praise. Some hardy champions undertook to refcue them from neglect; and in a fhort time many were content to be fhewn beauties which they could not fee.

Gray's reputation was now fo high, that, after the death of Cibber, he had the honour of refufing the laurel, which was then bestowed on Mr. Whitehead.

His curiofity, not long after, drew him away from Cambridge to a lodging near the Museum, where he refided near three years, reading and tranfcribing; and, fo far as can be discovered, very little affected by two odes on "Oblivion" and "Obfcurity," in which his lyrick performances were ridiculed with much contempt and much ingenuity.

When the Profeffor of Modern History at Cambridge died, he was, as he fays, "cockered and "fpirited up," till he afked it of lord Bute, who fent him a civil refufal; and the place was given to Mr. Brocket, the tutor of Sir James Lowther.

His conftitution was weak, and, believing that his health was promoted by exercise and change of place, he undertook (1765) a journey into Scotland, of which his account, fo far as it extends, is very curious and elegant: for, as his comprehenfion was ample, his curiofity extended to all the works of art, all the appearances of nature, and all the monuments of paft events. He naturally contracted a friendship with Dr. Beattie, whom he found a poet, a philofopher, and a good man. The Marefchal College at Aberdeen offered him the degree of Doctor of Laws, which, having omitted to take it at Cambridge, he thought it decent to refuse.

What he had formerly folicited in vain was at laft given him without folicitation. The Profefforship

of

of Hiftory became again vacant, and he received (1768) an offer of it from the Duke of Grafton. He accepted, and retained it to his death; always defigning lectures, but never reading them; uneafy at his neglect of duty, and appeafing his uneafinefs with defigns of reformation, and with a refolution which he believed himself to have made of refigning the office, if he found himself unable to discharge it.

Ill health made another journey neceffary, and he vifited (1769) Weftmorland and Cumberland. He that reads his epiftolary narration wifhes, that to travel, and to tell his travels, had been more of his employment; but it is by ftudying at home that we muft obtain the ability of travelling with intelligence and improvement.

His travels and his ftudies were now near their end. The gout, of which he had fuftained many weak attacks, fell upon his ftomach, and, yielding to no medicines, produced ftrong convulfions, which (July 30, 1771) terminated in death.

His character I am willing to adopt, as Mr. Ma→ fort has done, from a Letter written to my friend Mr. Boswell, by the Rev. Mr. Temple, rector of St. Gluvias in Cornwall; and am as willing as his warmest well-wifher to believe it true.

"Perhaps he was the moft learned man in Europe. He was equally acquainted with the elegant and profound parts of fcience, and that not "fuperficially, but thoroughly. He knew every branch " of hiftory, both natural and civil; had read all the "original hiftorians of England, France, and Italy; "and was a great antiquarian. Criticism, metaphyficks, "morals, politicks, made a principal part of his ftudy; VOL. III. В в

voyages

+66

66

66

voyages and travels of all forts were his favourite "amufements; and he had a fine tafte in painting, prints, architecture, and gardening. With fuch a "fund of knowledge, his converfation must have been equally inftructing and entertaining; but he "was also a good man, a man of virtue and humanity. There is no character without fome fpeck, "fome imperfection; and I think the greatest defect "in his was an affectation in delicacy, or rather effeminacy, and a visible faftidiousness, or contempt "and difdain of his inferiors in fcience. He also had, "in fome degree, that weakness which difgufted Vol"taire fo much in Mr. Congreve: though he seemed "to value others chiefly according to the progress "they had made in knowledge, yet he could not bear "to be confidered merely as a man of letters; and, "though without birth, or fortune, or ftation, his defire

66

was to be looked upon as a private independent gen❝tleman, who read for his amusement. Perhaps it may "be faid, What fignifies fo much knowledge, when it "produced fo little? Is it worth taking fo much pains "to leave no memorials but a few poems? But let it "be confidered that Mr. Gray was to others at least "innocently employed; to himfelf certainly beneficially. His time paffed agreeably: he was every

66

66

day making fome new acquifition in fcience; his "mind was enlarged, his heart foftened, his virtue

ftrengthened; the world and mankind were fhewn "to him without a mafk; and he was taught to con"fider every thing as trifling, and unworthy of the "attention of a wife man, except the purfuit of "knowledge and practice of virtue, in that state "wherein God hath placed us."

Ta

To this character Mr. Mafon has added a more particular account of Gray's skill in zoology. He has remarked, that Gray's effeminacy was affected moftbefore thofe whom he did not wifh to "please;" and that he is unjuftly charged with making knowledge his fole reafon of preference, as he paid his esteem to none whom he did not likewife believe to be good.

"

What has occurred to me from the flight infpection of his Letters in which my undertaking has engaged me is, that his mind had a large grafp; that his curiofity was unlimited, and his judgment cultivated; that he was a man likely to love much where he loved at all; but that he was faftidious and hard to please.. His contempt, however, is often employed, where I hope it will be approved, upon fcepticism and infidelity. His fhort account of Shaftesbury I will infert.

"You fay you cannot conceive how Lord Shaftef"bury came to be a philofopher in vogue; I will "tell you: first, he was a lord; fecondly, he was

66

r

as vain as any of his readers; thirdly, men are very prone to believe what they do not understand; fourthly, they will believe any thing at all,, pro"vided they are under no obligation to believe it;

fifthly, they love to take a new road, even when "that road leads no where; fixthly, he was reckoned

a fine writer, and feems always to mean more than "he faid. Would you have any more reafons? An "interval of above forty years has pretty well deftroyed the charm. A dead lord ranks with com"moners; vanity is no longer interested in the marter; for a new road has become an old one."

666

Mr. Mafon has added, from his own knowledge, that, though Gray was poor, he was not eager of money; and that, out of the little that he had, he was very willing to help the neceffitous.j

As a writer he had this peculiarity, that he did not write his pieces first rudely, and then 'correct them, but laboured every line as it arofe in the train of compofition; and he had a notion not very peculiar, that he could not write but at certain times, or at happy moments; a fantastick foppery, to which my kindness for a man of learning and virtue wishes him to have been fuperior.

GRAY's Poetry is now to be confidered; and I hope not to be looked on as an enemy to his name, if I confefs that I contemplate it with less pleasure than his life.

His ode "On Spring" has fomething poetical, both in the language and the thought; but the language is too luxuriant, and the thoughts have nothing new. There has of late arifen a practice of giving to adjectives derived from fubftantives the termination of participles; fuch as the cultured plain, the daified bank; but I was forry to fee, in the lines of a fcholar like Gray, the bonied Spring. The morality is natural, but too ftale; the conclufion is pretty.

The poem "On the Cat" was doubtlefs by its author confidered as a trifle; but it is not a happy trifle. In the firft ftanza, "the azure flowers that "blow" shew resolutely a rhyme is fometimes made when it cannot easily be found. Selima, the Cat, is called a nymph, with some violence both to language

and