That's his best poem. To summarize his life up to then, Dryden was born a puritan and worked for Cromwell's government in his early life; at the Restoration of Charles II, Dryden converted to Charles's religion, Anglicanism, and became the first official poet laureate under Charles; then, on the succession of his brother James II, Dryden once again converted to the new king's religion, Catholicism, and, once again, served as the poet laureate. Dryden's many enemies saw him as an unscrupulous timeserver, so he wrote the Hind and the Panther as a justification for his conversion. He argued that the reign of a Catholic would not last long and that England soon would return to Protestantism. And all throughout his poem, he evinced his convinction in the truth of the Church and his readiness to bear whatever suffering that will come from his conversion. It should be added that Dryden converted his family, too, and gave a son to the priesthood.
If joys hereafter must be purchased here,
With loss of all that mortals hold so dear,
Then welcome infamy and public shame,
And last a long farewell to worldly fame,
'Tis said with ease but oh how hardly tried
By haughty souls to human honor tied,
Oh sharp convulsive pangs of agonizing pride,
Down then, thou rebel, never more to rise,
And what thou did and dost so dearly prize,
That fame, that darling fame, make that thy sacrifice.
'Tis nothing thou hast given, then add thy tears
For a long race of unrepenting years,
'Tis nothing yet, yet all thou hast to give,
Then add those maybe years thou hast to live,
Yet nothing still, then poor and naked come,
Thy father shall receive his unthrift home,
And thy blest Savior's blood discharge the mighty sum.
(I quoted all that from memory by the way 
) There's much more to be said about this poem. Let Pope's judgement suffice when he said it was the best example of Dryden's versification.
