Neither was the liberality of the nation entirely disproportioned to the general importance attached to the translation of Virgil, by so eminent a poet.  The researches of Mr. Malone have ascertained, in some degree, the terms.  There were two classes of subscribers, the first set of whom paid five guineas apiece to adorn the work with engravings; beneath each of which, in due and grateful remembrance, was blazoned the arms of a subscriber:  this class amounted to one hundred and one persons, a list of whom appears in this edition, in vol. xiii., and presents an assemblage of noble names, few of whom are distinguished more to their credit than by the place they there occupy.  The second subscribers were two hundred and fifty in number, at two guineas each.  But from these sums was to be deducted the expense of the engravings, though these were only the plates used for Ogilby’s Virgil, a little retouched.  Besides the subscriptions, it would seem, that Dryden received from Tonson fifty pounds for each Book of the “Georgics” and “AEneid,” and probably the same for the Pastorals collectively.[11] On the other hand, it is probable that Jacob charged a price for the copies delivered to the subscribers, which, with the expense of the plates, reduced Dryden’s profit to about twelve or thirteen hundred pounds;—­a trifling sum when compared to what Pope received for the “Iliad,” which was certainly between L5,000 and L6,000; yet great in proportion to what the age of Dryden had ever afforded, as an encouragement to literature.  It must indeed be confessed, that the Revolution had given a new impulse and superior importance to literary pursuits.  The semi-barbarous age, which succeeded the great civil war, had been civilised by slow degrees.  It is true, the king and courtiers, among their disorderly and dissolute pleasures, enumerated songs and plays, and, in the course of their political intrigues, held satires in request; but they had neither money nor time to spare for the encouragement or study of any of the higher and more elaborate departments of poetry.  Meanwhile, the bulk of the nation neglected verse, as what they could not understand, or, with puritanical bigotry, detested as sinful the use, as well as the abuse, of poetical talent.  But the lapse of thirty years made a material change in the manners of the English people.  Instances began to occur of individuals, who, rising at first into notice for their proficience in the fine arts, were finally promoted for the active and penetrating talents, which necessarily accompany a turn towards them.  An outward reformation of manners, at least the general abjuration of grosser profligacy, was also favourable to poetry,—­

  Still first to fly where
  sensual joys invade.