THEIE AUTHORS AND ORIGIN. 51
also is said to be by Mm, as it is now given in Mendelssohn s " St. Paul." Soon after, he was appointed by Duke William IV., Librarian of the Archives at Weimar. He made Weimar the place of his permanent residence, living a life of cheerful con fidence in God, and often giving expression to his pious senti ments in Christian hymns. But it has been noticed that the hymns made in his earlier years of trial are better than those he wrote in his later years of prosperity. The war of life revealed the brave soldier ; his arms, if they did not rust, yet lost their keen edge in the time of peace. He died at Weimar, on the 8th of July, 1681.
" To Thee, Lord, I yield my spirit." No. 720.
This has been taken as part of a translation of the above celebrated hymn ; but it bears no resemblance to that German original. The verse might better be taken as a free rendering of part
of his
" Ich. bin miide mehr zu leben,"
a piece often stanzas, 1655.
��JOHN DRYDEN. 16321700.
THE principal incidents recorded of the life of Dryden are of a literary nature, illustrating his position as a writer rather than his character as a man. He was the grandson of Sir Erasmus Dryden, Bart., of Canons Ashby, Northamptonshire, in which county the poet is said to have been born. His education was carried on at first at Westminster School, where he was instructed as one of the King s Scholars by Dr. Busby, and in 1650 he was elected to one of the Westminster Scholarships at Cambridge, where he graduated M.A., in 1657. At school he wrote poems, but at College he appears to have confined his attention to his studies. While at Cambridge he received a small fortune at the
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