ruggedness of a stoic is only a silly affectation of be-
ing a god. . . . True philosophy is certainly of a more
pliant nature, and more accommodated to human
use. . . . A wise man will never attempt an impossi-
bility." Dryden's inconsistencies have generally been
deplored. But it is precisely to his unending powers
of renewal that we owe that serenity and that fresh-
ness in which he never fails us. "As I am a man,"
he told the Earl of Mulgrave in 1676, in the dedica-
tion of Aureng-Zebe, "I must be changeable; and
sometimes the gravest of us all are so, even upon
ridiculous accidents. Our minds are perpetually
wrought on by the temperament of our bodies;
which makes me suspect they are nearer allied, than
either our philosophers or school-divines will allow
them to be. . . . An ill dream, or a cloudy day, has
power to change this wretched creature, who is so
proud of a reasonable soul, and make him think
what he thought not yesterday."

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