Part I: Introduction -- Dryden's character -- His conception of the poets intellectual qualifications -- His skeptical temper and thought -- Part II: The traditions of skepticism -- Greek -- Medieval and Christian -- The sixteenth century: Montaigne -- The seventeenth century: Pascal -- The seventeenth century: Browne -- Part III: The crisis of the new science -- The revival of materialism -- Hobbes -- The recourse to Pyrrhonism -- Dryden and Hobbes -- Dryden and the Royal Society -- Part IV: Roman Catholic apologetics in England -- Fideistic developments up to 1660 -- Dissemination of fideism, 1660-88 -- Simon's Critical history of the Old Testament -- Dryden's supposed deism -- The preparation for the poems on religion: Dryden's reading -- The philosophical content of the poems on religion -- Part V: Toryism -- Skepticism and conservatism -- Hobbs and Filmer -- Dryden's view of whiggism -- Drydne's formulation of toryism.