well know as much of the sports of boys, as the great Father of Waters knew of the discontents of men, or the Tiber itself of the designs of Marcellus."

I would not violate that reverence due to so great a man as Dr. Johnson; but I must believe that very undeniable prejudice existed in his mind with regard to Gray, though how it arose I am at a loss to say. "Sir, he is a dull man," he said to a friend, “in every way he is dull in writing, and dull in conception." All that I shall say to this extraordinary assertion is, that the public voice has acquitted the poet of dulness, for no quality is less easily pardoned; and as to his Letters, they abound in humour more than those of any other writer in this country. I speak of his original and authentic correspondence, of which I have had the opportunity of seeing nearly the whole that exists; for Mason has, in fact, with a timid and most unnecessary circumspection, omitted much of the wit and humour, as he himself owns, "because, from their personalities, or from some other local circumstances, they did not seem so well adapted to hit the public taste."

In the autumn of 1742 Gray composed "The Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College,' "* and "The

* The Ode on Eton College was first published in folio, in 1747, and appeared again in Dodsley's Collection, Vol. II. p. 267, in which the name of the author of the Hymn to Adversity first appeared, Dodsley, Vol. IV. together with the

Hymn to Adversity;" the "Elegy in a Country Church-yard" was also commenced. We have heard the expression in the twelfth line of the first Ode,

"Ah! fields beloved in vain,"

considered as obscure, and not easily interpreted; but the Poem is written in the character of one who contemplates this life as a scene of misfortune and sorrow,

Ανθρωπος ἱκανὴ προφάσις εἰς τὸ δυστύχειν,

from whose fatal power the brief sunshine of youth is supposed to be exempt. The fields are "beloved" as the scene of youthful pleasures, and as affording the promise of happiness to come; but this promise never was fulfilled. Fate, which dooms man to misery, soon over-clouded these opening prospects of delight.

That is "in vain beloved," which does not realize the expectations it held out. No fruit, but that of disappointment, has followed the blossoms of a thoughtless hope. The happiness of

Elegy, and not, as Mason says, with the three foregoing Odes, which are printed in the second volume. In Mason's selection the Hymn is called an Ode, but the title Hymn is given by the author. The motto from Eschylus is not in Dodsley. The "Ode on Spring" appeared in Dodsley's Collection, Vol. II. p. 27, under the simple title of Ode. Dr. Joseph Wharton informs us, that little or no notice was taken of this Ode on Eton College on its first appearance.

youth must be pronounced imperfect, when not succeeded by the prosperity of future life, which, according to the poet, Fate has decreed to man: for this "youthful progeny" is described as sporting on the brink of misery. The "murderous band,”. the ministers of misfortune, are already in ambush to seize their little victims; but a little period now of thoughtless joy is allowed to them, and then they will become a prey to those passions which are the vultures that tear the mind, and those diseases which are the painful family of death. The fields therefore, which are the brief abode of youthful sports, are "in vain beloved," as having promised happiness, which, from the very nature of man, and the tenure by which he holds his being, could not be realized. Such is the interpretation which I give to the line. I shall only further observe, that the repetition thrice of the word shade in the opening lines is very ungraceful; and that "to chase the rolling circle's speed" seems to me both an incorrect expression, and ungrammatical circumlocution. We neither call a hoop a 66 circle," nor do we speak of "chasing a speed."* Some parts

* In the original manuscript the line stood,

"To chase the hoop's elusive speed;"

which no doubt was altered on account of the word elusive. In another manuscript of Gray's writing of the same ode, the twenty-second line is,

"Full many a smiling race;"

instead of sprightly.

of the Ode however, both in the nature of the thought, and simplicity of expression, are exquisitely beautiful; and similar praise may be given to the last stanza of the "Hymn to Adversity." It will be observed by those who read the Lyric Poetry with the careful attention which, for the high excellence, it deserves, that in the rhymes they are unusually faulty and succinct. This defect was acknowledged and lamented by Gray; for in one of his unpublished letters he says that he endeavoured to give his language that clear, concise, and harmonious structure which is suited to Lyric Poetry; but he was always impeded by the difficulty of rhyming in these short measures. He seems to have considered accuracy of rhyme of inferior consequence to propriety and beauty of expression; and that such was the difficulty of moulding our poetical language, when the rhyming sound, or consonance, recurs so frequently, that its perfect accuracy is not attainable.

Gray's residence at Cambridge was now continued, not from any partiality to the place, but partly from the scantiness of his income, which prevented his living in London; and partly no doubt for the convenience which its libraries afforded.*

Original composition he almost en

* Dr. Parr thinks that Gray's fixing his residence at the University, "in which place he adhered so steadily and long," the scantiness of his fortune, the love of books, and the easy

tirely neglected; but he was diligently employed in a regular and very constant perusal of the Greek and Latin authors; so that in six years he had read all the writers of eminence in those languages, digesting and examining their contents, marking their peculiarities, and noting their corrupt and difficult passages. Many of these learned and critical common-place books exist in the library of Pembroke College; many others I have seen, all showing very curious and accurate scholarship, particularly those on the Greek historians and orators; and all written with a delicacy and accuracy of penmanship scarcely inferior to the productions of the press. He formed for his own instruction a collection of Greek Chronology: which extended from the 30th to the 110th Olympiad, a period of 332 years, and which is chiefly designed to compare the time of all great men, their writings, and transactions. "I have read," he writes, "Pausanias and Athenæus all through,

access he had to them in many libraries, will hardly be considered as "the sole motive." But where could he go? Besides, he had gradually formed out of the general society at Cambridge, an acquaintance with several persons of intelligence and knowledge, and a friendship with a few:

"Nec tu credideris urbana commoda vitæ ;

Quære Nasonem-quærit et illa tamen. The unfinished “Hymn to Ignorance" is supposed to have been written in 1742, when he returned to Cambridge from abroad.