GRA the instructions of an able teacher. The examples are numerous 2. Immortality: its Real and Alleged Evidences; 2d ed., "We read this work before; we have re-perused it now with a Gray, James. Measures of Scotland compared with Gray, James. Selecta Latine, Edin., 12mo. Gray, James. Introduction to Arithmetic; 58th ed., Gray, James A., Rector of Dibden, Hants. The Gray, Mrs. James. See BROWNE, MARY Anne. Gray, John. 1. Gunnery, Lon., 1731, 8vo. 2. Peru- Gray, John. 1. Land Measuring, Glasg., 1757, '59, 1777, 8vo. Dr. Price on Civil Liberty, Lon., "While we allow his merit as a politician, we must condemn Gray, John, LL.D. Political treatises, Lon., 1800, '02. Gray, John. 1. The Social System; a Treat. on the "With the view of endeavouring to stimulate, in however slight superseded by the more extensive work of Mr. Hartwell Horne."- "Dr. Gray has diligently consulted and brought together a 2. Letters written during a Tour through Germany, 4. Connexion between the Sacred Writings and the "This is a work of a much higher order than the former, dis- "Indispensably necessary to the biblical student who cannot 5. Josiah and Cyrus the two great objects of Divine Gray, S. The Happiness of States; or, An Inquiry Gray, Samuel Frederick. 1. Arrangement of Brit. "This is a work of great and general utility. To the practitioner Gray, Stephen. Con. on Astronomy and Nat. Philos. Gray, Thomas, Dec. 26, 1716-July 30, 1771, the Gray, John H. Theolog. treatises, Lon., 1842, &c. York, 1814, 8vo. Gray, Nicholas. See GREY. Gray, Robert, D.D., 1762-1834, a native of London, "This is a very convenient and useful book, combining a large In the spring of 1739 the travellers left London, and a later period of life their friendly relations were renewed In September, 1741, Gray returned to London, and in 725 death of Cibber. In 1762 he made an unsuccessful application for the professorship of Modern History at Cambridge, worth £400 per annum; but this post was conferred upon him by the Duke of Grafton in 1768. For this act of kindness his Grace was rewarded by Gray's Ode on the Installation of the Duke of Grafton to the Chancellorship of the University of Cambridge, to which he was elected in 1769. The duties of his professorship were practically neglected by the new incumbent, although he taught the languages by proxy, and contemplated the delivery of a course of lectures, the preparation of which was cut short by his death. On the 24th of July, 1771, while at dinner in the college-hall, he was seized with gout in the stomach, which proved fatal on the evening of the 30th of the same month. A detailed account of the literary life and literary dreams of this ripe scholar and estimable man-his warm friendships, his embarrassing sensitiveness, and the magnificent visions of immortal labours which haunted his mind but never saw the light-will not be expected in the narrow limits to which we are confined. In the biographies of Johnson, Mathias, Chalmers, Mason, Mitford, and of Henry Reed,-prefixed to his edit. of the Poems of Gray pub. by Henry C. Baird, Phila., 1850, 12mo,-and in the letters, &c. of Walpole, Nicholls, Forbes, Boswell, Bowles, Beattie, and other notices of the men of the times in which the poet lived, will be found sufficient to gratify the curiosity and delight of the most enthusiastic of his admirers. It now becomes our duty to lay before the reader the opinions of a number of eminent critics upon the merits of the principal productions of an author who must always occupy an exalted rank among the greater poets of England. 1. Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College. Written in 1742; pub. in 1747, fol. "The Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College is more mechanical and commonplace [than the Elegy in a Country Churchyard]; but it touches on certain strings about the heart, that vibrate in unison with it to our latest breath. No one ever passes by Windsor's 'stately heights,' or sees the distant spires of Eton College below, without thinking of Gray. He deserves that we should think of him; for he thought of others, and turned a trembling, ever-watchful ear to the still sad music of humanity."" -Hazlitt's Lectures on the Eng. Poets. Of Dr. Johnson's comments on this Ode it is enough to quote the first six lines as a specimen of the hypercriticism in which this great writer sometimes unwarrantably indulges: "The Prospect of Eton College suggests nothing to Gray which every other beholder does not equally think and feel. His supplication to Father Thames, to tell him who drives the hoop or tosses the ball, is useless and puerile. Father Thames has no better means of knowing than himself."-Life of Gray. This undignified sneer has been well rebuked by Mr. Mitford: "Are we by this rule of criticism to judge the following passage in the twentieth chapter of Rasselas? As they were sitting together, the princess cast her eyes on the river that flowed before her: "Answer," said she, "great Father of Waters, thou that rollest thy floods through eighty nations, to the invocation of the daughter of thy native king. Tell me, if thou waterest, through all thy course, a single habitation from which thou dost not hear the murmurs of complaint?""" This is an admirable specimen of the argumentum ad hominem. But, if Dr. Johnson has unduly appreciated this Ode, a later authority, of no contemptible rank, has perhaps greatly overrated it: "Gray has, in his ode on Eton College, whether we consider the sweetness of the versification or its delicious train of plaintive tenderness, rivalled every lyric effort of ancient or modern times."DR. DRAKE: Literary Hours. 2. Ode on Spring. Written in 1742. "His ode On Spring has something poetical, both in the language and the thought; but the language is too luxuriant, and the thoughts have nothing new."-DR. JOHNSON: Life of Gray. 3. Hymn to Adversity. Written in 1742. "The hint was at first taken from 0 Diva, gratum quæ regis Antium; but Gray has excelled his original by the variety of his sentiments, and by their moral application. Of this piece, at once poetical and rational, I will not, by slight objections, violate the dignity."-DR. JOHNSON: Life of Gray. 4. Elegy written in a Country Church-yard. Commenced in 1742, revised from time to time, and completed in 1749; pub. by Dodsley in Feb. 1751. There is a tradition that the Elegy was composed in the "precincts of the Church of Granchester, about two miles from Cambridge; and the curfew is supposed to have been the great bell of St. Mary's." The popularity of this exquisite composition was immediate and extensive. Gray himself tells the story in a note on the margin of a manuscript copy of the Elegy preserved at Cambridge among the poet's papers: "Published in Feb. 1751, by Dodsley, and went thro' four edi726 313 GRA tions in two months; and afterwards a 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th; printed also in 1753 with Mr. Bentley's Designs, of which there is a 2d edition, and again by Dodsley in his Miscellany, Latin by Chr. Anstey, Esq., and the Rev. Mr. Roberts, and pub vol. iv., and in a Scotch collection call'd the Union, translated into lish'd in 1762; and again in the same year by Rob. Lloyd, M.A." and therefore will not be displeased to read the enthusiastic The reader is, of course, an ardent admirer of the Elegy, encomiums which have been lavished upon it by critics who have earned a right to be heard with respect: not only for its poetical beauties, but also, and perhaps chiefly, for "It is a poem which is universally understood and admired; its expressing sentiments in which every man thinks himself intested, and which at certain times are familiar to all men.""Had Gray written nothing but his Elegy, high as he stands, I of his glory.... Gray's Elegy pleased instantly and eternally."am not sure that he would not stand higher; it is the corner-stone to bear repetition. The night before the attack on Quebec, in which he lost his life, he declared to his fellow-soldiersThe eulogy of General Wolfe is almost too well known "Now, gentlemen, I would rather be the author of that poem than take Quebec." "I know not what there is of spell in the following simple line: but no frequency of repetition can exhaust its touching charm. "The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep; This fine poem overcame even the spiteful enmity of Johnson, and forced him to acknowledge its excellence."-SIR S. EGERTON BRYDGES: Imaginative Biography. The remark-"spiteful enmity of Johnson"-is in very bad taste, and moreover very unjust; but Sir Egerton was of the Elegy is hearty, enthusiastic, and gladly accorded: not the most amiable of mortals. Johnson's commendation mon reader; for by the common sense of readers, uncorrupted with "In the character of his Elegy I rejoice to concur with the comdogmatism of learning, must be finally decided all claim to poetical literary prejudices, after all the refinements of subtility and the honours. The Church-yard abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind, and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo. The four stanzas beginning yet even these bones,' are to me original: I have never seen the notions in any other place; yet he that reads them here persuades himself that he has always felt them. Had Gray written often thus, it had been vain to blame and useless to praise him."-Life of Gray. that the Elegy owes its popularity not altogether to "the Yet there is much truth in the remark of a modern critic, strain of thought:" same kind, though the relation may be remote; and it differs less "There is a charm in metre, as there is in music; it is of the in degree, perhaps, than one who has not an ear for poetry can be would never have impressed it upon the hearts of thousands and lieve.... Gray's Elegy owes much of its popularity to its strain of tens of thousands, unless the diction and metre in which it was verse; the strain of thought alone, natural and touching as it is, embodied had been perfectly in unison with it. Beattie ascribed its general reception to both causes, [see above.]... Neither cause permanent an effect, unless the poem had been, in the full import would have sufficed for producing so general and extensive and of the word, harmonious."-Southey's Life of Cowper. sent, [not so;] they are stately and pedantic; a kind of methodical most exquisite and finished example in the world of the effect This is a specimen of the censurable extravagance of which enthusiasm is so often guilty. Had Mr. Drake so, (of course an impossibility,) did his memory retain read all the poetry of this species "in the world?" and, if it with such faithfulness as to enable him to make the comparison with the results of which he favours us? us that, as a poet, Gray is "second to none." before we have done with our examination of Gray's number of translations of it which have been made in Elegy is to be noticed in the great number of translations which and is proof of the same universality of interest, transcending the limits of language and of race. To no poem in the English language has the same kind of homage been paid so abundantly. Of what other poem is there a polyglott edition? Italy and England have competed with their polyglott editions of The Elegy: Torri's, bearing the title, Elegia di Tomasso Gray sopra un Cimitero di Campagna, tradotta dell Inglese in più lingue. Verona, 1817; Livorno, 1843;' and Van Voorst's London edition. "The following list of the translations will perhaps best illustrate this unwonted tribute to a poet's genius: "Hebrew, by G. Venturi, an eminent Italian Oriental scholar, who in his version limited himself to use of words, and, as far as possible, phrases, found in the Old Testament. "Greek, by Professor Cooke, Cambridge, 1775; Dr. Norbury, Eton, 1793; Bishop Sparke, London, 1794; Dr. Coote, London, 1794; Stephen Weston, London, 1794; Edward Tew, London, 1795; and the Epitaph alone, by J. Plumtree, 1795; and the Elegy by Cyprianio. Latin, by Robert Lloyd, 1762; W. H. Roberts, Cambridge, .1762, and London, 1778; Signor Gio. Costa, Padua, 1772; Gilbert Wakefield, Cambridge, 1776; Christopher Anstey, London, 1778; Anonymous, Cambridge; S. N. E., London, 1824; W. Hilyard; J. H. Macauley, in the Arundines Cami;' G. F. Barbieri; Ben del Bene; G. Venturi. "Italian, by M. Cesarotti, Padua, 1772; G. Gennari, Padua, 1772; Dr. Giannini, London, 1782; G. Torelli, Verona, 1776; D. Trant. (prose ;) M. Lastri; A. Buttura; P. Baraldi; M. Castellazi; Elisabetta Sesler Bonò, (prose ;) M. Leoni; L. Mancini; Cavazzoca D. Gregori, Rome, 1821. "Portuguese, by Boulard. "French, by De Berchère, Hookham, 1778; L. D. Chatham, 1806; Anonymous, (prose,) Paris, 'an vi.;' Le Tourneur, Dubois, Cabanis, Chénier, Fayolle, Kérivalant, Grénus, Charrin, Le Mièrre, Villeneuve, Fontanes, Chateaubriand. "German, by Gotter, Gotha, 1788; Seume, Riga, 1801; Kosegarten, 1798; Mason; Müller; Ruphrecht. "This list is compiled from several authorities, but chiefly from an article selected from a German miscellany for 'The Literary World,' New York, Oct. 1849; and from several communications to that novel and useful periodical, Notes and Queries,' London, 1850." An interesting account of the sale of the Library of Gray (27th Nov., 1845) will be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for January, 1846, 29-33. From another authority we quote a graphic description of the sale of the original manuscript of the Elegy: "The original manuscript of Gray's Elegy was lately sold at auction in London. There was really a scene' in the auctionroom. Imagine a stranger entering in the midst of a sale of some rusty-looking old books. The auctioneer produces two small half sheets of paper, written over, torn, and mutilated. He calls it 'a most interesting article,' and apologizes for its condition. Pickering bids ten pounds! Rodd, Foss, Thorpe, Bohn, Holloway, and some few amateurs quietly remark, twelve, fifteen, twenty, twentyfive, thirty, and so on, till there is a pause at sixty-three pounds! The hammer strikes. Hold!' says Mr. Foss. It is mine,' says the amateur. 'No, I bid sixty-five in time.' Then I bid seventy.' 'Seventy-five,' says Mr. Foss; and fives are repeated again, until the two bits of paper are knocked down, amidst a general cheer, to Payne & Foss, for one hundred pounds sterling! On these bits of paper are written the first drafts of the Elegy in a Country Churchyard, by Thomas Gray, including five verses which were omitted In publication, and with the poet's interlinear corrections and alterations, certainly an interesting article;' several persons supposed it would call for a ten-pound note, perhaps even twenty. A single volume, with W. Shakspeare' in the fly-leaf, produced, sixty years ago, a hundred guineas; but probably, with that exception, no mere autograph, and no single sheet of paper, ever produced the sum of five hundred dollars!" The purchaser of this precious MS. was Mr. Penn, of Stoke Pogis, who also purchased the MS. of The Long Story, for £45. The MS. of the Elegy was sold in August, 1854, to Mr. Wrightson, of Birmingham, for £131. See Gent. Mag. for Sept. 1854, 272. At this sale the entire collection of Gray MSS. sold for £418 78. See also the London Athenæum, 1854, 941, 696. 5. The Alliance of Education and Government: an unfinished ethical poem of 107 lines; commenced in 1748. The first fifty-seven lines of this poem were transmitted by Gray to Dr. Wharton: "I fill my paper with the beginning of an essay; what name to give it I know not; but the subject is the Alliance of Education and Government: I mean to show that they must both concur to produce great and useful men." Of this poem Dr. Johnson remarks "The fragments which remain have many excellent lines."— Life of Gray. But these "excellent lines" elicited a warmer commendation from the historian of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: "Instead of compiling tables of chronology and natural history, why did not Mr. Gray apply the powers of his genius to finish the philosophic poem of which he has left such an exquisite specl men ?" Mr. Nicholls put the same question to Gray himself, and the poet gave a prompt and frank response to the query: see Nicholls's Reminiscences of Gray. 6. Ode to Vicissitude. The fragment to which this title was given was written in 1754. "Sir Egerton Brydges, through whose multifarious works there is scattered much fine appreciation of both the strength and the weakness of Gray's character, has spoken of this poem as the 'sublime lyrical fragment on Vicissitude,' in which' (he adds) 'I do not hesitate to pronounce the following stanza among the most perfect specimens which the poetry of any country can produce: 'Yesterday the sullen year Saw the snowy whirlwind fly; HENRY REED: Memoir of Gray. 7. The Progress of Poesy; a Pindaric Ode. Completed 1755. Both 7 and 8 were printed at the Strawberry-Hill in 1755. 8. The Bard; a Pindaric Ode. Commenced in Press, by Horace Walpole, in 1757, 4to. "I found Gray in town last week. He brought his two odes to be printed. I snatched them out of Dodsley's hands, and they are to be the first-fruits of my press."-WALPOLE. The Pindaric Odes were not popular: they were neglected by the public and laughed at by the wits,-nay, openly burlesqued by George Colman the elder, and Robert Lloyd, in the odes To Obscurity and To Oblivion,the first intended for Gray and the second for Mason: "Little did the two wits think how small, in comparison with Gray, they would appear in the eyes of posterity; and that The Bard, which was then neglected by the public, would, in the course of the next generation, become the most popular ode in the English language."-SOUTHEY: Life of Cowper. But Colman, in his Miscellaneous Works, pub. in 1787, amply vindicates Lloyd and himself against the charge of ill-nature. The best proof of their want of adaptation to the public comprehension and taste is the fact of their general neglect. Dr. Johnson describes them as "Two compositions at which the readers of poetry were at first content to gaze in mute amazement. Some that tried them confessed their inability to understand them, though Warburton said that they were understood as well as the works of Milton and Shakspeare, which it is the fashion to admire. Garrick wrote a few lines in their praise. Some hardy champions undertook to rescue them from neglect; and in a short time many were content to be shown beauties which they could not see."-Life of Gray. Read the whole of this critique. Walpole admired the Odes greatly, but admitted their unpopularity: "You are very particular,' he remarks to Montague, 'in liking Gray's Odes; but you must remember the age likes Akenside and did like Thompson! Can the same people like both?'" Mr. Forster thinks that Walpole's admiration was rather extravagant: "Two noble productions, it must surely be admitted, whatever of cavil can be urged against them: though not to be admired as Walpole admired."-Life of Goldsmith. Gray himself draws an amusing picture of the public distaste: "Even my friends tell me they (the Odes) do not succeed, and write me moving topics of consolation on that head. In short, I have heard of nobody but an actor [Garrick] and a doctor of divinity [Warburton] that profess their esteem for them. Oh yes! a lady of quality, (a friend of Mason's,) who is a great reader. She knew there was a compliment to Dryden, but never suspected there was any thing said about Shakspeare or Milton, till it was explained to her, and wishes that there had been titles prefixed to tell what they were about."-Letter to Mr. Hurd, afterwards Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. Forster remarks that Gray might have added to the admirers of the Odes "the poor monthly critic of The Dunciad." The "poor monthly critic" thus referred to was no less a person than Oliver Goldsmith, then a hack-writer for Griffith. See our life of GOLDSMITH, in this volume. The original review lies before us now, and we would fain quote from it copiously, to show both the merits of the reviewer and his hearty and intelligent appreciation of his author. As for us, we never read six lines of Goldsmith-either his poetry or his prose-without finding our rather familiar fondness for the man awed into admiring respect for the writer. Where, excepting in the epigrammatic conciseness which distinguishes some of his descriptions of national characteristics in his poem of The Traveller, shall we find so exquisite and faithful a miniature of a whole people as in the following lines? "He speaks to a people not easily impressed with new ideas, extremely tenacious of the old; with difficulty warmed, and as slowly cooling again. How unsuited then to our national character is that species of poetry which rises upon us with unexpected flights! where we must hastily catch the thought, or it take of the Poet's enthusiasm in order to taste of his beauties."flies from us; and, in short, where the Reader must largely par Review of Odes by Mr. Gray, Lon. Month. Rev., xvii. 239-243; Sept. 1757. The critic proceeds to declare that certain passages of The Bard, which he cites, "Will give as much pleasure to those who relish this species of composition as any thing that has hitherto appeared in our language, the odes of Dryden himself not excepted." "His Odes did not, nor yet do they, please like his Elegy."LORD BYRON. We have already quoted with dissent a disparaging comment on the Odes, by Hazlitt, and promised to quote a eulogy, from the extravagance of which we also dissent, by Mr. Mathias: "There is not another ode in the English language which is constructed like these two compositions; with such power, such majesty, and such sweetness, with such proportioned pauses and just cadences, with such regulated measures of the verse, with such master-principles of lyrical art displayed and exemplified, and, at the same time, with such a concealment of the difficulty, which is lost in the softness and uninterrupted flowing of the lines in each stanza, with such a musical magic that every verse in it in succession dwells on the ear and harmonizes with that which has gone before." Much of the above, considered as description, is undoubtedly true; perhaps all of it is true: but this lavish use of superlatives which has, unfortunately for the interests of legitimate criticism, become so common-this "best in the language," "the best in any language,”—“unrivalled,”— "unsurpassed"-is our special aversion. It is generally ignorance and vulgarity, always arrogance and bad taste. No writer is "the best," no woman "the handsomest," no man "the wittiest," no gallant "the most polite:" or, if so in fact, it can never be established by demonstration. 9. Ode on the Installation of the Duke of Grafton to the Chancellorship of the University of Cambridge. Written in 1769. Pub. 1769, 4to. "I thought myself bound in gratitude to his grace, unasked, to take upon me the task of writing these verses, which are usually set to music, on this occasion. I do not think them worth sending you, because they are by nature doomed to live but a single day; or, if their existence is prolonged beyond that date, it is only by means of newspaper parodies and witless criticisms. This sort of abuse I had reason to expect, but did not think it worth while to avoid."-Gray to Beattie. This Ode has also been rewarded by the praises of critics of no ordinary authority. Mr. Hallam dwells with pleasure upon "That beautiful stanza where he has made the founders of Cambridge to pass before our eyes like shadows over a magic glass."-Constit. Hist. of Eng. "I think there is something very majestic in Gray's Installation Ode."-COLERIDGE. 10. Letters of Gray, written at various times to West, Walpole, Wharton, Mason, Nicholls, and Bonstetten. These comprise all of his letters, with the exception of about twenty. They are his chief prose compositions, and certainly support the theory that the best poetsre also the best writers of prose. "I once thought Swift's letters the best that could be wriven, but I like Gray's better. His humour, or his wit, or whatever it is to be called, is never ill-natured or offensive, and yet, Ink, equally poignant with the Dean's."-COWPER. avel it it "He that reads his epistolary narration wishes that to and to tell his travels had been more of his employment; is by studying at home that we must obtain the ability of travelling with intelligence and improvement."-DR. JOHNSON: Lof Gray. "I am acquainted with many parts of your excursion through the north of England, and very glad that you had my old friend Mr. Gray's Letters with you, which are indeed so well written that I have no scruple to pronounce them the best letters that have been printed in our language. Lady Montagu's are not without merit, but are too artificial and affected to be confided in as true, and Lord Chesterfield's have much greater faults,-indeed, some of the greatest that letters can have: but Gray's letters are always sensible, and of classical conciseness and perspicuity. They very much resemble what his conversation was."-DR. BEATTIE: Letter to a Friend. "His letters are inimitably fine. If his poems are sometimes finical and pedantic, his prose is quite free from affectation. He pours his thoughts out upon paper as they arise in his mind; and they arise in his mind without pretence or constraint, from the pure impulse of learned leisure and contemplative indolence. He is not here on stilts or on buckram, but smiles in his easy-chair as he moralizes through the loopholes of his retreat on the bustle and raree-show of the world, or those reverend bedlams-colleges and schools.' He had nothing to do but to read and think, and to tell his friends what he read and thought. His life was a luxurious, thoughtful dream."-HAZLITT: Lectures on the English Ports. When there is so much to be done in this world, so much ignorance to be instructed, error to be rectified, vice to be reformed, and impiety to be extirpated and misery to be consoled, we envy not that man who has no better record to meet him on the Great Day than that "his life was a luxurious, thoughtful dream." But to continue our quotations respecting Gray's Letters: "Delightful indeed are these Letters: evincing the taste of a virtuoso, the attainments of a scholar, and the gaiety of a classical wit."-DIBDIN: Lib. Comp. "Read Gray's Letters on his Tour to the Lakes. He saw little, and that little hastily; but what he did see he sketched with the pen inimitably. The touches with which he occasionally gives life and spirit to the delineation are exquisite. Yet in Gray's prose, as in his verse, there is something affected; and his wit, though very refined and pure, has the air of being forced. The description of the sunrise (Let. 6) is incomparably fine."-GREEN: Diary of a Lover of Lit. Having thus noticed the principal productions of Gray, we presume that the reader will be gratified by some quotations respecting the general characteristics of an author so justly distinguished in the Republic of Letters. "Perhaps he was the most learned man in Europe. He was equally acquainted with the elegant and profound parts of science, and that not superficially, but thoroughly. He knew every branch of history, both natural and civil; had read all the original histo rians of England, France, and Italy; and was a great antiquarian. Criticism, metaphysics, morals, politics, made a principal part of his study; voyages and travels of all sorts were his favourite amusements; and he had a fine taste in painting, prints, architecture, and gardening."-REV. WM. TEMPLE: Letter to James Bos well. The grandiloquent phrase "the most learned man in Europe"-is very observable. What were Mr. Temple's opportunities and capacity for gauging all the learning of all Europe? But upon this fault of exaggeration we have already descanted at length, here and elsewhere, in the present volume. Gray undoubtedly possessed some knowledge of architecture. In our article on EDWARD BENTHAM we have taken occasion to correct an error respecting Gray's supposed share in the History of Ely Cathedral. "I am sorry you did not see Mr. Gray on his return. You would have been much pleased with him. Setting aside his merit as a poet, which, however, in my opinion, is greater than any of his contemporaries can boast, in this or any other nation, I found him possessed of the most exact taste, the soundest judgment, and most extensive learning."-DR. BEATTIE: Letter to a Friend. "What has occurred to me from the slight inspection of his Letters in which my undertaking has engaged me is, that his mind had a large grasp; that his curiosity was unlimited and his judg ment cultivated; that he was a man likely to love much where he loved at all, but that he was fastidious and hard to please. His contempt, however, is often employed, where I hope it will be approved, upon scepticism and infidelity.... He has a kind of strutting dignity, and is tall by walking on tiptoe. His art and his struggle are too visible, and there is too little appearance of ease and nature. him, of great learning and great industry, could not but produce something valuable. When he pleases least, it can only be said that a good design was ill directed. His translations of Northern and Welsh Poetry deserve praise; the imagery is preserved, perhaps often improved; but the language is unlike the language of other poets."-DR. JOHNSON: Life of Gray. "To say that he has no beauties would be unjust: a man like The "fastidiousness" and effeminacy of the poet would appear to have formed prominent points in his character: There is no character without some speck, some imperfection; and I think the greatest defect in his was an affectation in delicacy, or rather effeminacy, and a visible fastidiousness, or contempt and disdain of his inferiors in science."-REV. WILLIAM TEMPLE:"Letter to James Boswell, "His faculties were endowed with uncommon strength; he thought with a manly nervousness; and he penetrated forcibly into every subject which engaged his attention. But his petty manners were disagreeably effeminate and fastidious; his habits wanted courage and hardiness; and his temper and spirits were a prey to feebleness, indolence, and trivial derangements. His heart was pure; and his conduct, I firmly believe, stained with no crime. He loved virtue for its own sake, and felt a just and never-slackened indignation at vice. But the little irritations of his daily temper were too much affected by trifles; he loved to assume the character of the fine gentleman, a mean and odious ambition in any one, but scarcely to be forgiven in a man of genius! would shrug his shoulders and distort his voice into fastidious tones, and take upon himself the airs of what folly is pleased to call high company.”—SIR S. EGERTON BRYDGES: Traits in the Literary Character of Gray the Poet: Cens. Lit., ed. 1815, vili. 216–221, q. v. He But Mason remarks in Gray's defence that his effeminacy was affected most "Before those whom he did not wish to please; and that he is unjustly charged with making knowledge his sole reason of preference, as he paid his esteem to none whom he did not likewise believe to be good." "There has always appeared to me an effort and elaboration in Gray's compositions very remote from the general spirit of poetical effusion. They are exquisite pieces of mosaic, curiously wrought, of the rarest precious gems; but in which we vainly look for the bold design. free handling, and glowing excellencies of a great painter." GREEN: Diary of a Lover of Lit. As regards the success of Gray in his efforts to imitate the poetry of the classical age, there can be but little room for debate: that this success has been unduly exaggerated is no matter of surprise. Indiscriminate eulogy is treason to the object of our adoration; and had Gray's friends been less fervid Dr. Johnson had been less frigid. Mason could not well have said more when he announced, as a dictum of undoubted truth, "No more the Grecian Muse unrivall'd reigns; Perhaps there will be thought to be something of exag Certain it is that, notwithstanding the vehement protests of Gray's modern admirers, the reputation of their favourite's Pindaric Odes received a fatal blow on the day when Johnson's Lives of the English Poets were given to the world. To quote the words of a modern critic of great taste and refinement, "The Lyrical crown of Gray was swept away at one fell swoop by the ruthless arm of Dr. Johnson. That the Doctor's celebrated critique was unduly severe must be admitted; but the stern censor had truth on his side, nevertheless. There is more of Art than Nature in Gray; more of recollection than invention; more of acquirement than genius. If I may use a colloquial illustration, I should say that the marks of the tool are too evident on all that he does."-Neele's Lectures on English Poetry. Lord Jeffrey, in a review of Weber's edition of Ford's Works,-see our biography of FORD,-remarks: "After Young there was a plentiful lack of poetical talent, down to a period comparatively recent. Akenside and Gray, indeed, in the interval, discovered a new way of imitating the antients; and Collins and Goldsmith produced some small specimens of exquisite and original poetry."-Edin. Rev., xviii. 282. But it was not alone the poets of classical antiquity which engaged the studious attention of Gray. Philosophy, also, had its claims acknowledged by him. His comments on Plato elicited the ardent admiration of no less a scholar than Dr. Parr: "When I read the poet Gray's observations on Plato, published by Mr. Mathias, my first impulse was to exclaim, Why did not I write this? Gray alone possesses the merit of avoiding the errors into which other commentators have fallen; there are no fine-spun observations-no metaphysical absurdities-in Gray."Field's Life of Parr. But we must not further lengthen a long article. It is time that we had noticed some of the editions of an author who has now-not unpleasantly, we trust-so long engaged the attention of our reader. 1. Ode to Eton College, Lon., 1747, fol. 2. Elegy written in a Country Church-yard, 1751. The translations of this Elegy into other languages have already been considered at length. Of the many beautiful illustrated edits. we may be permitted to notice that of Van Voorst, of London, with 33 Illustrations, 1839, 8vo; (Mr.Van V. has also pub.— in 1837, 8vo-an edit. of The Bard, with Illustrations from drawings by the Hon. Mrs. J. Talbot;) the edit. illustrated by the London Etching Club, 1847, fol.; the one illuminated by Owen Jones, 1846, r. 8vo; and the edit. illustrated by Birket Foster and others, 1853, cr. 8vo; 2d ed., 1854. 3. Poems, with designs by R. Bentley, 1753, r. 4to. These designs were executed at the suggestion of Horace Walpole, by his friend Richard Bentley: see the name in this Dictionary. Gray repaid the compliment by his Stanzas to Mr. Bentley. 4. Odes. Printed at Strawberry Hill, 1757, 4to. 1000 copies. 5. Poems, Lon., 1768, 12mo. 6. Ode at the Installation of the Duke of Grafton, Cambridge, 1769, 4to. 7. Poems, Dubl., 1771, 4to. This beautiful edit. was "Published to remove the reproaches which Ireland has long laboured under for bad printing."—Thomas Ewing's (the printer) dedication to the Rt. Hon. Sam. Oliver, Esq. 8. Poems, with Memoirs of his Life and Writings, by W. Mason, York, 1775, 4to; 1778, 4 vols. cr. 8vo; Lon., 1789, 4to. Also pub. in 2 vols. 8vo, 2 vols. p. 8vo, and 1807, vols. 12mo. "Reluctant indeed should I be to dismiss these pages to the world without not only the mention, but the strong recommendation, of Mason's Life of Gray, 1775, 4to, with a portrait of that eminent poet prefixed. I should rather perhaps call this book Gray's Memoir of Himself, as the biography is composed chiefly of the poet's own letters.... The neatest and best edition of Mason is that printed in 1778, at York, in 4 vols. crown 8vo, worth about 24s.; but of all the portraits of Gray, I consider that prefixed to the quarto as decidedly the best."-Dibdin's Lib. Comp. | "The taste, the zeal, the congenial spirit of Mr. Mason certainly produced, though with some faults, arising principally from want of erudition, one of the most elegant and classical volumes in the English language."-Lon. Quar. Rev., xi. 304. 9. Poems, 1775, fol. 10. Latin Odes in English Verse, &c., 1776, 4to. 11. Poetical Works, with Notes by Gilbert Wakefield, 1786, 8vo. "Looked through Wakefield's Notes on Gray's Poems. His style is wonderfully luxuriant, and he seems perfectly to enter into and feel the spirit of the poet whom he criticises. The fertility too with which he discovers similitudes is marvellous; but if Johnson is penurious in his praise of Gray, Gilbert Wakefield, I think, is lavish.... Against Johnson, Wakefield is severe, even to virulence; and there is a sentiment at the close of the annotations on the Bard, at which I revolt with disgust: 'If at any time we feel ourselves dazzled by Dr. Johnson's bright and diffusive powers of under standing, we may turn for relief to his criticisms on Gray, his Prayers, and Meditations.""-Green's Diary of a Lover of Lit. 12. Poetical Works, Glasg., 1787, fol. 13. The Traveller's Companion in a Tour through England and Wales, Lon., 1787, 12mo. Supp., 1787, 12mo. New ed., 1799, 12mo. This catalogue was originally written by Gray on the blank leaves of Kitchin's English Atlas. 14. Poems, Parma, 1793, 4to. Printed by Bodini. 200 copies. Large paper, 100 copies. 15. Poems, 1800, 8vo. 16. English and Latin Poems, with Critical Notes and a Life of the Author, &c. by the Rev. John Mitford, Lon., 1814, 8vo; 1816, 2 vols. 4to. Also pub. in 2 vols. 8vo. "From the Advertisement, p. 40, the reader is informed of the chief causes which render this edition so desirable to a genuine lover of Gray's high intellectual character: the great importance however which the editor attaches to this volume is, that it enables the public for the first time to read the genuine and uncorrupted correspondence of Gray, exactly in his own language and printed from his own Manuscripts."—Dibdin's Lib. Comp. Of Mitford's edit., and edits. with Mitford's Life, there have been several issues, 1816, 2 vols. 4to; also pub. in 2 vols. 8vo; illustrated and edited, with introductory stanzas, by John Moultrie, Eton, 1845, 8vo; 2d ed., 1847, 8vo; 3d ed., 1851, 8vo; 4th ed., 1853, 8vo. Pickering's edit., 183543, 5 vols. fp. 8vo. A list of contents will be found at the end of this article. 17. Works, with Extracts, Philological, This edit. contains the Poems, Letters, and the Memoirs Poetical, and Critical, by T. J. Mathias, 1814, 2 vols. r. 4to. by Wm. Mason. "A magnificent edition of Gray's Works, which derives so large a share of its value from the taste, learning, sagacity, and moral principles of an editor peculiarly qualified to do justice to the merits of such a scholar and such a poet as Mr. Gray."-Dr. Purr's Will. "Of the qualifications which pointed out Mr. Mathias as the editor of the present Extracts, Philological, Poetical, and Critical, it is impossible to think or speak otherwise than with sincere respect. His spirit is congenial with that of his author, his admiration, though he professes nunquam vidisse Virgilium,' not inferior to that of personal friendship."-Lon. Quar. Rev., xi. 304318, q. v. "As a poet, the warmest of Mr. Gray's admirers may safely trust him with Fate; viewing him as an amiable and irreproachable private character, we may be contented to take his portrait sketched by the hand of friendship in Mr. Mason's account of him; but, for a delineation of him with all the mastery of talent, not only as a prodigy of learning but as that most exalted character, a Platonist made perfect by Revelation, the world is indebted to Mr. Mathias." Lon. Month. Rev., 1xxviii. 384-387, q. v. Dr. Dibdin does not speak so enthusiastically of this ed tion: The more recent edition of the works of Gray, by Mr. Mathias, ir wo widely-spread quartos, (concerning which read the Quarterly hew, vol. xi., p. 304,) sunk with the weight of lead upon the met. Huge as is the ordinary size of these tomes-and little callated as were the works of Gray for such a ponderous supersti Sure-there are yet LARGE PAPER COPIES!! at a price which at first appalled the timid, and startled the rich, [£12 12s.; the copies ofed ne ordinary size' were pub, at £7 78.] The prices, however, both of the small and large paper, are materially abated [in 1824I hear one of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press ex25. and I prophesy... but hence,' Mavri xaxwv!-methinks claim. Yet, note well: An edition of the Pursuits of Literature was struck off, on paper of the same size, in both forms; as if Thomas James Mathias had been the principal author of this latter work! What will be the verdict of posterity ?"-Lib. Comp. The "verdict of posterity" is no secret. 18. Letters, edited by Rev. J. Mitford, 8vo. 19. Criticisms on Gray's Elegy, 8vo. 20. Life of Gray, by Mason, 24mo. 21. Poems, 32mo. 22. Poems, with Memoir by Mitford, 24mo. 23. Poems, with Westall's Designs, 16mo. 24. Addit. Notes to the Corresp. of Gray and Mann, 1855, 8vo. The edit. of Gray's Poems pub. by Mr. H.C.Baird, Phila., 1850, sm. 8vo, already referred to, and that pub. by Messrs. Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 1854, 18mo, deserve warm commendation. We promised to give a list of the contents of Pickering's edit. of Gray's Works, edited by Mitford, Lon., 1835, '43, fp. 8vo. Vol. I. Life by Mitford; Poems. II. Essay on the Poetry of Gray; Letters. III. Letters. IV. Letters; Journal of Tour in Italy. V. Mathias's Letter on the death of Nicholls; Reminiscences of Gray, by Nicholls; Correspondence of Gray with Nicholls; Correspondence of Brown and Nicholls relative to Gray; Letters of Nicholls; Notes by Mitford; Gray's Notes on Walpole's Lives of the Painters; Extracts from a poem on the letters of the alphabet; Observations on English Metre, Pseudo-Rhythm, Use of Rhyme, and on the Poems of Lydgate. Gray, Walter. Almanacke, Lon., 1587, 8vo. Gray, Walter. Expedition to Scheldt, 1810. Gray, Rev. Wm. On Confirmation, Lon., 1848, 12mo. Gray, Wm. Survey of Newcastle, &c., Lon., 1649, 4to. Gray, Wm. Sketch of the Original English Prose Literature, Oxf., 1835, 8vo. |