m twenty years ago,
and it will be a re-acknowledged truth in ten more. In the mean
time, I will conclude with two quotations, both intended for some
of my old classical friends who have still enough of Cambridge
about them to think themselves honoured by having had John Dryden
as a predecessor in their college, and to recollect that their
earliest English poetical pleasures were drawn from the 'little
nightingale' of Twickenham.

"The first is from the notes to a Poem of the 'Friends[5],' pages
181, 182.

"'It is only within the last twenty or thirty years that those
notable discoveries in criticism have been made which have taught
our recent versifiers to undervalue this energetic, melodious, and
moral poet. The consequences of this want of due esteem for a
writer whom the good sense of our predecessors had raised to his
proper station have been NUMEROUS AND DEGRADING ENOUGH. This is not
the place to enter into the subject, even as far as it _affects our
poetical numbers alone_, and there is matter of more importance
that requires present reflection.'

"The second is from the volume of a young person learning to write
poetry, and beginning by teaching the art. Hear him[6]:

"'But ye were dead
To things ye knew not of--were closely wed
To musty laws lined out with wretched rule
And compass vile; so that ye taught a school[7]
Of _dolts_ to _smooth_, _inlay_, and _chip_, and _fit_,
Till, like the certain wands of Jacob's wit,
_Their verses tallied. Easy was the task:_
A thousand handicraftsmen wore the mask
Of poesy. Ill-fated, impious race,
That blasphemed the bright lyrist to his face,
And did not know it; no, they went about
Holding a poor _decrepit_ standard out
Mark'd with most flimsy mottos, and in large
The name of _one_ Boileau.'

"A little before the manner of Pope is termed

"'A _scism_[8],
Nurtured by _foppery_ and barbarism,
Made great Apollo blush for this his land.'

"I thought '_foppery_' was a consequence of _refinement_; but
_n'importe_.

"The above will suffice to show the notions entertained by the new
performers on the English lyre of him who made it most tunable,
and the great improvements of t