no higher object than that of swelling the size, and consequently augmenting the price, of the pamphlet or volume to which they were appended; and though written to all appearance very rapidly and carelessly, these essays frequently contain the first germs or outlines of a true judgment respecting the merit of ancient or modern authors, and remarks, equally solid and original, concerning many important departments of literature. That Dryden's literary creed is not always orthodox, nor his opinions always tenable, can be matter neither of astonishment nor animadversion; for we must remember that he lived when the fundamental principles of criticism were not yet established, and that he was the first English labourer who drove a plough into that rich and fertile field which was destined to be so assiduously cultivated. In some of these compositions he has given us short but masterly sketches of many of our older authors, whose works, when Dryden wrote, were either not read at all, or were quoted with a species of disparaging and half-contemptuous approbation. He deserves therefore, and he will obtain, everlasting glory for the justice which he has so nobly rendered to the merits of our elder dramatists-authors with whose peculiar excellences he could hardly have been expected (à priori) to feel any very deep sympathy, and whom the fashion of his age had apparently consigned to oblivion; and a still higher degree of applause must be assigned to him for the noble testimony he has borne to the transcendent merit of Milton, an author whose works it must have been, were it only from political motives, unfashionable, if not even dangerous to praise.

In the brief account which we have given of the numerous and varied productions of this great man, we think we have omitted few of any importance, if we except his translation, or rather paraphrase, of the satires of Juvenal and Persius, and his imitations of the epistles of Horace. There was so much resemblance between the personal and literary characters of Dryden and Juvenal, that we should expect to find in the English poet a perfect reproduction, not only of the matter, but of the manner, of the Roman bard. And we shall not be disappointed. The declamatory boldness, mingled with frequent touches of sarcastic humour; the rhetorical gravity, relieved by a kind of stern mirth; the inexhaustible richness of invective; and the condensed weight of moral precept; - all these were qualities which Dryden's moral poetry possesses of itself: he had not to go out of his own manner to be a perfect representative of Juveral.

This is amply proved by his own satire entitled Mac-Flecknoe, perhaps the most vehement, rich, and varied piece of invective in which personal hatred and contempt ever borrowed the language of moral or literary reprobation. It is chiefly directed against Shadwell, whom he represents, in a kind of mock-heroic allegory, admirable for its boldness and vivacity, as the successful candidate for the crown of stupidity, left vacant by the abdication of Flecknoe, a wretched poetaster of that day, and whose Irish origin is wittily indicated in the name Mac-Flecknoe conferred upon his worthy successor. This poem is "the sublime of personal satire :" the lines seem to flow on, burning, bright, and irresistible, like the flood of lava bursting from the crater of the volcano, withering, crushing, and blasting all that they approach.

Dryden died in comparative poverty, though universally placed by all his contemporaries at the head of the poets of his age, a position which his name will ever continue to retain. This event took place on the 1st of May, 1700, and his remains were buried with great pomp in Westminster Abbey. The expense of his funeral was defrayed by a public subscription, and a monument was afterwards erected in his honour by the Duke of Buckingham, intended to bear the following dignified and laconic inscription:

"This Sheffield raised: the sacred dust below
Was Dryden once.

The rest who does not know?"

CHAPTER XI.

CLARENDON, BUNYAN, AND LOCKE.

Clarendon's Life-History of the Rebellion - Characters-John Bunyan The Pilgrim's Progress-Allegory-Style-Life of Bunyan-Locke-The New Philosophy-Practical Character of Locke's Works-Life-Letters on Toleration-Essay on the Human Understanding—Theory of Ideas-Treatises on Government-Essay on Education.

IN the same manner as the external character of the scenery of any country is reflected in the fine arts which flourish there, do the great and stirring periods of history tend to produce the talent by which alone they can be worthily commemorated and described: the savage grandeur of the Calabrian mountains and the sunny loveliness of the plains of Romagna are not more certainly the suggestive cause of Salvator's wild sublimity or Claude's romantic grace, than the rout of Xerxes was of the patriotic fervour of the Eschylean tragedy, or the Peloponnesian War of the profound political philosophy of

Thucydides. We cannot therefore wonder that the great Civil War in England, the Republic, the Protectorate, and the Restoration-a period so crowded with events, and so full of intense dramatic interest

should have produced a historian worthy of describing the mighty revolutions which were to exercise so extensive and enduring an influence upon the future fortunes of Great Britain.

These events were sufficiently striking and important to have inspired even an ordinary intellect: a narration tolerably faithful and detailed, and executed by a common hand, could not fail to possess a strong and lasting interest. How fortunate are we, then, to have a history of this busy period, executed by a man not only endowed with extraordinary powers of intellect, but one who was himself a principal actor in the occurrences he describes! This was Edward Hyde, afterwards Earl of Clarendon and Lord Chancellor of England. His work is invaluable for more reasons than one. It contains a minute account of a period of peculiar importance in the constitutional history of the country, was the production of a distinguished lawyer and statesman, himself in a position to enjoy unusual opportunities for obtaining accurate and extensive information, and personally acquainted with many of the most distinguished men of the time; it is much more free from partiality and prejudice than could be reasonably expected under the circumstances, and is, above all, written in that easy and colloquial style which is best adapted to recount the events, without depriving them of their natural power of interesting and amusing the reader.

Hyde was born in 1608, and, after studying at Oxford, devoted himself to the profession of the law, in which he soon distinguished himself so far as to attract the notice of the famous Laud. Being a man of considerable fortune, he now abandoned (in 1640) the practice of his profession, entered parliament, and commenced a political and literary career. He appears, after some hesitation, to have joined the royalist party, and became one of the most wise and trusty advisers of the unfortunate monarch, whose contentions with his parliament and people were so soon to end in the destruction of his throne, the loss of his life, and the expatriation of his family. Though professing monarchic and constitutional opinions, Hyde never pushed them to that pitch of extravagance which caused the temporary ruin of the monarchy; and if the vacillating and infatuated Charles had yielded to the advice of his moderate and sensible minister, the fatal catastrophe might perhaps have been avoided; for the English people has ever been distinguished, as a body, for its firm attachment to monarchical institutions; its cry has been, in all ages, when its true sentiments have been able to secure free expression, that of the barons of King John- "Nolumus leges Anglia mutari." But it was not to be so in the present instance; Charles I. was destined to pursue the fatal path traced out for him by a mis

taken (however sincere) notion of his own prerogative; the nation was to be precipitated into twenty years of bloodshed and tyranny, and Providence was to give a terrible lesson to all infatuated kings and to all rebellious peoples.

Hyde, who had been made Chancellor of the Exchequer, and raised to the dignity of knighthood, now quitted the king at Oxford, and accompanied Prince Charles to the west of England, and afterwards to the island of Jersey, where he remained for two years, occupied in writing an account of the events in which he had been engaged. This was probably the happiest and most tranquil period of his life. In 1648 he again joined the prince in Holland, from whence he was sent to Madrid on a mission to the court of Spain. This embassy-the object of which was to induce Spain to interfere actively in behalf of the exiled house of Stuart- was totally ineffectual; so much so, indeed, that Hyde and his companions were ultimately ordered to quit the country. The subject of our remarks now rejoined his wife and family, whom he had left at Antwerp; and after passing some time there in extreme distress, and even destitution, he again returned to his unfortunate master, who was now at Paris. From this period till the Restoration, Hyde continued to perform for the royal exile those services which none but a very wise and faithful adherent could have rendered, which the carelessness, profligacy, and extravagance of the second Charles's character made so necessary, and which no gratitude could repay. He watched over the financial affairs of the king and his ragged little court, gave continual advice, frequently as unpalatable as it was wise, and keeping up by every means in his power the sometimes precarious harmony, and still more precarious respectability, of the little band of gentlemen who surrounded the king.

Charles, to whom Hyde must have appeared in the light in which a dissipated youth of ruined family regards a severe but faithful steward, expressed his gratitude to him by naming him Chancellor, a dignity which at that time was productive rather of danger and annoyance than either profit or power. At the Restoration he began to receive the solid and merited recompense for his services and privations. He was now the first officer of the crown, and had reached the highest dignity which a subject can attain. His daughter, by marrying the Duke of York, became closely allied to the royal family of England; and at the coronation, in 1661, Hyde was created Earl of Clarendon, and presented with 20,000. For some time he continued to be one of the king's chief advisers; and it is allowed by politicians of all parties that his counsels were dis tinguished for their sagacity and their moderation. But he soon began to incur the dislike not only of the court, but of the nation. The former were jealous of him for the severity of his morals, for his opposition to the extravagance and profligacy of the times, which

must have made Clarendon a perpetual contrast and reproach to the society of that day; and the people, still in the fervour of loyalty, and probably jealous of the great wealth and aggrandisement of Hyde and his family, were but too apt to echo the sentiments of the court. He was compelled to resign the Great Seal, and forced, by the ingratitude of the sovereign for whom he had done so much, to leave the country. He retired to France, where he employed the closing years of his life in composing his invaluable history. He died in 1674.

His History of the Great Rebellion' was written entirely from personal recollections, and in that style which is best adapted to relate personal recollections with effect. It is perfectly natural and easy; and thus the strange and romantic adventures of the king are recounted in a manner which not only renders them more impressive and amusing, but convinces the reader of the narrator's good faith and accuracy. Absolutely impartial in every case it is not, and it could not be; but it has always been considered, and with justice, as the most faithful and comprehensive account we possess of the interesting events it commemorates. The style has some defects of prolixity and want of clearness; but it is a work to which the reader returns again and again with renewed pleasure and profit, not only from the immense mass of information which it contains, but from the vigorous, sagacious, manly, and honourable tone of thought which pervades it. It abounds in minute and complete characters of public men. We are hardly apt to appreciate all the penetration displayed in these, as we consider them, in the reading, to be simply a recapitulation of the historian's observations; and we do not at first perceive the quiet sagacity with which this great intellectual portrait-painter has concentrated his attention upon those traits which constitute the individuality of the subject, neglecting, or rather judiciously subduing, those features which are not so marked and characteristic. As, in examining the living likenesses of Titian and Vandyke, a spectator unacquainted with the practical details and the practical difficulties of the art will find his impressions of the painter's genius absolutely weakened by the very ease and facility of the execution, so it may be said that the apparent naturalness and simplicity of Clarendon's narrative is apt at first to diminish our feeling of the difficulty of his task, and of the skill with which he has executed it. "Clarendon," says Hallam, "is excellence in everything that he has performed with care; his characters are beautifully delineated; his sentiments have often a noble gravity, which the length of his periods, far too great in itself, seems to befit; but in the general course of his narration he is negligent of grammar and perspicuity, with little choice of words, and therefore sometimes idiomatic without ease or elegance."

Besides his excellent History, Clarendon has left us, not to speak