Page:Our Hymns.djvu/75

 THEIR AUTHORS AND ORIGIN. 55

English poetry not relapsing after the time of Dryden into &quot; its former savageness.&quot; He is, however, correct in attributing to Drydeu the praise of having made the rhyming couplet what it has become, and says truly : &quot; Dryden knew how to choose the flowing and the sonorous words ; to vary the pauses, and adjust the accents ; to diversify the cadence, and yet preserve the smooth ness of his metre.&quot;

The tendency to immorality, which is a blemish in some of Dryden s poems, was a matter of regret to him in his later years, and he gave expression to that regret. The excessive adulation of his dedications to titled patrons, and the bitterness and scurrility of his attacks on Settle and other rival poets needed, though they did not obtain, a similar acknowledgment of regret. &quot;Dryden,&quot; says Wordsworth, &quot;had neither a tender heart nor a lofty sense of moral dignity,&quot; and the same poet speaks in not less disparaging terms of his powers of imagination. Sir Walter Scott, who wrote a life of Dryden, says, &quot; The distinguishing characteristic of Dryden s genius seems to have been the power of reasoning, and of expressing the result in appropriate lan guage.&quot; And Thomas Campbell considers that Dryden is justly deserving of commendation for his course of improvement car ried on persistently to the end. None can deny to this poet the praise of those gems of poesy that adorn his works, nor the grateful acknowledgments due to one who revealed in the art of poetry a capacity of cultivation before almost unknown.

&quot; Waller was smooth ; but Dryden taught to join, The varying verse, the full resounding line, The long majestic march, and energy divine.&quot; POPE.

Creator Spirit ! by whose aid.&quot; 433.

In the &quot; New Congregational Hymn Book,&quot; this hymn is erro neously attributed to Charlemagne. It is the work of Dryden, and consists of twenty-four lines of a piece of thirty-nine lines, entitled, &quot; Veni, Creator Spiritus, paraphrased.&quot; It is believed to have been written by Drydeu, late in life, when he had become

�� �