entered life, and by whose influence he was probably to have been aided
in some path to wealth or eminence, became at once incapable of
assisting him; and even connection with them was rendered, by the change
of times, disgraceful, if not dangerous. Yet it may be doubted whether
Dryden felt this evil in its full extent. Sterne has said of a
character, that a blessing which closed his mouth, or a misfortune which
opened it with a good grace, were nearly equal to him; nay, that
sometimes the misfortune was the more acceptable of the two. It is
possible, by a parity of reasoning, that Dryden may have felt himself
rather relieved from, than deprived of, his fanatical patrons, under
whose guidance he could never hope to have indulged in that career of
literary pursuit, which the new order of things presented to the
ambition of the youthful poet; at least, he lost no time in useless
lamentation, but, now in his thirtieth year, proceeded to exert that
poetical talent, which had heretofore been repressed by his own
situation, and that of the country.

Dryden, left to his own exertions, hastened to testify his joyful
acquiescence in the restoration of monarchy, by publishing "_Astroea
Redux_," a poem which was probably distinguished among the innumerable
congratulations poured forth upon the occasion; and he added to those
which hailed the coronation, in 1661, the verses entitled, "A Panegyric
to his Sacred Majesty." These pieces testify, that the author had
already made some progress in harmonising his versification. But they
also contain many of those points of wit, and turns of epigram, which he
condemned in his more advanced judgment. The same description applies,
in a yet stronger degree, to the verses addressed to Lord Chancellor
Hyde (Lord Clarendon) on the new-year's-day of 1662, in which Dryden has
more closely imitated the metaphysical poetry than in any poem, except
the juvenile elegy on Lord Hastings. I cannot but think, that the poet