et was drawn doubtless favourably, yet it contains
points which demonstrate its fidelity.

"Whoever shall censure me, I dare be confident, you, my lord, will
excuse me for anything that I shall say with due regard to a gentleman,
for whose person I had as just an affection as I have an admiration of
his writings. And indeed Mr. Dryden had personal qualities to challenge
both love and esteem from all who were truly acquainted with him.

"He was of a nature exceedingly humane and compassionate; easily
forgiving injuries, and capable of a prompt and sincere reconciliation
with them who had offended him.

"Such a temperament is the only solid foundation of all moral virtues
and sociable endowments. His friendship, where he professed it, went
much beyond his professions; and I have been told of strong and generous
instances of it by the persons themselves who received them, though his
hereditary income was little more than a bare competency.

"As his reading had been very extensive, so was he very happy in a
memory, tenacious of everything that he had read. He was not more
possessed of knowledge, than he was communicative of it. But then his
communication of it was by no means pedantic, or imposed upon the
conversation; but just such, and went so far, as, by the natural turns
of the discourse in which he was engaged, it was necessarily promoted or
required. He was extreme ready and gentle in his correction of the
errors of any writer, who thought fit to consult him: and full as ready
and patient to admit of the reprehension of others, in respect of his
own oversight or mistakes. He was of very easy, I may say, of very
pleasing access; but something slow, and, as it were, diffident in his
advances to others. He had something in his nature, that abhorred
intrusion into any society whatsoever. Indeed, it is to be regretted,
that he was rather blameable in the other extreme; for, by that means,
he was personally less known, and, consequently, his character might
become liable both to misapprehensions and misrepresentations.

"To the best of my knowledge and observation, he was, of all the men
that I ever knew, one of the most modest, and the most easily to be
discountenanced in his approaches either to his superiors or his
equals."

This portrait is from the pen of friendship; yet, if we consider all the
circumstances of Dryden's life, we cannot deem it much exaggerated. For
about forty years, his character, personal and l