His defence[159] of that great poet against the illiberal attacks upon him, as if his embracing the Roman Catholick communion had been a time-serving measure, is a piece of reasoning at once able and candid. Indeed, Dryden himself, in his Hind and Panther, has given such a picture of his mind, that they who know the anxiety for repose as to the aweful subject of our state beyond the grave, though they may think his opinion ill-founded, must think charitably of his sentiment:—
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'But, gracious GOD, how well dost thou provide For erring judgements an unerring guide! Thy throne is darkness in the abyss of light, A blaze of glory that forbids the sight. O! teach me to believe thee thus conceal'd, And search no farther than thyself reveal'd; But Her alone for my director take, Whom thou hast promis'd never to forsake. My thoughtless youth was wing'd with vain desires; My manhood long misled by wand'ring fires, Follow'd false lights; and when their glimpse was gone, My pride struck out new sparkles of her own. Such was I, such by Nature still I am; Be thine the glory, and be mine the shame. Good life be now my task: my doubts are done; What more could shock[160] my faith than Three in One?' |
In drawing Dryden's character, Johnson has given, though I suppose unintentionally, some touches of his own. Thus:—'The power that predominated in his intellectual operations was rather strong reason than quick sensibility. Upon all occasions that were presented, he studied rather than felt; and produced sentiments not such as Nature enforces, but meditation supplies. With the simple and elemental passions as they spring separate in the mind, he seems not much acquainted. He is, therefore, with all his variety of excellence, not often pathetick; and had so little sensibility of the power of effusions purely natural, that he did not esteem them in others[161].' It may indeed be observed, that in all the numerous writings of Johnson, whether in prose or verse, and even in his Tragedy, of which the subject is the distress of an unfortunate Princess, there is not a single passage that ever drew a tear[162].
Various Readings in the Life of DRYDEN.
'The reason of this general perusal, Addison has attempted to [find in] derive from the delight which the mind feels in the investigation of secrets.
'His best actions are but [convenient] inability of wickedness.
'When once he had engaged himself in disputation, [matter] thoughts flowed in on either side.
'The abyss of an un-ideal [emptiness] vacancy.
'These, like [many other harlots,] the harlots of other men, had his love though not his approbation.
'He [sometimes displays] descends to display his knowledge with pedantick ostentation.