LETTER 11. To Mr. NICHOLLS. Character of Froissart and other old French historians. And of Isocrates 12. To Dr. Page · 391 ΤΟΝ. Of his tour, taken the year before, to Mon&c. Intention of coming to Old Park. And of his ill state lt Conclusion, with the particulars of Mr. Gray's death. His character 394 APPENDIX. LETTERS TO MR. WALPOLE. 1. The little concern produced by public calamities. Some remarks upon the character of Mr. Pope 2. Description of true philosophy. Conduct of Mr. Ratcliffe at his exe 3. Elegy written in a Country Church-yard first forwarded. specting a work in the press against Mr. Middleton 4. Observations upon a dramatic performance, entitled Elfrida, from the pen of Mr. Mason 5. Same subject continued 8. The Hymn to Adversity. Two publications of Dr. Middleton's no 6. Mr. Lyttleton's Elegy and Mr. Walpole's Epistle from Florence considered-favourable views of the latter 7. Inquiries concerning a new work of his, containing a history of his own time 9. Promises a new ode 10. Review of the writers who contributed to Mr. Dodsley's Collection of Poems. A new ode 12. Acknowledges the receipt of two specimens of Erse Poetry: is anx- 14. Thanks for a copy of Anecdotes of Painting: the Author's plan of an 16. Means recommended to secure his restoration to health. Inquiries relative to an old picture 17. Prevailing opinions respecting the work entitled Historic Doubts. Algarotti's purchase of an excellent Holbein picture. Curious tapestry 438 18. Our Author's observations upon his own writings. Mr. Boswell's 19. Ludicrous title-page, with particular information contained in the 1. Laments his absence in language deeply affecting 2. Continues to deplore his separation from his friend 3. Mentions his return from Suffolk, and still pursues the subject of his 451 MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF MR. GRAY. SECTION I. THE lives of men of letters seldom abound with incidents; and perhaps no life ever afforded fewer than that which I have undertaken to write. But I am far from mentioning this by way of previous apology, as is the trite custom of biographers. The respect which I owe to my deceased friend, to the public, and (let me add) to myself, prompts me to waive so impertinent a ceremonial. A reader of sense and taste never expects to find in the memoirs of a philosopher, or poet, the same species of entertainment, or information, which he would receive from those of a statesman or general: he expects, however, to be either informed or entertained; nor would he be disappointed, did the writer take care to dwell principally on such topics as characterize the man, and distinguish that peculiar part which he acted in the varied drama of society. But this rule, selfevidently right as it may seem, is seldom observed. B It was said, with almost as much truth as wit, of one of these writers, that, when he composed the Life of Lord Verulam, he forgot that he was a philosopher; and, therefore, it was to be feared, should he finish that of the Duke of Marlborough, he would forget that he was a general. I shall avoid a like fault. I will promise my reader that he shall, in the following pages, seldom behold Mr. Gray in any other light than that of a scholar and a poet: and though I am more solicitous to shew that he was a virtuous, a friendly, and an amiable man, than either; yet this solicitude becomes unnecessary from the very papers which he has bequeathed me, and which I here arrange for the purpose: since in these the qualities of his head and heart so constantly appear together, and the fertility of his fancy so intimately unites with the sympathetic tenderness of his soul, that were it in my intention, I should find it impossible to disjoin them. His parents were reputable citizens of London. His grandfather a considerable merchant: but his father, Mr. Philip Gray, though he also followed business, was of an indolent and reserved temper; and therefore rather diminished than increased his paternal fortune. He had many children, of whom Thomas, the subject of these Memoirs, was the fifth born. All of them, except him, died in their infancy; and I have been told that he narrowly escaped suffocation, (owing to too great a fulness of blood which destroyed the rest) and would certainly have been cut off as early, had not his mother, with a courage remarkable for one of her sex, and withal so very tender a parent, ventured to open a vein with her own hand, which instantly removed the paroxysm. He was born in Cornhill, December the 26th, 1716; was educated at Eton school, under the care of Mr. Antrobus, his mother's brother, who was at that time one of the assistant masters, and also a fellow of St. Peter's College, Cambridge; to which place Mr. Gray removed, and was there admitted a pensioner in the year 1734. While at school, he contracted a friendship with Mr. Horace Walpole and Mr. Richard West: the former of these appears, at present, with too much distinction in the literary as well as fashionable world, to make it necessary I should enlarge upon this subject; but as the latter died before he could exert his uncommon abilities, it seems requisite to premise somewhat concerning him; especially as almost every anecdote which I have to produce, concerning the juvenile part of Mr. Gray's life, is included in his correspondence with this gentleman: a correspondence, which continued, with very little interruption, for the space of about eight years, from the time of their leaving school to the death of the accomplished youth in question. His father was Lord Chancellor of Ireland. His grandfather, by the mother, the famous Bishop Burnet. He removed from Eton to Oxford, about the same time that Mr. Gray left that place for Cambridge. Each of them carried with him the reputation of an excellent classic scholar, though I have been told that, at the time, Mr. West's genius was reckoned the more brilliant of the two: a judgment which, I conceive, was not well founded; for though Mr. West's part of that cor |