The Works of John Dryden, Vol. II | Page 2

mankind, could by no means answer that end, if you were not possessed of a judgment to direct you in the right application and just distribution of your good offices.
You are now in a station, by which you necessarily preside over the liberal arts, and all the practisers and professors of them. Poetry is more particularly within your province; and with very good reason may we hope to see it revive and flourish under your influence and protection.
What hopes of reward may not the living deserver entertain, when even the dead are sought out for, and their very urns and ashes made partakers of your liberality?
As I have the honour to be known to you, my Lord, and to have been distinguished by you by many expressions and instances of your goodwill towards me, I take a singular pleasure to congratulate you upon an action so entirely worthy of you. And as I had the happiness to be very conversant, and as intimately acquainted with Mr Dryden as the great disproportion in our years could allow me to be, I hope it will not be thought too assuming in me, if, in love to his memory, and in gratitude for the many friendly offices, and favourable instructions, which, in my early youth, I received from him, I take upon me to make this public acknowledgment to your Grace, for so public a testimony, as you are pleased to give to the world, of that high esteem, in which you hold the performances of that eminent man.
I can, in some degree, justify myself for so doing, by a citation of a kind of right to it, bequeathed to me by him. And it is, indeed, upon that pretension, that I presume even to make a dedication of these his works to you.
In some very elegant, though very partial, verses, which he did me the honour to write to me, he recommended it to me to _be kind to his remains_[2].
[Footnote 2: These are the affecting lines referred to.
Already I am worn with cares and age, And just abandoning th' ungrateful stage; Unprofitably kept at heaven's expense, I live a rent-charge on his providence. But you, whom every muse and grace adorn, Whom I foresee to better fortune born, Be kind to my remains; and, O! defend, Against your judgment, your departed friend: Let not the insulting foe my fame pursue, But shade those laurels which descend to you; And take, for tribute, what these lines express: You merit more, nor could my love do less.
Epistle to MR CONGREVE]
I was then, and have been ever since, most sensibly touched with that expression; and the more so, because I could not find in myself the means of satisfying the passion which I felt in me, to do something answerable to an injunction laid upon me in so pathetic and so amicable a manner.
You, my Lord, have furnished me with ample means of acquitting myself, both of my duty and obligation to my departed friend. What kinder office lies in me to do to these, his most valuable and imperishable remains, than to commit them to the protection, and lodge them under the roof, of a patron, whose hospitality has extended itself even to his dust?
If I would permit myself to run on in the way which so fairly opens itself before me, I should tire your Grace with reiterated praises and acknowledgments; and I might possibly (notwithstanding my pretended right so to do) give some handle to such, who are inclinable to censure, to tax me of affectation and officiousness, in thanking you, more than comes to my share, for doing a thing, which is, in truth, of a public consideration, as it is doing an honour to your country. For so unquestionably it is, to do honour to him, who was an honour to it.
I have but one thing to say, either to obviate or to answer such an objection, if it shall be made to me, which is, that I loved Mr Dryden.
I have not touched upon any other public honour or bounty, done by you to your country. I have industriously declined entering upon a theme of so extensive a nature; and of all your numerous and continual largesses to the public, I have only singled out this, as what most particularly affected me. I confess freely to your Grace, I very much admire all those other donations, but I much more love this; and I cannot help it, if I am naturally more delighted with any thing that is amiable, than with any thing that is wonderful.
Whoever shall censure me, I dare be confident, you, my Lord, will excuse me for any thing that I shall say with due regard to a gentleman, for whose person I had as