of lust, sacrilege, and usurpation.  Dr. Stillingfleet hereupon answered Mr. Dryden, and treated him with some severity.  Another author affirms, that Mr. Dryden’s tract is very light, in some places ridiculous; and observes, that his talent lay towards controversy no more in prose, than, by the Hind and Panther, it appeared to do in verse.  This poem of the Hind and Panther is a direct defence of the Romish Church, in a dialogue between a Hind, which represents the Church of Rome, and a Panther, which supports the character of the Church of England.  The first part of this poem consists most in general characters and narration, which, says he, ’I have endeavoured to raise, and give it the majestic turn of heroic poetry.  The second being matter of dispute, and chiefly concerning church authority, I was obliged to make as plain and perspicuous as possibly I could, yet not wholly neglecting the numbers, though I had not frequent occasion for the magnificence of verse.  The third, which has more of the nature of domestic conversation, is, or ought to be, more free and familiar than the two former.  There are in it two episodes or fables, which are interwoven with the main design, so that they are properly parts of it, though they are also distinct stories of themselves.  In both of these I have made use of the common places of satire, whether true or false, which are urged by the members of the one church against the other.’

Mr. Dryden speaks of his own conversion in the following terms;

  But, gracious God, how well dost thou provide,
  For erring judgments, an unerring guide. 
  Thy throne is darkness, in th’ abyss of light,
  A blaze of glory that forbids the sight. 
  O teach me to believe thee, thus concealed,
  And search no further than thyself revealed;
  But her alone for my director take,
  Whom thou hast promis’d never to forsake! 
  My thoughtless youth was wing’d with vain desires;
  My manhood, long misled by wand’ring fires,
  Follow’d false lights; and when their glimpse was gone,
  My pride struck out new sparkles of her own. 
  Such was I, such by nature still I am,
  Be thine the glory, and be mine the shame,
  Good life be now my talk, my doubts are done.[4]

This poem was attacked by Mr. Charles Montague, afterwards Earl of Hallifax, and Mr. Matthew Prior, who joined in writing the Hind and Panther, transversed to the Country Mouse, and City Mouse, Lond. 1678, 4to.  In the preface to which, the author observes, ’that Mr. Dryden’s poem naturally falls into ridicule, and that in this burlesque, nothing is represented monstrous and unnatural, that is not equally so in the original.’  They afterwards remark, that they have this comfort under the severity of Mr. Dryden’s satire, to see his abilities equally lessened with his opinion of them, and that he could not be a fit champion against the Panther till he had laid aside his judgment.