So all we make of Heaven's discovered will Is not to have it or to use it ill. The danger's much the same, on several shelves What then remains but, waving each extreme, The things we must believe are few and plain : In search of Heaven than all the Church before; The Scripture and the Fathers disagree. If after all they stand suspected still, (For no man's faith depends upon his will,) 'Tis some relief, that points not clearly known Thus have I made my own opinions clear, Tom Sternhold's or Tom Shadwell's rhymes will serve. 430 440 450 NOTES TO RELIGIO LAICI. IN the preface Dryden makes an elaborate apology. "A poem with so bold a title," he says, "and a name prefixed from which the handling of so serious a subject would not be expected, may reasonably oblige the author to say somewhat in defence both of himself and of his undertaking. In the first place, if it be objected to me that, being a layman, I ought not to have concerned myself with speculations which belong to the profession of divinity, I could answer that perhaps laymen, with equal advantages of parts and knowledge, are not the most incompetent judges of sacred things; but in the due sense of my own weakness and want of learning, I plead not this; I pretend not to make myself a judge of faith in others, but only to make a confession of my own. I lay no unhallowed hand upon the Ark, but wait on it with the reverence that becomes me at a distance. In the next place, I will ingenuously confess that the helps I have used in this small treatise were many of them taken from the works of our own reverend divines of the Church of England; so that the weapons with which I combat irreligion are already consecrated, though I suppose they may be taken down as lawfully as the sword of Goliath was by David, when they are to be employed for the common cause against the enemies of piety. I intend not by this to entitle them to any of my errors, which yet I hope are only those of charity to mankind; and such as my own charity has caused me to commit, that of others may more easily excuse." LINES 1-11. In the preface Dryden says, among other things, of human reason: "That there is something above us, some principle of motion, our Reason can apprehend, though it cannot discover what it is by its own virtue. And, indeed, 'tis very improbable that we, who by the strength of our faculties cannot enter into the knowledge of any being, not so much as of our own, should be able to find out by them that supreme nature, which we cannot otherwise define than by saying it is infinite; as if infinite were defin able, or infinity a subject for our narrow understanding. They who would prove religion by reason do but weaken the cause which they endeavor to support: 'tis to take away the pillars from our faith, and to prop it only with a twig; 'tis to design a tower like that of Babel, which, if it were possible (as it is not) to reach heaven, would come to nothing by the confusion of the workmen. For every man is building a several way; impotently conceited of his own model and his own materials: reason is always striving, and always at a loss; and of necessity it must so come to pass, while 'tis exercised about that which is not its proper object. Let us be content at last to know God by his own methods; at least, so much of him as he is pleased to reveal to us in the sacred Scriptures: to apprehend them to be the word of God is all our reason has to do; for all beyond it is the work of faith, which is the seal of Heaven impressed upon our human understanding.” B.C. 12-24. These refer to the speculations of several Greek philosophers. In lines 16, 17, we have the theory of Anaxagoras, who was born about 500 He advanced "the idea of a world-forming intelligence (nous), absolutely separated from all matter and working with design."—18-19. The theory of Democritus, who was born about 470 B.C. He taught that atoms are the ultimate material of all things. These atoms are in motion, and by their contact and various combinations they form what we call nature or the world. - 20 refers to the theory of Parmenides, who was born about 520 B.C. His fundamental position is this: "All is, non-entity is not." Of this universal being he says:— "Whole and self-generate, unchangeable, illimitable, Never was nor yet shall be its birth. All is already 21. The Stagirite is Aristotle, one of the greatest of Greek philosophers, and tutor of Alexander the Great. He was born 384 B.C., at Stagira, a town in Macedonia; whence the name applied to him in the text. 22. Epicurus was a Greek philosopher, who was born in the island of Tamos, 341 B.C. He was a materialist, believing in the existence of matter only. He founded the school of philosophy called the Epicurean. 25-41. These lines contain the theories of various philosophers concerning the highest good. —29. This refers to Aristippus, who was born in Cyrene, Africa, about 424 B.C. He is the founder of the Cyrenaic School of Philosophy. "His maxim seems to have been," says Haven in his " History of Philosophy,' "Be content with such things as you have, and by no means fret thyself on any account.'" -31. This refers to Antisthenes and his pupil Diogenes, the chief representatives of the cynic school of philosophy. With Antisthenes virtue is the supreme good. What is this virtue? Stern, determined resistance to all indulgence and pleasure in a contempt of riches, honors, and even learning. — 33. Epicurus taught that pleasure is the highest good. His own life was temperate, simple, and pure. But his followers perverted his ethical principle, and made it an excuse for every sort of sensual indulgence. 42-61. These lines contain the system of Deism at its best. Consult the "General Survey at the beginning of the chapter. In reference to the principles of Deism, Dryden maintains that they are not the result of unaided human reason, as is commonly believed; but that they have been derived through tradition from the revealed religion of Noah. He says: "I have assumed in my poem that Deism, or the principles of natural worship, are only the faint remnants or dying flames of revealed religion in the posterity of Noah: and that our modern philosophers, nay, and some of our philosophizing divines, have too much exalted the faculties of our souls when they have maintained that by their force mankind has been able to find out that there is one supreme agent or intellectual being which we call God; that praise and prayer are his due worship; and the rest of those deducements, which I am confident are the remote effects of revelation, and unnattainable by our discourse, I mean as simply considered, and without the benefit of divine illumination. So that we have not lifted up ourselves to God by the weak pinions of our reason, but he has been pleased to descend to us; and what Socrates said of him, what Plato writ, and the rest of the heathen philosophers of several nations, is all no more than the twilight of revelation, after the sun of it was set in the race of Noah."- 43. Eureka was accented by Dryden, according to the Greek accentuation, on the first syllable. — 56. Triumphs was accented by Dryden on the last syllable. 62. Here begins the reply to the Deist. Dryden maintains that the Deistic principles just enumerated sprang in reality, not from reason, but from revelation, lines 62-71. This must be true, he argues, because these principles are so far superior to those of the wisest of ancient philosophers, lines 72-92. —75 refers to Socrates, the celebrated Greek philosopher, who was born at Athens in the year 469 B.C.—77. Plutarch, a Boeotian by birth, lived in the first century of our era. He is one of the most felicitous biographers that ever lived. His "Lives are well known, but he wrote extensively also on moral subjects. - Seneca was a celebrated Roman writer on moral subjects. He was condemned to death by Nero in 65 A.D. — Cicero, the greatest orator of Rome, was born 106 B.C. He was slain by the soldiers of Antony, against whom he had delivered a series of celebrated philippics, in 43 B.C. 93-98. Dryden objects, further, that the Deist's system is guilty of the monstrous presumption of dictating the terms of peace with God. But, he argues in lines 99-110, if there be a God who takes cognizance of our sins, we should accept his terms of reconciliation. III-125. Penitence, the Deist's remedy, is obviously not a sufficient atonement for sin. We have sinned against Omnipotence; and, "Some price that bears proportion must be paid." Having thus shown the weakness of the Deistic system, and the necessity of a revelation, the poet finds it in the Scriptures. 126-145. Proofs of the divine origin of the Scriptures follow: it answers the great ends of life; it possesses high antiquity; its authors, though of different ages and countries agree in doctrine. — 146–151. Its historical narratives are proved by heathen testimony, and its doctrine is confirmed by miracles. — 152-167. Its style and its opposition to our inclinations show it to be of God. 168-183 contain the Deist's objections to revealed religion. A religion that is restricted in extent and efficacy, he says, cannot come from a just God. 184-211 contain the poet's reply. He asserts, first (lines 186-197), that the boundless wisdom of God may have made some provisions for those who have not received the gospel; and, second, that according to the teaching of Paul, Rom. ii. 14, 15, the Gentiles or heathen are a law unto themselves, and shall be judged according to the light they have. — 193. Son's should be Son, according to present usage, though in Dryden's day it was correct as written. - -211. Rubric-martyrs devotees of ecclesiastical forms. = 212-223. This animadversion on the Egyptian bishop Athanasius (born at Alexandria 296 A.D.), Dryden was advised, as he tells us, by "a judicious and learned friend," to omit. For its retention he makes a long apology, which throws light on the passage. The introduction to the Creed of Athanasius is as follows: "Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith. Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly." Dryden says: "And now for what concerns the holy bishop Athanasius, the Preface of whose Creed seems inconsistent with my opinion, which is, that heathens may possibly be saved: in the first place, I desire it may be considered that it is the Preface only, not the Creed itself, which, till I am better informed, is of too hard a digestion for my charity. It is not that I am ignorant how many several texts of Scripture seemingly support that cause; but neither am I ignorant how all those texts may receive a kinder and more mollified interpretation. Every man who is read in church history knows that Belief was drawn up after a long contestation with Arius, concerning the divinity of our blessed Saviour and his being one substance with the Father; and that, thus compiled, it was sent abroad among the Christian churches, as a kind of test, which whosoever took was looked on as an orthodox believer. It is manifest from hence, that the heathen part of the empire was not concerned in it; for its business was not to distinguish betwixt Pagans and Christians, but betwixt heretics and true believers. This, well considered, takes off the heavy weight of censure, which I would willingly avoid from so venerable a |