He would have insinuated to the world, that her late Highness died not a Roman Catholic. He declares himself to be now satisfied to the contrary, in which he has given up the cause: for matter of fact was the principal debate betwixt us. In the mean time, he would dispute the motives of her change; how preposterously, let all men judge, when he seemed to deny the subject of the controversy, the change itself. And because I would

in a few years, besides what has been printed formerly, such a book hath been published in London." Dryden, in the text, replies to this allegation, that Duncombe's treatise, which he supposes to be meant, is a translation from the Spanish of Rodriguez, therefore, not originally a Protestant work. Montague, in the preface to "The Hind and Panther Transversed," alleges, that Dryden has mistaken the name of the author of the treatise alluded to; which was not, he asserts, Duncombe, but Allen. See the matter more fully canvassed in a note on the original passage, in "The Duchess of York's Paper Defended.”

* Dryden is not quite candid in his statement. In Stillingfleet's answer to the Duchess's paper, it is indeed called, the " paper said to be written by a great lady;" but there is not another word upon the authority, which, indeed, considering it was published under the king's immediate inspection, could not be very decorously disputed. Dryden seizes upon this phrase in his defence, and, coupling with it some expressions of the Bishop of Winchester, he argues that it was the intention of these sons of the church of England, to give the lie to their sovereign. In this vindication of the answer, Stillingfleet thus expresses himself: "As to the main design of the third paper, I declared, that I considered it, as it was supposed to contain the reasons and motives of the conversion of so great a lady to the church of Rome.

"But this gentleman has now eased me of the necessity of farther considering it on that account. For he declares, that none of those motives or reasons are to be found in the paper of her highness. Which he repeats several times. She writ this paper, not as to the reasons she had herself for changing, &c.' for her reasons, they were only betwixt God and her own soul, and the priest with whom she spoke at last.'

'As

"And so my work is at an end as to her paper. For I never

5

THE

HIND AND THE PANTHER.

A milk-white Hind, * immortal and unchanged, Fed on the lawns, and in the forest ranged; Without unspotted, innocent within,

She feared no danger, for she knew no sin.

Yet had she oft been chased with horns and hounds,
And Scythian shafts; and many winged wounds
Aimed at her heart; was often forced to fly,
And doomed to death, though fated not to die. †
Not so her young; for their enequal line
Was hero's make, half human, half divine.
Their earthly mould obnoxious was to fate,
The immortal part assumed immortal state.
Of these a slaughtered army lay in blood,
Extended o'er the Caledonian wood,

The Roman Catholic church.

+ Note I.

The Roman Catholic priests executed in England, at different times since the Reformation, and regarded as martyrs and saints by those of their communion.

Their native walk; whose vocal blood arose,
And cried for pardon on their perjured foes.
Their fate was fruitful, and the sanguine seed,
Endued with souls, increased the sacred breed.
So captive Israel multiplied in chains,

A numerous e ile, and enjoyed her pains.
With grief and gladness mixed, the mother viewed
Her martyr'd offspring, and their race renewed;
Their corps to perish, but their kind to last,

So much the deathless plant the dying fruit surpassed.

Panting and pensive now she ranged alone,
And wandered in the kingdoms, once her own.
The common hunt, though from their rage re-
strained

By sovereign power, her company disdained,
Grinned as they passed, and with a glaring eye
Gave gloomy signs of secret enmity.

'Tis true, she bounded by, and trip'd so light,
They had not time to take a steady sight;
For truth has such a face and such a mien,
As to be loved needs only to be seen.

The bloody Bear, an independent beast,
Unlicked to form, in groans her hate exprest.
Among the timorous kind, the quaking Hare
Professed neutrality, but would not swear. †
Next her the buffoon Ape, as atheists use,
Mimicked all sects, and had his own to chuse;
Still when the Lion looked, his knees he bent,
And paid at church a courtier's compliment. ‡
The bristled baptist Boar, impure as he, §
But whitened with the foam of sanctity,

*The Independents. See Note II.
+ The Quakers. See Note III.
Free-thinkers. See Note IV.

§ Anabaptists. See Note V.

*

}

With fat pollutions filled the sacred place,
And mountains levelled in his furious race;
So first rebellion founded was in grace.
But since the mighty ravage, which he made
In German forests, had his guilt betrayed,
With broken tusks, and with a borrowed name,
Heshunned the vengeance, and concealed the shame;
So lurked in sects unseen. With greater guile
False Reynard fed on consecrated spoil;*
The graceless beast by Athanasius first
Was chased from Nice, then by Socinus nursed;
His impious race their blasphemy renewed,
And nature's king through nature's optics viewed.
Reversed, they viewed him lessened to their eye,
Nor in an infant could a God descry;

*

New swarming sects to this obliquely tend,
Hence they began, and here they all will end.
What weight of antient witness can prevail,
If private reason hold the public scale?
But, gracious God, how well dost thou provide
For erring judgments an unerring guide!
Thy throne is darkness in the abyss of light,
A blaze of glory that forbids the sight.
O teach me to believe thee, thus concealed,
And search no farther than thyself revealed;
But her alone for my director take,

Whom thou hast promised never to forsake!
My thoughtless youth was winged with vain desires;
My manhood; long misled by wandering fires,
Followed 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!

*Unitarians. See Note VI,