The Works of John Dryden, Volume XVII: Prose, 1668-1691: An essay of Dramatick Poesie and Shorter Works

Epistle Dedicatory

Plutarchs Lives 227 Contributions to PlutarchsLives TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF ORMOND, 8cC. My Lord, E CRETIUS, endeavouring to prove from the principles of his Philosophy, that the world had a casual beginning from the concourse of A tomes; and that Men, as well as the rest of Animals, were produc'd from the vital heat and moisture of their Mother Earth; from the same principles is bound to answer this objection, why Men are not daily form'd after the same manner, which he tells us is, because the kindly warmth, and procreative faculty of the ground is now worn 10 out: The Sun is a disabled Lover, and the Earth is past her teeming time. Though Religion has inform'd us better of our Origine, yet it appears plainly, that not only the Bodies, but the Souls of Men, have decreas'd from the vigour of the first Ages; that we are not more short of the stature and strength of those gygantick Heroes, than we are of their understanding, and their wit. To let pass those happy Patriarchs, who were striplings at fourscore , and had afterwards seven or eight hundred years before them to beget Sons and Daughters; and to consider Man in 20 reference only to his mind, and that no higher than the Age of Socrates: How vast a difference is there betwixt the productions of those Souls, and these of ours! How much better Plato, Aristotle, and the rest of the Philosophers understood nature; Thucydides, and Herodotus adorn'd History; Sophocles, Euripides and Menander advanc'd Poetry, than those Dwarfs of Wit and Learning who succeeded them in after times! That Age was most Famous amongst the Greeks, which ended with the death of Alexander; amongst the Romans Learning seem'd again to revive and flourish in the Century which produc'd 22 ours!] ~ ? 01-4. 24-25 Euripides] Eurypides 01-4. 26 timcsl] ~ ? 01-4. 228 Prose 1668-1691 Cicero, Varro, Salust, Livy, Lucretius and Virgil; And after a short interval of years, (wherein Nature seem'd to take a breathing time for a second birth,) there sprung up under the Vespasians , and those excellent Princes who succeeded them, a race of memorable Wits; such as were the two Plinies, Tacitus, and Suetonius; and as if Greece was emulous of the Roman learning, under the same favourable Constellation, was born the famous Philosopher and Historian Plutarch: Then whom Antiquity has never produc'd a Man more generally knowing, 10 or more vertuous; and no succeeding Age has equall'd him. His Lives both in his own esteem, and that of others, accounted the Noblest of his Works, have been long since render 'd into English: But as that Translation was only from the French, so it suffer'd this double disadvantage, first that it was but a Copy of a Copy, and that too but lamely taken from the Greek Original: Secondly that the English Language was then unpolish'd, and far from the perfection which it has since attain 'd: So that the first Version is not only ungrammatical and ungraceful, but in many places almost unintelligible. For which 20 reasons, and least so useful a piece of History, shou'd lie oppress 'd under the rubbish of Antiquated words, some ingenious and learned Gentlemen, have undertaken this Task: And what wou'd have been the labour of one Mans Life, will, by the several endeavours of many, be now accomplish'd in the compass of a year. How far they have succeeded in this laudable attempt, to me it belongs not to determine; who am too much a party to be a Judge: But I have the honour to be Commission 'd from the Translators of this Volum, to inscribe their labours and my own, with all humility, to your Graces Name 30 and Patronage. And never was any Man more ambitious of an employment, of which he was so little worthy. Fortune has at last gratify'd that earnest desire I have always had, to shew my devotion to your Grace; though I despair of paying you my acknowledgments. And of all other opportunities I have happen 'd on the most favourable to my self; who, having never 8 Plutarch:] ~ . 01-4. 9 Antiquity] 62-4; An-/ quity Oi. ii Lives] Lives 01-4. Plutarchs Lives 229 been able to produce any thing of my own, which...