THE HIND AND PANTHER. A POEM, IN THREE PARTS. 1687. PREFACE TO THE READER. THE nation is in too high a ferment for me to expect either fair war, or even so much as fair quarter, from a reader of the opposite party. All men are engaged either on this side or that; and though Conscience is the common word which is given by both, yet if a writer fall among enemies, and cannot give the marks of their conscience, he is knocked down before the reasons of his own are heard. A Preface, therefore, which is but a bespeaking of favour, is altogether useless. What I desire the reader should know concerning me, he will find in the body of the Poem, if he have but the patience to peruse it only this advertisement let him take beforehand, which relates to the merits of the cause. No general characters of parties (call them either sects or churches) can be so fully and exactly drawn as to comprehend all the several members of them; at least, all such as are received under that denomination. For example, there are some of the church : by law established, who envy not liberty of conscience to Dissenters; as being well satisfied that, according to their own principles, they ought not to persecute them: yet these, by reason of their fewness, I could not distinguish from the numbers of the rest, with whom they are embodied in one common name. On the other side, there are many of our sects, and more indeed than I could reasonably have hoped, who have withdrawn themselves from the communion of the Panther, and embraced this gracious indulgence of his Majesty in point of toleration: but neither to the one nor the other of these is this Satire any way intended; it is aimed only at the refractory and disobedient on either side for those who are come over to the royal party are, consequently, supposed to be out of gunshot. Our physicians have observed that, in process of time, some diseases have abated of their virulence, and have in a manner worn out their malignity, so as to be no longer mortal; and why may not I suppose the same concerning some of those who have formerly been enemies to kingly government as well as Catholic religion? I hope they have now another notion of both; as having found, by comfortable experience, that the doctrine of persecution is far from being an article of our faith. : It is not for any private man to censure the proceedings of a foreign* prince; but, without suspicion of flattery, I may praise our own, who has taken contrary measures, and those more suitable to the spirit of Christianity. Some of the Dissenters, Louis the Fourteenth of France alluded to. in their addresses to his Majesty, have said, 'that he has restored God to his empire over conscience.' I confess I dare not stretch the figure to so great a boldness; but I may safely say, that conscience is the royalty and prerogative of every private man. He is absolute in his own breast, and accountable to no earthly power for that which passes only betwixt God and him. Those who are driven into the fold are, generally speaking, rather made hypocrites than converts. This indulgence being granted to all the sects, it ought in reason to be expected that they should both receive it, and receive it thankfully: for at this time of day to refuse the benefit, and adhere to those whom they have esteemed their persecutors, what is it else but publicly to own that they suffered not before for conscience' sake, but only out of pride and obstinacy, to separate from a church for those impositions which they now judge may be lawfully obeyed? After they have so long contended for their classical ordination, (not to speak of rites and ceremonies) will they at length submit to an episcopal? if they can go so far out of complaisance to their old enemies, methinks a little reason should persuade them to take another step, and see whither that would lead them. Of the receiving this toleration thankfully, I shall say no more than that they ought, and I doubt not they will, consider from what hand they received it. It is not from a Cyrus, a heathen prince, and a foreigner, but from a Christian king, their native sovereign, who expects a return in specie from them, that the kindness, which he has graciously shown them, may be retaliated on those of his own persuasion. As for the Poem in general, I will only thus far satisfy the reader, that it was neither imposed on me, nor so much as the subject given me by any man. It was written during the last winter,* and the beginning of this spring; though with long interruptions of ill health, and other hinderances. About a fortnight before I had finished it, his Majesty's declaration for liberty of conscience came abroad; which, if I had so soon expected, I might have spared myself the labour of writing many things which are contained in the Third Part of it; but I was always in some hope that the church of England might have been persuaded to have taken off the Penal Laws and the Test; which was one design of the Poem, when I proposed to myself the writing of it. It is evident that some part of it was only occasional, and not first intended; I mean, that defence of myself, to which every honest man is bound when he is injuriously attacked in print; and I refer myself to the judgment of those who have read the Answer to the Defence of the late King's papers, and that of the Duchess, (in which last I was concerned) how charitably I have been represented there. I am now informed both of the author and supervisors of this pamphlet, and will reply when I think he can affront me; for I am of Socrates' opinion, that all creatures cannot. In the mean time, let him consider whether he deserved not a more severe reprehension than I gave him * Of 1686. formerly, for using so little respect to the memory of those whom he pretended to answer; and, at his leisure, look out for some original treatise of humility, written by any Protestant in English, I believe I may say in any other tongue; for the magnified piece of Duncombe on that subject,* (which either he must mean, or none, and with which another of his fellows has upbraided me,) was translated from the Spanish of Rodriguez, though with the omission of the 17th, the 24th, the 25th, and the last chapter; which will be found on comparing of the books. 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 not take up this ridiculous challenge, he tells the world I cannot argue; but he may as well infer that a Catholic cannot fast, because he will not take up the cudgels against Mrs. James,† to confute the Protestant religion. I have but one word more to say concerning the Poem as such, and abstracting from the matters, * Montague affirms that Allen, not Duncombe, was the author of the treatise alluded to by Dryden. See the 'Hind and Panther transposed.' Mrs. Eleanor James, who wrote and published 'A Vindication of the Church of England,' &c. She was the wife of a printer, See Malone's Dryden, II. 539. Bb VOL. XI. |