THE LIFE OF THOMAS GRAY.

THOMAS GRAY, the ſubject of this narrative, was the fifth ſon of Mr. Philip Gray, whoſe father was a con⯑ſiderable merchant, and who himſelf was engaged in buſineſs^*, though not to the pecuniary advantage of his family, for being of a ſhy and indolent temper he ſuffered thoſe opportunities of improving his fortune to eſcape him which others would have eagerly em⯑braced. His ſon Thomas was born Dec. 26th 1716, in Cornhill London, and ſent early to Eton ſchool under the tuition of Mr. Antrobus his maternal uncle. This gentleman, being both a good ſcholar and a man of taſte, was aſſiduous in directing the attention of his nephew to thoſe ſources of improvement which he afterwards applied to with ſo much ſucceſs. During the time of Mr. Gray's continuance in this abode of the Muſes he contracted the ſtricteſt intimacy with two of their votaries, whoſe diſpoſitions in many re⯑ſpects were congenial with his own. One of theſe was the Honourable Horace Walpole, who hath been ſo long conſpicuous for his ſkill in the fine arts and his love of letters; the other Richard Weſt Eſq. ſon to a late lord chancellor of Ireland, and grandſon by his mother to the celebrated Biſhop Burnet. As the ac⯑cident of his uncle's being an aſſiſtant at Eton was the [vi] cauſe of his going thither for his claſſical learning, ſo to this gentleman's being Fellow of Peterhouſe in Cambridge it was owing that he was ſent to the ſame univerſity, and admitted in the year 1734 a Penſioner of the ſame college.

The reliſh Mr. Gray had contracted for polite li⯑terature before his removal to Cambridge rendered the abſtruſe ſtudies which then almoſt wholly en⯑groſſed, and at preſent too much occupy, the attention of young men altogether taſteleſs and irkfome: ſtill ‘"Song was his favourite and firſt purſuit;"’ and tho' his thoughts were directed towards the law as a profeſſion for life, yet like Garrick in the picture between Tragedy and Comedy, he hung back with fond reluctance on the Muſe. Nor was this bias of his inclination a little influenced by the conſtant exhor⯑tations of his two friends, particularly Mr. Weſt, who was now removed to Chriſt's Church Oxford, and whoſe propenſity to poetry and diſlike to the law ap⯑pear to have even exceeded his own. After having paſſed four years in college Mr. Gray returned to his father in Town, where he remained till the following ſpring, at which time Mr. Walpole being about to travel invited his friend to go along with him. The invita⯑tion was accepted, and they accordingly ſet out for Italy together, but ſome diſagreement ariſing between them (occaſioned, as Mr. Walpole ingenuouſly con⯑feſſes, leſs by his companion's conduct than his own) [vii] they parted at Rheggio, from whence, after having made a ſhort ſtay at Venice, Mr. Gray returned. The time however devoted to this excurſion was by no means loſt: nothing that our poet ſaw was ſuffered to eſcape him. From no relation, though purpoſely deſigned for the publick eye, can ſo much informa⯑tion be drawn as from his caſual letters. During this interval of his friend's abſence Mr. Weſt, finding that his averſion to the profeſſion for which he had deſti⯑ned himſelf (and with a view to which he had reſided ſome time in the Temple) became almoſt inſuperable, wrote to Mr. Gray on the ſubject, expreſſing in the ſtrongeſt manner the ennui that almoſt overwhelmed him. To this letter an anſwer was returned which preſents the fineſt picture of the writer's mind, and abounds with a juſtneſs of thinking far beyond his years. Gray was now at Florence, where he had ſpent in all eleven months, amuſing himſelf at intervals with poetical compoſitions. It was here that he con⯑ceived the deſign, and produced the firſt book, of a di⯑dactick poem in Latin entitled De Principiis Cogitandi, and addreſſed to Mr. Weſt, a work which he unfor⯑tunately never completed. From Florence proceed⯑ing to Venice he returned to England, deviating but little from the route he had gone, but particularly ta⯑king once more in his way the Grand Chartreuſe, where in this viſit he wrote on the album of that mo⯑naſtery the following Alcaick ode:

On the 1ſt of September 1741 he arrived in Lon⯑don; where he had not been much more than two months before his father was carried off by the gout, a malady from which he had long and ſeverely ſuffered. As the inactivity and ill health of the elder Mr. Gray had prevented him from accumulating the fortune he might have acquired with eaſe, ſo his imprudence had induced him to ſquander no inconſiderable part of what he poſſeſſed. The ſon therefore finding his pa⯑trimony inadequate to the profeſſion he had intended to follow without diminiſhing the income of his mother [ix] and his aunt, reſolved for this reaſon to relinquiſh it; yet to ſilence their importunities on the ſubject he propoſed only to change the line of it, and accord⯑ingly went to Cambridge in the year 1742 to take his Bachelor's degree. But the inconveniencies incident to a ſcanty fortune were not the only evils he had now to combat. Poor Weſt, the friend of his heart, was overborne by a conſumption and family diſtreſſes; and theſe, alas! were burthens which friendſhip could not remove. After languiſhing a conſiderable time under their united oppreſſion this amiable youth fell a victim to both on the 1ſt of June 1742 at Pope's, and was interred in the chancel of Hatfield church, beneath a ſtone bearing the epitaph below^*.

From the time of Mr. Gray's return out of Italy to the date of this melancholy event he ſeems to have employed himſelf chiefly in writing, for in this in⯑terval he communicated to Mr. Weſt the fragment of his tragedy, and ſeveral other pieces. The ſhock how⯑ever of ſo ſevere a ſtroke diſarranged his plans, and broke off his deſigns. The only addition he afterwards made to his didactick poem is the apoſtrophe to the friend he had loſt^†; and nothing can more pathetically [x] diſplay the feelings of a heart wounded by ſuch a loſs than that apoſtrophe and the ſonnet in which he gave them vent:

The Ode to Spring was written early in June at Stoke, whither he had gone to viſit his mother, and ſent to Mr. Weſt before Mr. Gray had heard of his death: how he employed his pen when this ode was returned to him with the melancholy news we have already ſeen. Impreſſions of grief on the generality of mankind, like characters marked on the ſand of the ſea, are ſpeedily effaced by the influx of buſineſs or pleaſure, but the traces of them on the heart of Gray were too deeply inſcribed to be ſoon obliterated; we ſhall not therefore wonder at the ſubjects he has cho⯑ſen, nor at the ſolemnity with which he hath treated them. His Ode on the Proſpect of Eton College, as well as the Hymn to Adverſity, were both written in the following Auguſt, and it is highly probable that the Elegy in the Country Church yard was begun alſo about this time.

Having made a viſit of ſome length at Stoke to his mother and aunt our poet returned to Cambridge, which from this period became his principal home. The conveniencies reſulting from that ſituation, to a perſon of circumſcribed fortune and a ſtudious temper, were in his eſtimation more than a counterbalance for the diſlike which, on ſeveral accounts, he bore to [xii] the place. Leſs pleaſed with exerting his own powers than in contemplating the exertions of others, he al⯑moſt wholly devoted himſelf to the beſt writers of Greece; and ſo aſſiduouſly did he apply to the ſtudy of their works as in the courſe of ſix years to have read with critical exactneſs almoſt every author of note in that language. During this interval however he was not ſo entirely occupied with his ſtated em⯑ployment as to have no time for expreſſing his aver⯑ſion to the ignorance and dulneſs which appeared to ſurround him; but of what he intended on this ſub⯑ject a ſhort fragment only remains.

In the year 1744 he appears to have given up en⯑tirely his didactick poem, and to have relinquiſhed, for ſometime at leaſt, any further ſolicitations of the Muſe. Mr. Walpole, notwithſtanding, being deſi⯑rous to preſerve what he had already written, and to perpetuate the merit of their deceaſed friend, impor⯑tuned Mr. Gray to publiſh his own poems together with thoſe of Mr. Weſt; but this Mr. Gray declined, from the apprehenſion that the joint ſtock of both would hardly fill a ſmall volume▪ A favourite cat be⯑longing to Mr. Walpole happening about this time (1747) to be drowned, Mr. Gray amuſed himſelf with writing on the occaſion an elegant little ode, in which he hath happily united both humour and in⯑ſtruction. But the following year was diſtinguiſhed by a far more important effort of his Muſe; the Fragment on Education and Government, which is [xiii] ſuperiour to every thing in the ſame ſtyle of writing that our own language can boaſt of, and perhaps any other.

[xvi] How much it is to be wiſhed that Gray, inſtead of compiling chronological tables, had completed what he thus admirably begun! In the year 1750 he put his laſt hand to the Elegy in the Country Church⯑yard, which when finiſhed was communicated firſt to Mr. Walpole, and by him to ſeveral perſons of di⯑ſtinction. I his brought Mr. Gray acquainted with Lady Cobham, and furniſhed an occaſion for his Long Story, a compoſition in which the different colours of wit and humour are peculiarly and not leſs intimate⯑ly blended than the ſhifting hues on the faces of a diamond. The elegy having been for ſome time pri⯑vately tranſmitted from onehand to another, at length found its way into publick through The Magazine of Magazines. This diſgraceful mode of appearance ſubjected the Author to the neceſſity of exhibiting it under a leſs diſadvantageous form; and Mr. Bentley ſoon after wiſhing to ſupply every ornament that his pencil could contribute, drew, not only for it but alſo for the reſt of Mr. Gray's productions^†, a ſet of de⯑ſigns, which were handſomely repaid by ſome very beautiful ſtanzas, of which unfortunately no perfect copy remains. In the March of 1753 Mr. Gray ſu⯑ſtained a loſs which he long ſeverely felt: his mo⯑ther, to whom his conduct was exemplary for the diſcharge of every filial duty, and who merited all [xvii] the tenderneſs and attention ſhe received, was taken from him by death. The lines in which Mr. Pope hath expreſſed his piety, beautiful as they are, and much as they deſerve to be praiſed, appear notwith⯑ſtanding to excite leſs of ſympathy than a ſingle ſtroke in the epitaph on Mrs. Gray^*, or a paſſage in a let⯑ter to Mr. Maſon, written the following Decem⯑ber, on the deaths of his father and friend: ‘"I have ſeen the ſcene you deſcribe, and know how dread⯑ful it is; I know too I am the better for it. We are all idle and thoughtleſs things, and have no ſenſe, no uſe in the world, any longer than that ſad im⯑preſſion laſts: the deeper it is engraved the better."’

Mr. Gray, as is evident by a letter to Dr. Wharton, had finiſhed his Ode on the Progreſs of Poetry early in 1755; his Bard alſo was begun about this time, and in the year following the beautiful fragment on the Pleaſures of Viciſſitude. From the looſe hints in his commonplace-book he appears to have planned a fourth ode on the connexion between genius and grandeur, but it cannot now be aſcertained if any part of it was actually written. A vacancy in the of⯑fice of Poet-Laureate was occaſioned in 1757 by the death of Colley Cibber. The Duke of Devonſhire, [xviii] being at that time Chamberlain, made a polite offer of it to Mr. Gray through the hands of Lord John Cavendiſh his brother; but the diſgrace brought upon that office by the profligacy and inability of ſome who had filled it probably induced Mr. Gray to decline the appointment. This part of our poet's life was chiefly devoted to literary purſuits and the cultiva⯑tion of friendſhip. It is obvious from the teſtimony of his letters that he was indefatigable in the former, and that he was always ready to perform kind offices in the latter. Sir William Williams, an accompliſhed and gallant young officer, having been killed at Belliſle, his friend Mr. Fred. Montagu propoſed to erect a mo⯑nument over him, and with this view requeſted Mr. Gray to furniſh the epitaph. His ſlight acquaintance with Sir William would have been a ſufficient reaſon for declining the taſk, but the friendlineſs of Mr. Montagu's diſpoſition, and the ſincerity of affliction with which he was affected, wrought ſo powerfully upon Mr. Gray that he could not refuſe him, though he was by no means able to ſatisfy himſelf with the verſes he wrote. The profeſſorſhip of modern lan⯑guages and hiſtory in the Univerſity of Cambridge becoming vacant in 1762 through the death of Mr. Turner, Mr. Gray was ſpirited up by ſome of his friends to aſk of Lord Bute the ſucceſſion. His ap⯑plication however failed, the office having been pro⯑miſed to Lady Lowther for the tutor of Sir James, from a motive which reflected more honour on her [xix] Ladyſhip than on the gentleman who ſucceeded. In 1765 Mr. Gray, ever attached to the beauties of Na⯑ture as well as to the love of antiquities, undertook a journey to Scotland for the purpoſe of gratifying his curioſity and taſte. During his ſtay in this country Dr. Beattie (though not the firſt of philoſophers yet a poet inferiour to none ſince the death of his friend, and whom he in many reſpects reſembled) found the means of engaging his notice and friendſhip. Through the intervention of this gentleman the Ma⯑riſehal College of Aberdeen had requeſted to know if the degree of Doctor of Laws would be acceptable to Gray; but this mark of their attention he civilly de⯑clined. In December 1767 Dr. Beattie, ſtill deſirous that his country ſhould afford ſome teſtimony of its regard to the merit of our poet, ſolicited his permiſ⯑ſion to print at the Univerſity preſs of Glaſgow an elegant edition of his Works. Dodſley had before aſked the like favour, and Mr. Gray, unwilling to re⯑fuſe, gratified both with a copy containing a few notes and the imitations of the old Norwegian poe⯑try, intended to ſupplant the Long Story, which was printed at firſt only to illuſtrate Mr. Bentley's deſigns. The death of Mr. Brocket in the July fol⯑lowing left another opening to the profeſſorſhip which he had before unſucceſsfully ſought. Lord Bute however was not in office, and the Duke of Grafton, to preclude a requeſt, within two days of the vacancy appointed Mr. Gray. Cambridge before [xx] had been his reſidence from choice, it now became ſo from obligation, and the greater part of his time there was filled up by his old engagements or diverted to new ones. It has been ſuggeſted that he once embra⯑ced the project of republiſhing Strabo, and there are reaſons to believe that he meant it, as the many geo⯑graphical diſquiſitions he left behind him appear to have been too minute for the gratification of general inquiry. The like obſervation may be transferred to Plato and the Greek Anthologia, as he had taken un⯑common pains with both, and has left a mſ. of the latter fit for the preſs. His deſign of favouring the publick with the hiſtory of Engliſh poetry may be ſpoken of with more certainty, as in this he had not only engaged with Mr. Maſon as a colleague, but actually paraphraſed the Norſe and Welſh poems inſerted in his Works for ſpecimens of the wild ſpirit which animated the bards of ancient days. The exten⯑ſive compaſs however of the ſubject, and the knowledge that it was alſo in the hands of Mr. Warton, induced him to relinquiſh what he had thus ſucceſsfully begun. Nor did his love for the antiquities of his country con⯑fine his reſearches to its poetry alone: the ſtructures of our anceſtors and their various improvements particu⯑larly engaged his attention. Hitherto there hath no⯑thing ſo authentick and accurate on the ſubject of Go⯑thick architecture appeared as the obſervations upon it drawn up by Mr. Gray, and inſerted by Mr. Bentham in his Hiſt. of Ely. Of heraldry, its correlative ſcience, [xxi] he poſſeſſed the entire knowledge. But of the various purſuits which employed his ſtudies for the laſt ten years of his life none were ſo acceptable as thoſe which explained the economy of Nature. For botany he ac⯑quired a taſte of his uncle when young; and the ex⯑erciſe which for the ſake of improvement in this branch of the ſcience he induced himſelf to take con⯑tributed not a little to the preſervation of his health. How conſiderable his improvements in it were thoſe only can tell who have ſeen his additions to Hudſon, and his notes on Linnaeus. While confined to zoology he ſucceſsfully applied his diſcoveries to illuſtrate Ari⯑ſtotle and others of the Ancients. From engagements of this kind Mr. Gray's attention was neither often nor long diverted. Excepting the time he gave up to experiments on flowers, for the purpoſe of inveſtiga⯑ting the proceſs of vegetation, (which can ſcarcely be called a relaxation from his ſtated occupations) his on⯑ly amuſement was muſick; nor was his acquaintance with this art leſs than with others of much more im⯑portance. His ſkill was acquired from the produc⯑tions of the beſt compoſers, out of whoſe works when in Italy he had made a ſelection. Vocal muſick he chiefly preferred. The harpſichord was his favourite inſtrument, but though far from remarkable for a fi⯑niſhed execution, yet he accommodated his voice ſo judiciouſly to his playing as to give an auditor con⯑ſiderable pleaſure. His judgment in ſtatuary and painting was exquiſite, and formed from an almoſt [xxii] inſtinctive perception of thoſe graces beyond the reach of art in which the divine works of the great maſters abound. As it was through the unſolicited favour of the Duke of Grafton that Mr. Gray was en⯑abled to follow the bent of his own inclination in the choice of his ſtudies, we ſhall not be ſurpriſed to find, from a letter to Dr. Beattie, that gratitude prompted him to offer his firſtling:

Accordingly on his Grace's being elected Chancellor of the Univerſity Mr. Gray, unaſked, took upon him to write thoſe verſes which are uſually ſet to muſick on this occaſion; and whatever the ſarcaſtick Junius (notwithſtanding his handſome compliment to the poet) might pretend, this was the offering of no ve⯑nal Muſe. The ode in its ſtructure is dramatick, and it contains nothing of the complimentary kind which is not entirely ſuited to the characters employed. Not long after the buſtle of the inſtallation was over Mr. Gray made an excurſion to the ſequeſtered lakes of Weſtmoreland and Cumberland. The impreſſions he there received from the wonderful ſcenery that every where ſurrounded him he tranſmitted to his friend Dr. Wharton in epiſtolary journals, with all the wild⯑neſs of Salvator and the ſoftneſs of Claude. Writing in May 1771 to the ſame friend, he complains of a [xxiii] violent cough which had troubled him for three months, and which he called incurable, adding, that till this year he never knew what (mechancial) low ſpirits were. One circumſtance that without doubt contributed to the latter complaint was the anxiety he felt from holding as a ſinecure an office the du⯑ties of which he thought himſelf bound to perform. The object of his profeſſorſhip being twofold, and the patent allowing him to effect one of its deſigns by de⯑puty, it is underſtood that he liberally rewarded for that purpoſe the teachers in the Univerſity of Italian and French. The other part he himſelf prepared to execute; but tho' the profeſſorſhip was inſtituted in 1724, none of his predeceſſors had furniſhed a plan. Embaraſſed by this and other difficulties, and re⯑tarded by ill health, the undertaking at length be⯑came ſo irkſome that he ſeriouſly propoſed to relin⯑quiſh the chair. Towards the cloſe of May he remo⯑ved from Cambridge to Town, after having ſuffered from flying attacks of an hereditary gout, to which he had long been ſubject, and from which a life of ſingular temperance could not protect him. In Lon⯑don his indiſpoſition having increaſed, the phyſician adviſed him to change his lodgings in Jermynſtreet for others at Kenſington. This change was of ſo much benefit that he was ſoon enabled to return to Cam⯑bridge, from whence he meditated a journey to his friend Dr. Wharton, which he hoped might reeſtabliſh his health; but his intentions and hopes were deluſive. [xxiv] On the 24th of July 1771 a violent ſickneſs came on him while at dinner in the College-hall; the gout had fixed on his ſtomach, and reſiſted all the powers of medicine. On the 29th he was ſeized by a ſtrong convulſion, which the next day returned with addi⯑tional force, and the evening after he expired. At the firſt ſeizure he was aware of his danger, and tho' ſenſible at intervals almoſt to the laſt, he betrayed no dread of the terrours of death.

To delineate his portrait in this place would be needleſs. The reader will acquire the beſt idea of his character if after peruſing his life and his writings he will uſe his own memory a sa cylindrick mirror, and collect into one aſſemblage the ſcattered features. Of Mr Gray's religious opinions but little is known; there are however ſufficient traces left to ſhew him a believer. To Lord Bolingbroke's atheiſm he hath written an anſwer. His ſentiments of Lord Safteſbury cannot be miſtaken; and both Voltaire and Hume he cenſures with freedom. In private life he was moſt reſpected by thoſe who beſt knew him: his heart was benevolent and his hand liberal.

On his poems it will be needleſs to beſtow praiſes, or to repel the attacks of envy and rancour. If Mr. Gray was not a poet of the firſt order there is no poe⯑try exiſting; and if his bold expreſſions be nonſenſe, ſo are the beſt paſſages of Shakeſpeare and Milton, and the ſublimeſt figures of divine inſpiration.