t composing the latter, which, under the name
of "Paradise Regained," was given to the world in 1670 "This," said he
to Elwood, "is owing to you; for you put it into my head by the question
which you put to me, which otherwise I had not thought of." This poem,
he believed, had merits far superior to those of "Paradise Lost," which
he could not bear to hear praised in preference to "Paradise Regained."
In the same year he published "Samson Agonistes," and two years later
a treatise on "Logic," and another on "True Religion, Heresy, Schism,
Toleration, and the Best Methods to Prevent the Growth of Popery." In
this, the mind which had soared to heaven and descended to hell in its
boundless flight, argues that catholics should not be allowed the
right of public or private worship. In the last year of his life he
republished his "Juvenile Poems," together with "Familiar Epistles in
Latin."

He had now reached his sixty-sixth year. His life had been saddened by
blindness, his health enfeebled by illness, his domesticity troubled by
his first marriage and his last, his desires disappointed by the result
of political events. So that when, on the 10th of November, 1674, death
summoned him, he departed without regret.

Amongst those who visited Milton was John Dryden, whom the author of
"Paradise Lost" regarded as "a good rhymester, but no poet," an opinion
with which posterity has not held. At the restoration, John Dryden was
in his twenty-ninth year. The son of Sir Erasmus Dryden, Baronet, of
Canons Ashby, he enjoyed an income of two hundred pounds a year, a sum
then considered sufficient to defray the expenses of a young man of good
breeding. He had passed through Westminster School, taken a degree at
Cambridge, written a eulogistic stanza on the death of Cromwell, and a
joyous poem on the happy restoration of the merry monarch.

Three years after the arrival of his majesty, Dryden's comedy entitled
"The Wild Gallant" was produced, this being the first of twenty-eight
plays which followed. In the year 1668 he had the honour to succeed Sir
William Davenant as poet laureate, the salary attached to which office
was one hundred pounds a year and a tierce of wine. His dignity was
moreover enhanced, though his happiness was by no means increased, by
his marriage with the Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the Earl of
Berkshire. For my lady's temper sorely marred the poet's peace, and
left such impressions upon his mind, that to th