kingham, to
erect over the grave of his friend the present simple monument which
distinguishes it. The inscription was comprised in the following
words:--_J. Dryden. Natus 1632. Mortuus I Maii 1700. Joannes Sheffield,
Duxx Buckinghamiensis posuit, 1720_.[6]

In the school of reformed English poetry, of which Dryden must be
acknowledged as the founder, there soon arose disciples not unwilling to
be considered as the rivals of their muster. Addison had his partisans,
who were desirous to hold him up in this point of view; and he himself
is said to have taken pleasure, with the assistance of Steele, to
depreciate Dryden, whose fame was defended by Pope and Congreve. No
serious invasion of Dryden's pre-eminence can be said, however, to have
taken place, till Pope himself, refining upon that structure of
versification which our author had first introduced, and attending with
sedulous diligence to improve every passage to the highest pitch of
point and harmony, exhibited a new style of composition, and claimed at
least to share with Dryden the sovereignty of Parnassus. I will not
attempt to concentrate what Johnson has said upon this interesting
comparison:--

"In acquired knowledge, the superiority must be allowed to Dryden, whose
education was more scholastic, and who, before he became an author, had
been allowed more time for study, with better means of information. His
mind has a larger range, and he collects his images and illustrations
from a more extensive circumference of science. Dryden knew more of man
in his general nature, and Pope in his local manners. The notions of
Dryden were formed by comprehensive speculation, and those of Pope by
minute attention. There is more dignity in the knowledge of Dryden, and
more certainty in that of Pope.

"Poetry was not the sole praise of either; for both excelled likewise in
prose; but Pope did not borrow his prose from his predecessor. The style
of Dryden is capricious and varied, that of Pope is cautious and
uniform. Dryden obeys the motions of his own mind, Pope constrains his
mind to his own rules of composition. Dryden is sometimes vehement and
rapid; Pope is always smooth, uniform, and gentle. Dryden's page is a
natural field, rising into inequalities, and diversified by the varied
exuberance of abundant vegetation; Pope's is a velvet lawn, shaven by
the scythe, and levelled by the roller.

"Of genius, that power which constitutes a poet; that quality, without
which