There has not been found any early edition of this epistle, separate from the volume of Fables; of which therefore it probably made an original part, and was first published with them in 1700. It supplies one instance among many, that the poet's lamp burned clear to the close of life. It is said that his cousin acknowledged the honour done him by the poet, by a handsome gratuity. The amount has been alleged to be five hundred pounds, which is probably exaggerated. Mr Driden of Chesterton bequeathed that sum to Charles Dryden, the poet's son, who did not live to profit by the legacy. As the report of the present to Dryden himself depends only on tradition, it is possible the two circumstances may have been more or less confounded together.

The reader may be pleased to see the epitaph of John Driden of Chesterton, which concludes with some lines from this epistle. It is in the church of the village of Chesterton :

M. S.

JOHANNIS DRIDEN, Arm.

F. Natu secundi Johannis Driden
de Canons Ashby in agro Northampton Bart.
ex Honorá F. et cohærede, e tribus uná,
Roberti Bevile, Bart.

unde sortem maternam

in hac vicinia de Chesterton et Haddon
adeptus,
prædia dein latè,

per comitatum Huntington
adjecit;

nec sui profusus nec alieni appetens :
A litibus ipse abhorrens,

Et qui aliorum lites
Equissimo sæpe arbitrio diremit.
Vivus,

adeo Amicitiam minimè fucatam coluit,
et publicam Patriæ salutem asseruit strenuè,
ut illa vicissim Eum summis quibus potuit
Honoribus cumulârit ;

lubens sæpiusq. Senatorem voluerit:
vel moriens,

honorum atq. beneficiorum non immemor,
maximè vero Religiosa charitatis interitu,
largam sui census partem

* In the family of Pigott, descended from John Driden of Chesterton.

ad valorem 16 Millium plus minus Librarum,
vel in locis ubi res et commercium,
vel inter familiares quibus necessitudo
cum eo vivo intercesserat,

erogavit

Marmor hoc P.

Nepos et Hæres Viri multum desiderati
Robertus Pigott, Arm.

Obiit Cælebs 3 Non. Jan. Anno Dom. 1707, Æt. 72.

JUST, GOOD, AND WISE, CONTENDING NEIGHBOURS COME,
FROM YOUR AWARD TO WAIT THEIR FINAL DOOM;
And, foes BEFORE, RETURN IN FRIENDSHIP Home.
WITHOUT Their cost, YOU TERMINATE THE CAUSE,
AND SAVE THE EXPENCE OF LONG LITIGIOUS LAWS;
WHERE SUITS ARE TRAVERSED, AND SO LITTLE WON,
THAT HE WHO CONQUERS IS BUT LAST UNDOne.

}

EPISTLE THE FIFTEENTH.·

How bless'd is he, who leads a country life,
Unvex'd with anxious cares, and void of strife!
Who, studying peace, and shunning civil rage,
Enjoy'd his youth, and now enjoys his age:
All who deserve his love, he makes his own;
And, to be loved himself, needs only to be known.
Just, good, and wise, contending neighbours

come,

From your award to wait their final doom;
And, foes before, return in friendship home.
Without their cost, you terminate the cause,
And save the expence of long litigious laws;
Where suits are traversed, and so little won,
That he who conquers is but last undone :
Such are not your decrees; but so design'd,
The sanction leaves a lasting peace behind;
Like your own soul, serene, a pattern of your mind.
Promoting concord, and composing strife,
Lord of yourself, uncumber'd with a wife;
Where, for a year, a month, perhaps a night,
Long penitence succeeds a short delight:
Minds are so hardly match'd, that even the first,
Though pair'd by heaven, in Paradise were curst.
For man and woman, though in one they grow,
Yet, first or last, return again to two.

He to God's image, she to his was made; So, farther from the fount the stream at random stray'd.

How could he stand, when, put to double pain, He must a weaker than himself sustain ?

Each might have stood perhaps, but each alone: Two wrestlers help to pull each other down.

Not that my verse would blemish all the fair; But yet if some be bad, 'tis wisdom to beware, And better shun the bait, than struggle in the snare. Thus have you shunn'd, and shun the married state, Trusting as little as you can to fate.

No porter guards the passage of your door, To admit the wealthy, and exclude the poor; For God, who gave the riches, gave the heart, To sanctify the whole by giving part; Heaven,who foresaw the will, the means has wrought, And to the second son a blessing brought; The first begotten had his father's share; But you, like Jacob, are Rebecca's heir.*

So may your stores and fruitful fields increase;
And ever be you bless'd, who live to bless.
As Ceres sow'd, where-e'er her chariot flew ;
As heaven in deserts rain'd the bread of dew;
So free to many, to relations most,

You feed with manna your own Israel host.
With crowds attended of your ancient race,
You seek the champaign sports, or sylvan chace;
With well-breathed beagles you surround the wood,
Even then industrious of the common good;
And often have you brought the wily fox
To suffer for the firstlings of the flocks;
Chased even amid the folds, and made to bleed,
Like felons, where they did the murderous deed.

* Sir Robert Driden inherited the paternal estate of CanonAshby, while that of Chesterton descended to John, his second brother, to whom the epistle is addressed, through his mother, daughter of Sir Robert Bevile.

This fiery game your active youth maintain❜d;
Not yet by years extinguish'd though restrain'd:
You season still with sports your serious hours;
For age but tastes of pleasures, youth devours.
The hare in pastures or in plains is found,
Emblem of human life; who runs the round,
And, after all his wandering ways are done,
His circle fills, and ends where he begun,
Just as the setting meets the rising sun.

}

Thus princes ease their cares; but happier he, Who seeks not pleasure through necessity, Than such as once on slippery thrones were placed, And, chasing, sigh to think themselves are chased. So lived our sires, ere doctors learn'd to kill, And multiplied with theirs the weekly bill. The first physicians by debauch were made; Excess began, and sloth sustains the trade. Pity the generous kind their cares bestow To search forbidden truths, (a sin to know,) To which if human science could attain, The doom of death, pronounced by God, were vain. In vain the leech would interpose delay; Fate fastens first, and vindicates the prey. What help from art's endeavours can we have? Guibbons but guesses, nor is sure to save; But Maurust sweeps whole parishes, and peoples

every grave;

* William Guibbons, M.D.-Dryden mentions this gentleman in terms of grateful acknowledgment in the Postscript to Virgil:-"That I have recovered, in some measure, the health which I had lost by application to this work, is owing, next to God's mercy, to the skill and care of Dr Guibbons and Dr Hobbs, the two ornaments of their profession, which I can only pay by this acknowledgment." As Dr Guibbons was an enemy to the Dispensary, he is ridiculed by Garth in his poem so entitled, under the character of " Mirmillo, the famed Opifer."

† Sir Richard Blackmore, poet and physician, whose offences towards our author have been enumerated in a note on the

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