table, and retire to his chamber. in a letter to Mr. Boswell; to

This continued to increafe; and nothing staying on his ftomach, he fent for his friend Dr. Glyn, who finding it to be the gout in that part, thought his cafe dangerous, and called in Dr. Plumptree, the phyfical profeffor. They prefcribed to him the ufual cordials given in that distemper, but without any good effect; for, on the 29th, he was feized with a frong convulfion fit, which, on the 30th, returned with increafed violence; and the next evening he expired. He was fenfible at times almost to the laft, and from the first aware of his extreme danger; but expreffed no visible concern at the thoughts of his approaching diffolution. He was buried in the vault in which his aunt and his mother were interred, in the church-yard of Stoke, according to the direction in his will.

Mr. Mafon, inftead of employing his own pen in drawing Mr. Gray's character, has adopted one drawn by the Rev. Mr. Temple, rector of Mamhead in Devonshire,

whom the public is indebted for communicating it.

Mr. Mafon introduces it thus: "I might here lay down my pen, yet if any reader thould still want his character, I will give him one which was published very foon after Mr. Gray's decease. It appears to be well written; and, as it comes from an anonymous pen, I chufe the rather to infert it, as it will, on that account, be less fufpected of partiality.

"Perhaps he was the most 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, metaphyfics, morals, politics, made a principal part of his plan of ftudy; voyages and travels of all forts were his favourite amufement; and he had a fine taste in painting,

It appeared in the London Magazine a month or two after his decease, (March, 1772) and was prefaced with an eulogy on his poetical merit.

I have given, in the beginning of this fection, an account of the great pains which Mr. Gray beftowed on natural history. I have fince been favoured with a Jetter from a gentleman well skilled in that fcience, who, after carefully perufing his interleaved Syftema Nature of Linnæus, gives me this character of it: "In the clafs of animals (the Mammalia) he has concentrated (if I may use the exprefion) what the old writers and the diffufe Buffon have faid upon the fubje&t; he has univerfally adopted the concife language of Linnæus, and has given it an elegance which the Swede has no idea of; but there is little of his own in this clafs, and it ferved him only as a common-place; but it is fuch a common place that few but Mr. Gray could form. In the birds and fishes he has moft accurately defcribed all that he had an opportunity of examining; but the volume of infets is the most perfect on the English infects there is certainly nothing fo perfect. In regard to the plants, there is little elle than the English names and their native foils, extracted from the Species Plantarum of Linnæus. I fuppofe no man was fo complete a matter of his fyftem; he has felected the diftinguishing marks of each animal, &c. with the greateft judgment, and, what no man elfe probably could have done, he has made the German Latin of Linnæus purely claffical."

:

prints,

prints, architecture, and gardening 1. With fuch a fund of knowledge, his converfation must have been equally inftructing and entertaining; but he was alfo a good man, a well-bred 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 faftidioufnefs, or contempt and difdain of his inferiors in fcience. He alfo bad, in fome degree, that weakness which difgufted Voltaire fo much in Mr. Congreve : though he feemed to value others, chiefly according to the progress they had made in knowledge*, yet he could not bear to be confidered himself merely as a man of letters: and though without birth, or fortune, or ftation, his defire was to be looked upon as a private independent gentleman, who read for his amufement. Per

haps it may be faid, What fignifics fo much knowledge, when it pro

duces fo little? Is it worth taking fo much pains to leave no memorial but a few poems? But let it be confidered, that Mr. Gray was, to others, as leaft innocently employed; to himself, certainly beneficially. His time paffed agreeably; he was every day making fome new acquifition in fcience; his mind was enlarged, his heart foftened, and his virtue ftrengthened; the world and mankind were fhewn to him without a mafk; and he was taught to confider every thing as trifling, and unworthy the attention of a wife man, except the purfuit of knowledge, and the practice of virtue, in that fate wherein God hath placed us." The notes to this character are by Mr. Mafon.

Some Account of the Life and Writings, of the late Dr. Smollett.

lives of literary men can be lit

T is generally faid, that the

He has difclaimed any skill in this art in the 36th letter of the 4th section, and ufually held it in lefs eltimation than I think it deferves, declaring himself to be only charmed with the bolder features of unadorned nature.

This is rightly put; it was rather an affectation in delicacy and effeminacy than the things themfeives; and he chofe to put on this appearance chiefly before perfons whom he did not wish to please.

I have often thought that Mr. Congreve might very well be vindicated on this head. It feldom happens that the vanity of authorship continues to the end of a man's days; it ufually foon leaves him where it found him; and, if he has not fomething better to build his felf-approbation upon than that of being a popular writer, he generally finds himfelt ill at ease, if respected only on that account. Mr. Congreve was much advanced in years when the young French poet paid him this vifit; and, though a man of the world, he might now feel that indifference to literary fame which Mr. Gray, who always led a more retired and philofophic life, certainly felt much earlier. Both of them therefore might reafonably, at times, exprefs fome difguft, if their quiet was intruded upon by perfons who thought they flattered them by fuch intrufion.

It was not on account of their knowledge that he valued mankind. He contemned indeed all pretenders to literature, but he did not felect his friends from the literary class, merely because they were literate. To be his friend, it was always either neceflary that a man fhould have fomething better than an improved understanding, or at least that Mr. Gray fhould believe he had.

tle

the most learned works in any language; and it requires no common hare of reading, affifted with a good memory, thoroughly to relish and understand it. Another epifode of The Adventures of a Lady of Quality, likewife inferted in this work, contributed greatly to its fuccefs, and is indeed admirably well executed. Yet, after giving all due praife to the merit and invention displayed in Peregrine Pickle, we cannot help thinking it is inferior, in what may be called naïveté, a thing better conceived than expreffed, to Roderick Random.

Thefe were not the only original compofitions of this ftamp, with which the Doctor has favoured the public. Ferdinand Count Fathom, and Sir Lancelot Greaves are fill in the list of what may be called reading novels, and have gone through feveral editions; but there is no injuftice in placing them in a rank far below the former. No doubt invention, character, compofition, and contrivance, are to be found in both; but then fituations are defcribed which are hardly poffible, and characters are painted, which, if not altogether unexampled, are at least incompatible with modern manners; and which ought not to be, as the fcenes are laid in modern times.

The laft work which we believe the Doctor published, was of much the fame fpecies, but caft into a dif ferent form-The Expedition of Humphry Clinker. It confifts of a feries of letters, written by different perfons to their respective correfpondents. He has here carefully avoided the faults which may be jufly charged to his two former productions. Here are no extravagant characters, nor unnatural

1

fituations.

On the contrary, an admirable knowledge of life and manners is difplayed; and most ufeful leffons are given applicable to interesting, but to very common fituations.

We koow not that ever the remark has been made, but there is certainly a very obvious fimilitude between the characters of the three heroes of the Doctor's chief productions. Roderick Random, Peregrine Pickle, and Matthew Bramble, are all brothers of the fame family. The fame fatyrical, cynical / difpofition, the fame generofity and benevolence, are the diftinguishing and characteristical features of all three; but they are far from being fervile copies or imitations of each other.

They differ as much as the Ajax, Diomed, and Achilles of Homer. This was undoubtedly a great effort of genius; and the Doctor feems to have defcribed his own character at the different stages and fituations of his life.

He was bred to phyfic, and in the early part of his life ferved as furgeon's mate in the navy. It appears from Roderick Random, that he was at the fiege of Carthagena; of which expedition he gives a faithful, tho' no very pleasing account. Soon after his return he must have taken his degree of Doctor of Phyfic, though we have not been able to learn at what time and at what place. It is faid that, before he took a houfe at Chelfea, he attempted to fettle as practitioner of phyfic at Bath; and, with that view, wrote a treatise on the waters-but was unfuccessful, chiefly becaufe he could not render himself agreeable to the women, whofe favour is certainly of great confequence to all candidates for eminence, whether,

in