Such is the mighty fwiftnefs of your mind,
That, like the earth's, it leaves our fenfe behind,
While you fo fmoothly turn and rowl our sphere,
That rapid motion does but reft appear.
For as in nature's fwiftnefs, with the throng
Of flying orbs while ours is borne along,
All feems at reft to the deluded eye,
Moy'd by the foul of the fame harmony:
So carry'd on by your unwearied care,

We reft in peace, and yet in motion share.

To this fucceed four lines, which perhaps afford Dryden's first attempt at thofe penetrating remarks on human nature, for which he feems to have been peculiarly formed;

Let envy then thofe crimes within you fee,
From which the happy never must be free;
Envy that does with mifery refide,

The joy and the revenge of ruin'd pride.

Into this poem he feems to have collected all his powers; and after this he did not often bring upon his anvil fuch ftubborn and unmalleable thoughts; but, as a fpecimen of his abilities to unite the most unfociable matter, he has concluded with lines, of which I think not myfelf obliged to tell the meaning:

Yet unimpair'd with labours, or with time,
Your age but feems to a new youth to climb.
Thus heavenly bodies do our time beget,
And measure change, but fhare no part of it:
And ftill it fhall without a weight increase,
Like this new year, whose motions never cease.
For fince the glorious course you have begun
Is led by Charles, as that is by the fun,
It must both weightless and immortal prove,
Because the centre of it is above.

In the Annus Mirabilis he returned to the quatrain, which from that time he totally quitted, perhaps from this experience of its inconvenience, for he complains of its difficulty. This is one of his greatest attempts. He had fubjects equal to his abilities, a great naval war, and the Fire of London. Battles have always been described in heroick poetry; but a fea-fight and artillery had yet fomething of novelty. New arts are long in the world before poets defcribe them; for they borrow every thing from their predeceffors, and commonly derive very little from nature or from life. Boileau was the firft French writer that had ever hazarded in verfe the mention of modern war, or the effects of gunpowder. We, who are lefs afraid of novelty, had already poffeffion of thofe dreadful images: Waller had defcribed a fea-fight. Milton had not yet transferred the invention of fire-arms to the rebellious angels.

This poem is written with great diligence, yet does not fully answer the expectation raised by such subjects and fuch a writer. With the ftanza of Davenant he has fometimes his vein of parenthesis, and incidental difquifition, and ftops his narrative for a wife remark.

The general fault is, that he affords more fentiment than defcription, and does not fo much impress scenes upon the fancy, as deduce confequences and make comparisons.

The initial ftanzas have rather too much resemblance to the first lines of Waller's poem on the war with Spain; perhaps fuch a beginning is natural, and could not be avoided without affectation. Both Waller and Dryden might take their hint from the poem on the civil war of Rome, Orbem jam totum, &c.

Of the king collecting his navy, he fays,

It seems as every ship their fovereign knows,
His awful fummons they fo foon obey;
So hear the scaly herds when Proteus blows,

And so to pasture follow through the sea.

It would not be hard to believe that Dryden had written the two first lines seriously, and that some wag had added the two latter in burlefque. Who would expect the lines that immediately follow, which are indeed perhaps indecently hyperbolical, but certainly in a mode totally different?

To fee this fleet upon the ocean move,

Angels drew wide the curtains of the skies; And heaven, as if there wanted lights above, For tapers made two glaring comets rise.

The description of the attempt at Bergen will afford a very compleat fpecimen of the defcriptions in this poem :

And now approach'd their fleet from India, fraught
With all the riches of the rifing fun :

And precious fand from fouthern climates brought,
The fatal regions where the war begun.

Like hunted caftors, confcious of their store,

Their way-laid wealth to Norway's coast they bring Then first the North's cold bofom fpices bore, And winter brooded on the eastern spring. By the rich scent we found our perfum'd prey, Which, flank'd with rocks, did clofe in covert lie; And round about their murdering cannon lay,

At once to threaten and invite the eye.

Fiercer than cannon, and than rocks more hard,
The English undertake th' unequal war :
Seven ships alone, by which the port is barr'd,
Befiege the Indies, and alt Denmark dare.

Thefe

Thefe fight like husbands, but like lovers thofe :
These fain would keep, and those more fain enjoy:
And to fuch height their frantic paffion grows,

That what both love, both hazard to destroy :
Amidft whole heaps of fpices lights a ball,
And now their odours arm'd against them fly :
Some preciously by thatter'd porcelain fall,
And fome by aromatic fplinters die,

And though by tempefts of the prize bereft,

In heaven's inclemency fome cafe we find : Our foes we vanquifh'd by our valour left,

And only yielded to the feas and wind.

In this manner is the fublime too often mingled with the ridiculous. The Dutch feek a fhelter for a wealthy fleet this furely needed no illustration; yet they must fly, not like all the reft of mankind on the fame occafion, but like hunted caftors; and they might with strict propriety be hunted; for we winded them by our nofes-their perfumes betrayed them. The Husband and the Lover, though of more dignity than the Caftor, are images too domestick to mingle properly with the horrors of war. The two quatrains that follow are worthy of the author.

The account of the different fenfations with which the two fleets retired, when the night parted them, is one of the faireft flowers of English poetry.

The night comes on, we cager to purfue

The combat ftill, and they afham'd to leave;
'Till the laft ftreaks of dying day withdrew,
And doubtful moon-light did our rage deceive.
In th' English fleet each fhip resounds with joy,
And loud applause of their great leader's fame:
In fi'ry dreams the Dutch they ftill destroy,
And, lumbering, fimile at the imagin'd flame.

Not

Not fo the Holland fleet, who, tir'd and done,
Stretch'd on their decks like weary oxen lie;
Faint fweats all down their mighty members run,
(Vaft bulks, which little fouls but ill supply.)
In dreams they fearful precipices tread,

Or, fhipwreck'd, labour to some distant shore:
Or, in dark churches, walk among the dead;

They wake with horror, and dare fleep no more.

It is a general rule in poetry, that all appropriated terms of art should be funk in general expreffions, because poetry is to speak an universal language. This rule is still ftronger with regard to arts not liberal, or confined to few, and therefore far removed from common knowledge; and of this kind, certainly, is technical navigation. Yet Dryden was of opinion that a fea-fight ought to be described in the nautical language; and certainly, fays he, as thofe who in a logical difputation keep to general terms would hide a fallacy, fo those who do it in any poetical defcription would veil their ignorance.

Let us then appeal to experience; for by experience at laft we learn as well what will please as what will profit. In the battle, his terms feem to have been blown away; but he deals them liberally in the dock: So here fome pick out bullets from the fide, Some drive old okum thro' each seam and rift: Their left-hand does the calking-iron guide, The rattling mallet with the right they lift. With boiling pitch another near at hand

(From friendly Sweden brought) the feams inftops :: Which, well laid o'er, the falt-fea waves withstand, And shake them from the rifing beak in drops.

Some the gall'd ropes with dawby marling bind,

Or fear-cloth mafts with ftrong tarpawling coats :

To