Dryden (1631-1700) may be taken as, in the broader sense, the last classic of the medieval and Renaissance period. His best known poem is _The Hind and the Panther_, a defense of Roman Catholicism. Not many years before he had written a defense of the Church of England, _Religio Laici_. His character is not regarded as very solid, but most critics would esteem him the third English poet of this period. His satires and odes are often of a very high quality. CHAPTER III CLASSICS OF THE MODERN PERIOD As we approach our own time it becomes more difficult to choose our classics. For the earliest period time itself has made the selection very ruthlessly. Nearly every Greek and Latin work left to us is a classic. Then there is the long blank of the early Middle Ages ending in the luxuriant artistic growth of the Renaissance. By the time we have reached, however, the output of distinguished literature becomes very great. Not only have the introduction of paper and printing and the spread of education to a much larger class encouraged writing, but we must remember that now there are a dozen civilizations, not one or two as in ancient times. John Drinkwater in his _Outline of Literature_ devotes one volume to the period from Homer to the middle of the eighteenth century (nearly 5,000 years) and one volume to the literature of the last 150 years! It does not mean that we are so very much richer in classics. The reader must, therefore, not expect to find here a mention of every poet whom some professor or other calls “a classic,” but I have gone carefully over Drinkwater’s work and Richardson and Owen’s _Literature of the World_ (which the reader will find more useful if he wants a larger sketch), and give here a short notice of the men about whose high distinction in letters there is a common agreement. §1. VOLTAIRE AND FRENCH CLASSICS After the age of Racine and Molière French literature rarely rose to the height of great distinction--the chief cause, as elsewhere, being the bitter sectarian struggle--until Voltaire appeared. Seeing, however, that Voltaire, was born just before the death of La Fontaine and Mme. de Sévigné (whose letters are very elegant literature) the interval was not long.