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 '^AHVHail^ ^FJNVSOl^ %a3Ai;
 
 CRITICISM 
 
 ON THE 
 
 ELEGY 
 
 WRITTEN IN A 
 
 COUNTRY CHURCH YARD, 
 
 [ Price ?s. ]
 
 A 
 
 CRITICISM 
 
 ON THE 
 
 ELEGY 
 
 WRITTEN IN A 
 
 COUNTRY CHURCH YARD. 
 
 BEING A CONTINUATION OF 
 
 D R . J ISPs CRITICISM ON THE 
 
 POEMS OF GRAY. 
 
 ': f 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR G. WILKIE, No. 71, ST. PAUL'S 
 CHURCH YARD. 
 
 MDCCLXXXIK.
 
 PR 
 
 [ v ] "^ 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 TO prevent any miftakes that might arife, 
 and in juftice to his Readers and himfelf, 
 the Editor of the following Tradl: feels himfelf 
 bound to declare, that he has no farther con- 
 cern in it, than as being accidentally the chan- 
 nel through which it is conveyed to the Pub- 
 lic. Having ordered, a few months ago, * Irijh 
 
 editions 
 
 * It is with concern that the Editor has learnt, that this 
 fpecies of traffic, fo convenient for the Knights Compa- 
 nions of the light fur/e, is fo much at prefent on the decline, 
 as to threaten (in the language of the Counter J to be 
 fpeedily knocked up. The Irijh Editors have imprudently 
 fcrevoed up their prices too high: and their Rivals on this 
 fide the water have been, of late, unufually Jbarp fet in 
 running them down, by the affiftance of the Statute Book, 
 and officers of the cuftoms. It was a forry Jight to the 
 Editor, laft vacation, to fee the Royal warehoufes at the 
 ports oppofite to the Irifh coaft, crowded with fo many 
 choice and famous Authors, languifhing in ignoble bonds, 
 and fome of them expiring, indefianceof Magna Charta, 
 under cruel tortures. . . . Here lay Mrs. C-th ne 
 
 M y, juft new from the Jbeers and fpunge, " her 
 
 " filver ikin laced with her golden blood," pointing to 
 a her 
 
 764503
 
 [' v. ] 
 
 editions of fome late publications (an irregu- 
 larity into which the high prices of town-made 
 books, and the low ftate of his own finances, 
 have fometimes betrayed him, to the detri- 
 ment of copy-hold rights, and " againlt the 
 *' form of the Statute in that cafe provided ;") 
 he found the parcel, on its arrival in his cham- 
 bers, to be double-fortified with fwathes of 
 printed meets j refembling, in their general 
 appearance, what is known among the Trade t 
 by the name of Imperfections. This, being quite 
 *' felon les Regies ,*' excited neither curiofity nor 
 attention j but approaching, foon after, the 
 parcel to his teeth, for thepurpofe of undoing 
 the twine ', the wrappers were again forced upon 
 his eye.; when he perceived, by certain cabalif- 
 tical marks upon the margins and field > and 
 which his printer would laugh at him mould 
 he attempt to depict, that what he had taken 
 at firft for imperfections, were no other than 
 -proof-fheets % of a work apparently critical^ and 
 which he felicitated himfelf on his chance of 
 feafting on, perhaps before the Public. He fet 
 
 her ample games, and bellowing for her habeas corpus. 
 
 . . . There lay the' redoubted Junius, his body dif- 
 
 membered by the axe, and his quarters at the King's dif- 
 po/al, and there the (lately G-b-ns, laniatum corpore toto, 
 
 with the vehicle of his keen elocution bored through with 
 
 red-hot iron, Sic. &c. 
 
 Non, mihi A linguae centum fint, oraque centum, 
 Omnia poenarum percurrere nomina poflim. 
 
 5 himfelf
 
 [ vii rj 
 
 himfelf accordingly to examine the fheets with 
 attention j and found them, not without fome 
 furprife, to contain a methodical criticifm upon 
 Gray's " Elegy written in a Country Church- 
 yard " executed in a manner fomewhat outre, 
 and containing Obfervations on certain other 
 Poems of Gray, together with allufions to cer- 
 tain Analyfes of them, which were referred to 
 as preceding this parcicular Criticifm, but which 
 were not to be found in thefe fheets. A fud- 
 den thought now entered his head, and one 
 which fome will perhaps think he too hafiily 
 adopted. Having been lately reading Dr. 
 J-hn n's Criticifm on Gray (a work which 
 afforded him infinite amufement), and the Doc- 
 tor's manner being then ftrongly impreffed on 
 his mind, he fancied he perceived a refemblance 
 betwixt the ftyle and mode of Criticifm dif- 
 played in the Doctor's Strictures on Gray's 
 other Poems, and that adopted in the Criti- 
 cifm now before him. The leges judkandi were 
 the fame -, and the Editor was led to fancy it 
 poffibie, that the Obfervations on the Elegy 
 written in a Country Church-yard, were com- 
 pofed by Dr. J-hn n, printed off for publica- 
 tion, along with the other parts of the Criti- 
 cifm on Gray, but afterwards withdrawn - t from 
 the fufpicion that a cenfure fo free, of one of 
 the moft popular productions in the Englifli 
 language, might be ill-received by the Public, 
 a 2 Full
 
 [ viii ] 
 
 Full of this idea, the Editor formed, the refo- 
 lution of reftoring to his Fellow-Readers what 
 feemed to him to have been needlefsly taken 
 away j and thus to gratify their palates with a 
 dim that one meets not ivith every day. 
 
 What his riper fentiments upon this fubjeft 
 are, the Editor does not chufe to fay. The 
 Public are in pofTeffion of the evidence, both 
 internal and internal j and they are lefc to judge 
 for themfelves. It is, however, but fair to 
 admit, that there are fome circumftances which 
 are rather unfavourable to the idea, that this 
 Criticifm on Gray's Elegy is the genuine pro- 
 duction of Dr. J-hn n. Although it is not dif- 
 ficult to conceive, that means might have been 
 found to get the * proof-meets of this work 
 tranfmitted iuccefnvely to Ireland (as the proof 
 meets of other works have been) in due courfe of 
 pofti and although the cafe of an -J- Author of 
 
 The great number of proprietors (in all thirty-fix) 
 whofe names, in eight files, marfhalled in the form of 
 the Cuneus, defend the title-page of Dr. J-hn n's 
 amufing work, though calculated to ftrike terror in 
 after pirates, may have even contributed to render eafy 
 ihcfrfl trefpafs. Secrecy and Prudence diflributed among 
 thirtj-fix men, become little elfe than names. " In the 
 " multitude of counfellors there is fafety :" The cafe is dif- 
 ferent with copy-holders. 
 
 j- It is faid to be a vouched anecdote of the Author of 
 " Effays and Treatifes on feveral Subjefts," that he revoked 
 and deitroyed certain Effays, which he had already got 
 printed off, and in which he found reafon to fufpeft that 
 he had taken his ground rather too haftily. 
 
 note^
 
 [ ] 
 
 note, as well as of boldnefs, withdrawing aprinted 
 work, previous to the day of publication, is not 
 without precedent in the annals of literature; 
 yet the boldnefs of Dr. J-hn n is fo colossal, 
 and his juft confidence in the propriety of his 
 own tafte, and the foundnefs of his critical 
 creed, fo completely inebranlable, that 
 one may bejuftified in doubting, whether it 
 could be pofiible for him to bring himfelf to 
 cancel, from prudence, that which he had once 
 printed off for publication. So ftands the argu- 
 ment on one fide : but wavlt Xoyu la-os Koyog 
 dvJMsiJM ; "for every Rebutter, there is a Sur- 
 Rebutter ;" as the fhrewd Sextus has told us. 
 
 But whatever may be the Editor's opinion 
 with refpect to the authenticity of the Trafb now 
 offered to the Public, he finds himfelf at full 
 liberty to acknowledge, that he has more than 
 once repented of the refolution he had formed 
 to reprint it. He foon found that the iheets 
 were in fome places fo faint and blotted, and 
 in others fo erafed and torn, that it was im- 
 poffible to prefent it for publication, unlefs in 
 a manufcript copy, taken with much pains, 
 and in which it would be necefiary to call in 
 the aid of conjefture towards completing the 
 fenfe by fupplement and interpolation. Difficult 
 as this appeared in profpecl, he found it ftill 
 more difficult in execution : but, thouo-h he 
 was often tempted to abandon his enterprize, 
 
 Perfeve-
 
 [ * ] 
 
 Perfeverance at laft bore him through the la- 
 bour he had undertaken. How he has acquit- 
 ted himfelf in it, it belongs not to him to fay. 
 He may have committed miftakes j but he has 
 committed none that he poffeffed the means of 
 avoiding. In one or two proper names, he is 
 not fure but he may have fupplied the defaced 
 characters incorreclly. 
 
 From what has been now dated, this Tract 
 mult neceflarily be fuppofed to meet the Public 
 eye, in a ftate fomewhat different from that in 
 which it came from the pen of its fuppofed Au- 
 thor. The characteristic peculiaritiesof the Wri- 
 ter, and that poignancy which diftinguimes all 
 his productions, muft naturally be found in it, 
 in a difguifed and fattened fcate ; and the Strictures 
 mull have loft, of courfe, " part of what Tem- 
 " pie would call their Race ; a word which, 
 < applied to wines, in its primitive fenfc, means 
 " the flavour of the foil." 
 
 It was once intended to print the Criticifm in a 
 manner refembling the editions of Fejius^ which 
 diftinguifh, by a difference of character, the 
 unimpaired paffages in the original, from the 
 fupplements and interpolations. But technical 
 reafons were adduced againft this mode ; to 
 which the Editor was obliged to yield, as he 
 was not able to refute them. In place of this 
 contrivance he had fubftituted another, which 
 would have equally gratified the curiofity of 
 
 the
 
 [ ] 
 
 the Lovers of the imitative arts, for whofe 
 entertainment this Publication was meant. In 
 imitation of Mr. Brooke Boothby, he meant to 
 have depofited the Original in the Britim Mu- 
 feum, fortheinipection of the curious. But, alas! 
 the late dreadful conflagration, which extended 
 itfelf in part to his chambers, deprived him 
 of the power of executing what he had plan- 
 ned. The zeal and activity of friends, which 
 faved all his valuable property, overlooked thefe 
 dirty meets. The Editor foon after faw their 
 remains. They had died a gentle death. The 
 flame feemed juft to have reached them at the 
 time its violence was fpentj for they lay un- 
 diflipated in a drawer half open, and which 
 was little more than finged. The characters 
 were in part legible, being marked in a pale 
 white, fpreading over a dark ground ; furnifh- 
 ing at once a proof of identity, and claiming a 
 joint appropriation of the character which the 
 Poet had applied exclufively to man : 
 
 " EVEN IN OUR ASHES LIVE THEIR WONTED FIRES." 
 
 Lincoln* s Inn, 
 15th Jan. 1783.
 
 [ xiii ] 
 
 E L E G 
 
 WRITTEN IN A 
 
 COUNTRY CHURCH-YARD. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE Curfew tolls the knell of parting day*, 
 The lowing herd winds (lowly o'er the lea; 
 The plowman homeward plods his weary way, 
 And leaves the world to darknefs and to me. 
 
 II. 
 
 Now fades the glimmering landfcape on the fight, 
 And all the air a folemn ftillnefs holds j 
 Save where the beetle wheels his drony flight, 
 And drowfy tinklings lull the diftant folds $ 
 
 * The knell of parting day,] 
 
 Squilla di lontano, 
 Che paia '4 giorno pianger, che fi muore. 
 
 Dante, Purgat. 1. 8. 
 
 III.
 
 [ xiv ] 
 
 III. 
 
 Save that, from yonder ivy-mantled tower, 
 The moping Owl does to the Moon complain 
 Of fuch, as, wand'ring near her fecret bower, 
 Moleft her ancient, folitary reign. 
 
 IV. 
 Beneath thofe rugged elms, that yew-tree*s (hade, 
 Where heaves the turf in many a mould'ring heap, 
 Each in his narrow cell for ever laid, 
 The rude forefathers of the hamlet fleep. 
 
 V. i 
 
 The breezy call of incenfe-breathing Morn, 
 The Swallow twittering from the ftraw-built fhed, 
 The Cock's fhrill clarion, and the ecchoing horn, 
 No more fhall roufe them from their lowly bed. 
 
 VI. 
 
 For them no more the blazing hearth fhall burn, 
 Or bufy houfewife ply her evening care; 
 No children run to lifp their fire's return, 
 Or climb his knees the envied kifs to fhare. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Oft did the harveft to their fickle yield ; 
 Their furrow oft the ftubborn glebe has broke: 
 How jpeund did they drive their team afield ! 
 How bow'd the woods beneath their fturdy ftroke ! 
 
 5 .-' VIII.
 
 I xv ] 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Let not Ambition mock their ufeful toil, 
 Their homely joys, and deftiny obfcure i 
 Nor Grandeur hear, with a difdainful fmile, 
 The fhort and fimple annals of the poor. 
 
 IX. 
 
 The boaft of heraldry, the pomp of power, 
 And all that beauty, ail that wealth e'er gave, 
 Await alike th 1 inevitable hour; 
 The path of glory leads but to the grave. 
 
 X. 
 
 Nor you, ye proud, impute to thefe the fault, 
 If Mem'ry o'er their tomb no trophies raife; 
 Where, through the long-drawn aifle and fretted 
 
 vault, 
 The pealing anthem fwells the note of praife. 
 
 XI. 
 
 Can floried urn, or animated buft, 
 Back to its manfion call the fleeting breath ? 
 Can Honour's voice provoke the filent duft ? 
 Or Flattery footh the dull cold ear of Death ? 
 
 XII. 
 
 Perhaps, in this neglected fpot, is laid 
 Some heart onc pregnant with celeftial fire ; 
 Hands that the rod of empire might have fway'd, 
 Or wak'd to extacy the living lyre, 
 
 b 2 XIII.
 
 [ xvi ] 
 
 XIII. 
 
 But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page, 
 Rich with the fpoils of time, did ne'er unroll ; 
 Chill Penury reprefs'd their noble rage, 
 And froze the genial current of the foul ! 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Full many a gem of pureft ray ferene 
 The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear j 
 Full many a flower is born to blulh unfeen, 
 And wafte its fweetnefs on the defart air. 
 
 XV. 
 
 Some village Hampden that, with dauntlefs breaft, 
 The little tyrant of his fields withftood ; 
 Some mute inglorious Milton here may reft; 
 Some Cromwell, guiltlefs of his country's blood. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Th' applaufe of lift'ning fenates to command, 
 The threats of pain and ruin to defpife, 
 To fcatter plenty o'er a fmiling land, 
 And read their hiftory in a nation's eyes, 
 
 XVII. 
 
 Their lot forbad : nor circumfcrib'd alone 
 Their growing virtues, but their crimes confin'd: 
 Forbad to wade thro' (laughter to a throne, 
 And fliut the gates of mercy on mankind j 
 
 XVIII,
 
 [ xvii ] 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 The ftruggling pangs of confcious Truth to hide, 
 To quench the blufhes of ingenuous Shame, 
 Or heap the fhrine of Luxury and Pride, 
 With incenfe kindled at the Mufe's flame. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Far from the madding crowd's ignoble ftrife, 
 Their fober wifhes never learn'd to ftray : 
 Along the cool fequefter'd vale of life 
 They kept the noifelefs tenor of their way. 
 
 XX. 
 
 Yet even thefe bones from infult to protect, 
 
 Some frail memorial ftill erected nigh, 
 
 With uncouth rhymes and fhapelefs fculpture 
 
 deck'd, 
 Implores the pafTing tribute of a figh, 
 
 XXI. 
 
 Their name, their years, fpelt by th'unletter'dMufe, 
 The place of fame and elegy fupply; 
 And many a holy text around fhe ftrews, 
 That teach the ruftic Moralift to die. 
 
 XXII. 
 For who, to dumb forgetfulnefs a prey, 
 This pleafing anxious being e'er refign'd, 
 Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, 
 Nor call one longing, lingering look behind? 
 
 XXIII.
 
 [ xviii "J 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 On fome fond bfeaft the parting foul relies, 
 Some pious drops the clofing eye requires: 
 Even from the grave the voice of Nature cries j 
 Even in our aflies live their wonted fires *. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 For thee, who, mindful of th' unhonour'd dead, 
 Do'ft in thefe lines their artlefs tale relate j 
 If, chance, by lonely contemplation led, 
 Some kindred Spirit mall enquire thy fate, 
 
 XXV. 
 
 Haply, fome hoary-headed Swain may fay, 
 " Oft have we feen him at the peep of dawn, 
 " Brufhing with hafty fteps the dews away, 
 " To meet the Sun upon the upland lawn. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 " There, at the foot of yonder nodding beech, 
 " That wreathes its old fantaftic roots fo high, 
 c< His liftlefs length at noontide would he flretch, 
 f( And pore upon the brook that babbles by, 
 
 * Even in our ajbes live their nxonted fires. ~\ 
 
 Ch'i veggio nel penfier, d. Ice mio fuoco, 
 Fredda una lingua, et due bcgli occhi chiufi, 
 Rinaaner dopo noi piea di faville, 
 
 Petr. Son. 169. 
 
 XXVII,
 
 XIX 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 tf Hard by yon wood, now fmiling as in fcorn, 
 <c Mutt'ring his wayward fancies, he would rove j 
 " Now droopingi woeful wan, like one forlorn, 
 ** Or craz'd witn care, or crofs'd in hopelefs love. 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 " One morn I mifs'd him on the cuflom'd hill, 
 " Along the heath, and near his favourite tree: 
 " Another came j nor yet befide the rill, 
 " Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he. 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 Cf The next, with dirges due, in fad array, 
 
 " Slow thro' the church-way path we faw him 
 
 " born. 
 Cf Approach and read (for thou can'ftread) the lay, 
 " Grav'd on his ftone beneath yon aged thorn." 
 
 THE EPITAPH. 
 
 XXX. 
 
 Here refts his head upon the lap of Earth, 
 A youth to Fortune, and to Fame unknown : 
 Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth j 
 And Melancholy mark'd him for her own. 
 
 XXXI.
 
 [ xx ] 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 Large was his bounty, and his foul fincere ; 
 Heav'n did a recompence as largely fend : 
 He gave to Mifery all he had, a tear j 
 Hegain , dfromHeav , n('twasallhe\vifli , d)aFriend. 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 No farther feek his merits to difclofe, 
 Or draw his frailties from their dread abode, 
 (There they alike in trembling hope repofe *), 
 The bofom of his Father, and his God. 
 
 (There they alike in trembling hope repofe, J} 
 
 i paventofa fpeme. Pftr, Son. 114.
 
 [ ] 
 
 
 MY procefs has brought me at laft to the 
 far-famed " Elegy written in a Country 
 Church-yard." Of this Elegy, Caution feems 
 to dictate, that Cenfure fhould fay but little, 
 where Praife has faid fo much. Even Obfti- 
 nacy is content to admit it to be poffeffed of 
 the prefumptive claim to commendation, which 
 is derived from jDopularity. Literary hiftory 
 furnifhes not many inftances, where the anxie- 
 ties of authors have been fully removed, before 
 the Public was in pofleffion of their work. Yet 
 fuch was the cafe in the inftance before us. 
 The favourable opinion of the world, with re- 
 fpect to this poem, was afcertained vvhilfl it was 
 yet in the birth j and Attention was roufed by 
 repeated whifpers, about a capital elegiac pro- 
 duction, circulating among a few confidential 
 friends., and of whofe author it was faid (in the 
 cant ufual on fuch occafions) that the diffi- 
 dence withheld it from the public eye. In 
 B fuch
 
 [ 2 ] 
 
 fuch fituations there are never wanting encou- 
 ragers to cocker and fpirit up the modeft author; 
 who yields at laft to importunity, and the 
 dread of a mutilated and furreptitious pub- 
 lication. It is however but fair to confefs, that 
 on this occafion the folicitations of Gray's 
 friends were not merely complimentary. The 
 recital of certain brilliant ftanzas had fecured 
 approbation to the whole. Praife in this in- 
 flance preceded publication, as in fome other 
 inftances he found it follow far behind ; and 
 Gray felt himfelf in a fituation fingular among 
 authors j not foliciting public favour, but foli- 
 cited to accept it. 
 
 The Elegy written in a Country Church 
 Yard has become a Jlaple in Englilh poetry. 
 It is even beginning to get into-years* Of thofe 
 that now frequent the haunts of them that 
 make verfes, or that judge of them, the greater 
 part remember not the time when it was not 
 recited with approbation : and when a few lag- 
 gers, who witnefled its firft introduction, and 
 heard now and then a tone of diilent interrupt- 
 ing the notes of admiration, fhall have fretted 
 their hour, and away, the cuftom of praifing it 
 will be entitled to the denomination of a good 
 'cuftom^ which, in criticifm as well as law, holds 
 of prefcription j being " that whereof the me- 
 mory of man runneth not to the contrary." 
 
 Though
 
 [ 3 ] 
 
 Though the curiofity of the Public had done 
 nothing to pufh forward this Elegy, Sagacity 
 might eafily have forefeen its fuccefs. Medi- 
 tation upon death is, and ever has been, the 
 occafional bufinefs or pafiime of mankind j and 
 though, like devotion, it cannot admit of the 
 fublimer flights of poetry, yet, when the mind 
 has fairly clung to the fubject with its fenfi- 
 bilities awakened, and their expreffions within 
 call, nothing that is thus produced will be to* 
 tally void of intereft. The views, if not ftrik- 
 ing from novelty, will be commanding from 
 ferioufnefs : and even mediocrity in the fenti- 
 ment will be a palTport to general correfpond- 
 ence. 
 
 The delufion too under which Gray labour- 
 ed, that his character was a penfive one, and 
 which, though not permanent, was periodical, 
 feems to have lent its aid towards fitting him 
 for compofitions of this kind. The frequent 
 recurrence of any propenfity leads, by fure 
 fteps, to the final adjuftment of the character^ 
 and even when the propenfity is ideal, the re- 
 petition of the fits will, in the end, inveft Fancy 
 with the habitudes of Nature. Whatever part 
 fclf-deception or affectation may have origi- 
 nally had in the matter, Gray became, at 
 length, bona fide, z. melancholy man. The fea- 
 tures of his mind plied gradually to the cad of 
 the mould his imagination had formed for it. 
 B 2 Of
 
 [ 4 1 
 
 Of the language of the feeling he became pof- 
 feffed of a competent portion, as well as of its 
 modes, to which, on feveral occafions, he gave 
 expreflion } and on none more remarkably, 
 than in compofing the Elegy under confidera- 
 tion. 
 
 If, in eftablifhing the fortune of literary pro- 
 ductions, Popularity e ft abli fried alfo their worth, 
 Criticifm would find herfelf rid of one of the 
 moil unpleafing, as well as unprofitable, of her 
 tafks. But this is not the cafe. The maxim 
 " Vox Populi, &c." taken in its full range, is 
 not more deftructive to good government, than 
 hurtful to found criticifm. To examine the 
 Elegy written in a Country Church Yard, fo 3S 
 to reft jts merits upon firm ground, its popu- 
 larity mould be kept out of view. Of fuch an 
 examination the object is not to difcover what 
 has been faid, but what may be faid juftly. 
 Criticifm acts not in the character of Recorder, 
 but of Judge. It is not her bufinefs to en- 
 gross decifions, but to dictate them. 
 
 Of this Elegy I find little in the <c General 
 Defign," either to praife or to blame. It 
 differs in nothing material from the general 
 defign of all Meditations on Death, from Boyle 
 to Hervey inclufive. The fubjecl: has the ad- 
 vantage of being interesting, but the difadvan- 
 tagc of being common. The reader attends 
 to it from motives of duty as well as of intereft, 
 5 So
 
 [ 5 3 
 
 So does alfo the writer : though he foon finds 
 that piety confers not poetic infpiration, and 
 that fublimity is not the neceffary offspring of 
 a ferious frame. The paucity of the topics 
 precludes circumvagation; and the innovehy of 
 the views reprefs effufion. The fubject is al- 
 ready as great as it can be made : and of de- 
 coration the execution would be difficult, and 
 the experiment attended with danger. 
 
 Of the " Particular Plan," Criticifm with- 
 holds the cenfure, until fhe fhall have afcer- 
 tained the conception. Perhaps the author 
 had no particular plan at all. A number of 
 different views of the fubject, all of them feri- 
 ous, moft of them common, and many of them 
 interefting, are collected from different quar- 
 ters, and thrown together in that inconfecutive 
 train, in which men meditate, when they me- 
 ditate for themfelves. " Ibi h<ec incondita folus" 
 Like Virgil's Corydon (who is deprived of 
 fympathy from the bafeneTs of his object, as 
 the poet is of his praife, from degrading his 
 foliloquy into a paftoral) the Meditator in the 
 Country Church-yard is fuppofed to touch on 
 the different topics as they arife to his mind, 
 not prefcribing the law of fucceffion, but re- 
 ceiving it. 
 
 Of poets who had wrought on the fubject 
 before him, either incidentally or from pur- 
 pofe, he feems to have followed no one com- 
 pletely
 
 [6 ] 
 
 pletely as a model, but to have gathered occa- 
 fionally from all. Parnell's Night-Piece feems 
 to have been moft in his eye : though of Parnell 
 the fcheme is, in much, different from that of 
 Gray. From Milton's* Penfcrofo too he has 
 taken feveral hints; and what may appear fur- 
 prifing, fome even from his Allegro. From 
 Thomfon and Collins he has been furnilhed 
 with many images ; and fome thoughts are 
 borrowed from Pope. Materials brought to- 
 gether from fo many different quarters, may be 
 expected to form an heterogeneous whole. 
 Adherence is not folidity : and we look not for 
 a rigorous unity in a cento. 
 
 Of the c< verification" I delay the ftrict examin- 
 ation, until my procefs mall have brought me 
 to the particular paflages that fuggeft it. Only, 
 hi general, it may be doubted, whether the 
 quatrain with alternate rhimes, has that con- 
 nexion with the elegiac ftrain that many poets 
 and fome critics have conceived. Dryden, 
 who was eminent in both characters, is fo clearly 
 of opinion that it is the moft magnificent of 
 Englifti meafures, that one is apt to wonder 
 how it mould have firft been thought of as a 
 vehicle for a fpecies of poetry, of which the 
 character is gentlenefs and tenuity. It is the 
 ftanza adopted by Hammond. But the credit 
 of Hammond's poetry was not of magnitude 
 lufucient to give a claflical (lamp to any kind 
 
 of
 
 [ 7 ] 
 
 of verification. Mr. Mafon thought more 
 favourably of his friend's authority j and by his 
 advice Gray was prevailed on to ufe the qua- 
 train, that the merit and eminence of this poem 
 might fecure to Elegy the exclufive and un- 
 difturbed poffefifion of that meafure. 
 
 Sucrrwas the idea of Mr. Mafon, of whofe 
 fagacity in forefeeing events, the reader, from 
 his fuccefs in this, may form no unfavourable 
 idea. Yet of this meafure it may be faid with 
 truth, that it brings with it no momentous 
 acceflion to the powers of Englifh verification. 
 It pofTeffes all the imperfections of blank verfe, 
 acquired with. all the labour of rhime. The 
 coincidences of terminating found, by being 
 alternate, admit of an interruption by which 
 they are either loir, or found at the expence 
 of a labour greater than the gratification they 
 bring : and the ftanza, by being limited to a 
 certain definite compafs, either forces the poet 
 to end his thought abruptly, or to eke it out 
 with fupplemental and expletive matter, always 
 weakening exprefllon, and rarely concealing 
 diftrefs. It is fomewhat furprifing that blank 
 verfe, improper in almoft all other fubjecls, 
 lhould never have been thought of as a vehicle 
 for that fpecies of excurfive thinking which 
 prevails fo much in the elegiac drain. Young 
 has ufed it with, fuccefs in his great work, 
 
 which
 
 [ 8 ] 
 
 which, in diffufion and defultorinefs, approaches 
 to the nature of the Elegy. 
 
 Criticifm never feels herfelf more keenly ac- 
 tuated with the fenfe of humiliation, than when 
 fhe is laid under the neceflity of extending her 
 ftriflures to margins and title-pages. Yet 
 circumftances will, at times, occur, to make 
 fuch degradation indifpenfable. Of the poem 
 now under confideration, the title might have 
 efcaped cenfure, had it not been originally dif- 
 ferent from what it now is ; and had not the 
 author perfuaded himfelf to fuppofe, that when 
 he altered it he mended it of courfe. It is 
 feldom that the change of a title is a happy 
 change. If it has had a feat in the imagination 
 previous to the operation of compofing, or even 
 during its progrefs, it has confiderably influ- 
 enced the execution. It has fo led and regu- 
 lated the train of thinking, and the mutual 
 dependencies, that the flighted after-deviation 
 from it is in danger of creating inconfiftency. 
 It introduces a fpecies of confufion and incon- 
 fequence like that which was introduced into 
 the Dunciad, when Pope, at the inftigation of 
 Warburton f , changed the hero of that piece ; 
 and which, tho' both the poet and his Mentor 
 kept botching at it during the whole of their 
 
 f Bowyer. It is to be hoped that the executors of this 
 gentleman will take fome method of preventing from pe- 
 rifhing the much curious information which his profeffion 
 and induftry enabled him to collect. 
 
 lives,
 
 [ 9] 
 
 lives *, they were not able to remove j though 
 the labour of Procruftes was doubled, and 
 both the tortured and inftruments of torture 
 were racked to produce accommodation. 
 
 Gray has more than once been unfortunate 
 in his fancy of changing his titles. He had 
 compofed an Ode, to which he gave the title 
 of Noon-Tide, Falling out of humour with 
 this title afterwards, for what reafon does not 
 appear, he f new-chriftened it an " Ode on 
 Spring." Noon-tide, however was in his 
 imagination, when he wrote it, and it is an 
 Ode on Noon-tide (till; 
 
 cc Reflexions in a Country Church- Yard" 
 was J the title by which this piece was firft 
 known j a title plain, fober, and exprefiive of 
 its nature ; but too undignified, in the appre- 
 henfion of its Author, who perfuaded himfelf to 
 think " Elegy" a nicer name. He mould* 
 however, have confidered that, in adopting the 
 new title, he fubjefted himfelf to feverer rules 
 of criticifm than before ; and fhut himfelf 
 Out from many pleas in defence or palliation of 
 its defultory ftyle, which would have been open 
 to him from its old title of " Reflexions ' a 
 
 * Pope did not long furvive the change. In the private 
 cbrre&ion of Warburton, I find little that can create regreC 
 for that precaution of the Poet, which prevented them 
 from being made publick. 
 
 f Mafon, . % Mafon. 
 
 C tide
 
 [ IO ] 
 
 title in which little unity being promifed, there 
 is little right to expect it. Being completely- 
 put together too, before the change of title 
 took place, and fuffered, after the change, to 
 remain in a great meafure as before, it became 
 charged with incongruities too obvious to 
 efcape obfervation. Though an Elegy may be 
 written in a Church-yard, as well as in aclofet, 
 and in a Country Church-yard even better than 
 in a Town one -, yet courtefy itfelf muft pro- 
 nounce it fantaftical, if an Elegy is to be writ- 
 ten, to chufe out a place for writing it, where 
 the conveniencies for that operation are a want- 
 ing, and where even the common implements 
 either exifl not at all, or exift by premedita- 
 tion* Who is there that fays, or would be- 
 endured to fay, " I will take me pen, ink and 
 " paper, and get me out into a church-yard, 
 " and there write me an elegy ; for 1 do well to 
 *' be melancholy P" Parnell has carried the matter 
 far enough, when he refolves to get out into a 
 church-yard, and think melancholy thoughts. 
 
 If the writers of ftudied ferioufnefs, and 
 recorders of premeditated griefs, would em- 
 ploy one half of the time fpent in preparing 
 their fadneffes for the public eye, in examining 
 into the propriety of introducing them to the 
 public at all, the journals of poetry would be 
 lefs difgraced than they are with the balance of 
 of affectation againft nature. The ferioufnefs, 
 : 2 which
 
 which embraces the heart, is not the offspring 1 
 of volition, but of inftinct. It is not a pur- 
 pofe, but a frame. The forrow, that is for- 
 row indeed, afks for no prompting. It comes 
 without a call. It courts not admiration. It 
 preffes not on the general eye; but haftens 
 under covert, and wails its widowhood alone. 
 Its (trong-hold is the heart. There it remains 
 clofe curtained j wfeting, unfeen. Delicacy and 
 tafte recoil at the publications of internal griefs. 
 They profane the hallowednefs of fecret fad- 
 nefs j and fuppofe felected and decorated ex- 
 preflion compatible with the proftration of the 
 foul. 
 
 Not only are they indelicate, and out of na- 
 ture : they are alfo imprudent. Sadnefs is a 
 tranfient feeling. The violence of its effufions 
 produces its expenditure, as the agitation -of 
 fluids promotes thcjr evaporation. Qf its firft 
 unreafonabienefs, when the exprefiion is only 
 oral, little harm is done ; for the language is 
 perifhable as the feeling: but <f litera fcripta 
 manet j" and when the man whom <f melan- 
 choly had marked for his own" is found, in 
 violation of his vow, <c tripping on light fan- 
 taftic toe," or the inconfolable hufband who 
 was to cherifh no feeood flame, confents to 
 comfort himfelf in one wife for the lofs of an- 
 ( Other ? they find the public in poiTtflion of their 
 C % written
 
 [ 12 ] 
 
 Written wailings, and not a little out of temper 
 with them, that they have not kept ^heir word. 
 Of the flrft Lord Littleton, there are many 
 fimple men of feeling who have fcarcely brought 
 themfelves to believe, even on the authority of 
 the Regifter, that, after the death of his Lucy, 
 he married a fecond wife. Enough of this. 
 
 ^o the incongruities already fpecified, may 
 t>e added another in this Elegy, inverted as it 
 is with its prefent title j and that other yet 
 more flagrant. Gray had originally laid his 
 Meditation, at a time with which the idea of 
 the operation of writing was incompatible. 
 The <c parting day ;" the " glimmering land- 
 fcape fading on the fight j" the "plowman 
 returning home, and leaving the world to dark- 
 nefs j" are images confident with the fuppofi- 
 tion of a thinking mufer, but irreconcileable 
 with the procefs of writing, qr even fcrawling. 
 Yet by a friend of Gray, a ferious, and not 
 unintelligent perfon, who has put together 
 verfes himfelf, and to whom I communicated 
 this obfervation, have I been called upon to 
 take notice, that the Author has defcribed him- 
 felf, in the Elegy, as carrying on his mufingj 
 y mc en- light, 
 
 **********
 
 t 3 ] 
 
 - 
 
 ' 
 
 I 
 
 I. II. III. 
 
 . .. 
 
 Of this Elegy the three firft quatrains pre- 
 fent what may be termed the preparation. To 
 the ferious exercife that is to take place, it is 
 necefiary, that the fenfes be firft properly got 
 under j or at leaft that fuch work be cut out 
 for them, as may prevent them from embroil- 
 ing the train of penfive thought. With pro- 
 priety then has the Author made them the 
 objects of his firft care. With propriety too, 
 are hearing and fight felected j as the moft ref- 
 tive, and unfriendly to meditation, and, of 
 courfe, requiring management the moft. Gray 
 has pufhed this, matter a point farther. Not 
 contented with their neutrality, he has proceed- 
 ed to court their affiftance j and held out to 
 them fuch " guerdons fair ," as might win them 
 not only not to obftruct meditation, but to act 
 as auxiliaries in promoting it. 
 
 When thefe guerdons are brought forward in 
 review; for the ear we have " the found of the 
 curfew |" " the lowing of the herds, returning 
 
 } t0
 
 [ *4 1 
 
 to their flails ;" " the tinkling (I fuppofe) of 
 wether-bells ;" " the droning of the beetle j" 
 and " the fcreeching of the owl $'^ founds 
 not improper when taken fingly, but deftruc- 
 tive when taken in the total, to that folemn 
 Jlilnefs which is fpoken of. We are tempted 
 to think of Hogarth's " enraged Mufician," 
 whofe rapture isdeftroyed by an agglomeration 
 of founds, each of which, taken feparately, 
 mig'ht have been with patience endured. 
 
 For the eye we are prefented with " the (low 
 winding off of the cattle ; " the plodding pace 
 of the returning plowman j" " the fading of 
 the landfcape s" and f{ the moon, difcovering 
 by her light a tower mantled with ivy//- Of 
 thefe images, criticifm is content to admit 
 the propriety, whilft fhe denies their original- 
 ity ; and referves to herfelf the right of ftric- 
 ture on the plan, according to which they are 
 alTembled, and the manner in which they are 
 drawn. 
 
 If the images above recited are traced to 
 the poets from whom they are taken, we iliall 
 not always perceive them to have found their 
 way into the Elegy written in a Country Church- 
 yard, in an improved date. Of the curfew, as 
 heard by a man of meditation, we have the 
 following circumftantiati^h in Milton's Penfe- 
 rofoj 
 
 Oft,
 
 t 5 ] 
 
 t. .. i 
 
 Oft, on a plat of rifing ground, 
 I hear the far-off curfew found; 
 Over fome wide- water 'd fhore 
 Swinging flow with fullen roar. 
 
 To this chara&eriftical figuring Gray has thought 
 proper to fubftitute the conceit of Dante \ ac- 
 cording to which the curfew is made to toll 
 requiems to the day newly deceafed : -a fancy 
 more fubtle than folid, and to which the judg- 
 ment, if reconciled at all, is reconciled by 
 effort. 
 
 Of Evening the approach is defcribed in the 
 Elegy, as a profe-mufer would have defcribed 
 it : " The glimmering landfcape f<ides on the 
 fight i" let us hear Thomfon : 
 
 A faint erroneous ray, 
 Glanc'd from th* imperfect furfaces of things, 
 Flings half an image on the ftraining eye; . 
 
 While wavering woods and villages and (rreams 
 
 And rocks are all one fwimming fcene, 
 
 Uncertain if beheld f. 
 
 Or, more comprefs'd in the thought, and in- 
 vefted with the fweetnefs of rhime ; 
 
 But chief, when evening (hades decay, 
 And the faint landfcape fwims aivay^ 
 Thine is the doubtful foft decline^ 
 .And that beft hour of mufing thine %, 
 
 f Summer. % O-e t( > Solitude. 
 
 1.1 And
 
 t 16 J 
 
 And Collins : 
 
 Be mine the hut that views 
 Hamlets brown, and dim-difcover'd fpifes. 
 And hears their fimple bell, and marks, o'er all j 
 - , - Thy dewy fingers draw 
 
 The gradual dufky veil *. 
 
 The idea of making founds of a certain kind 
 give a relief (to fpeak in the language of ar- 
 tifts) to filencei is not new. Thus wrote Col- 
 lins in 1746 : 
 
 Now air is hufh'd, fave where the weak-ey'd batj 
 With fhort fhrill fhrieki flits by on leathern wing ; 
 
 Or, where the beetle winds 
 
 His fmallj but fullen horn f. 
 
 The beetle of Collins and Gray is the "grey 
 fly 1 * of Milton, that in the penfive man's ear 
 * winds his fultry horn." Collins has changed 
 the epithet into fulkn y by a happy mifremefn* 
 Irance. 
 
 In Parnell, in place of " ivy mantling a 
 tower," we have " yew bathing a enamel- 
 houfe with dew." The ivy and the tower 
 might (land any where as well as in a church- 
 yard i but the charnel-houfe is charadterifticj 
 and the yew is funereal. Of Parnell's image, 
 however, candor muft acknowledge the ftrength 
 to be fo great as to render it almoft offenfive. 
 
 D 
 
 Odt to Evening. f Ibid. 
 
 la
 
 E 17 1 
 
 In Gray the introduction of the Owl is pro- 
 per. Parnell's Ravens might have found an- 
 other place to croak in than a church-yard, 
 and another time than night. But the part the 
 Owl acts in the Elegy is impertinent and fool- 
 iih i and exhibits an example of a writer fpoil- 
 ing a fine image, by piecing it. On fome fine 
 evening Gray had feen the moon mining on 
 a tower fuch as is here defcribed. An owl 
 might be peeping out from the ivy with which 
 it was clad : Of the obferver, the ftation might 
 be fuch, that the Owl, now emerged from 
 the mantling, prefented itfelf to his eye in pro- 
 file, fkirting with the Moon's limb. All this is 
 well. The perfpective is ftriking : and the 
 picture well defined. But the poet was not 
 contented. He felt a defire to enlarge it : 
 And, in executing his purpofe, gave it accu- 
 mulation without improvement. The idea of 
 the Owl's complaining is an artificial one -, and the 
 views on which it proceeds abfurd. Gray mould 
 have feen, that it but ill befitted the Bird ofWif- 
 dom to complain to the Moon of an intrufion, 
 v ich the Moon could no more help than her- 
 felf. 
 
 I fufpect this idea, of the Owl complaining 
 to the Moon, to have been a borrowed one, 
 though I do not certainly know from whom. 
 Addifon, whofe piety deterred him from 
 doubting that Religion was capable of poetic 
 D ernbelliih-
 
 [ 18 1 
 
 embellifliment, has made the Moon tell a ftory, 
 and the Stars and Planets fing a devotional 
 catch *. But of fancies approaching to Gray's, 
 I find no one that approaches fo clofely, as that 
 contained in the children's book, where the 
 little dog is drawn barking at the moon. It is 
 expostulation in the one cafe, and fcolding in 
 the other. Gray has chofen the mod refpect- 
 ful. But enough of this. Criticifm is content 
 to check a curiofity that wants an adequate ob- 
 ject, and would fpare Poetry the mortification 
 of finding herfelf tracked to the lanes and blind 
 allies where her trappings were firft picked up. 
 Though the complaint of the Owl is unrea- 
 fonable, her diftrefs is characteriftical, and 
 prettily exprefTed j yet " bower" is rather a 
 gay term for an Owl's eyry j and of the ap- 
 plication of <f reign," where there are none to 
 reign over, the propriety admits of doubt. 
 
 A few words more on the expre]Jion y in thefe 
 three ftanzas. " Leaves the world to darknefs 
 and to me," is quaint, and puts us in mind of 
 great Anna, who 
 
 Does fometimes counfel take, and fometimes tea f j 
 but quaintnefs is what every reader comes 
 prepared to meet with in Gray. It is one of 
 the moft marked features in his poetical cha- 
 racter, and fometimes extends to his profe J. 
 
 * Spectator, N 465. f Pope. % Mafon's Collection. 
 
 " I am
 
 '9 ] 
 
 t I am come," (fays he, in one of his letters 
 to his friend) <c to town y and better hopes of feeing 
 you." " How little are the Great" was the do- 
 ling line of a ftanza in that Ode*, where it is 
 faid, that i{ they that creep and they that fly, 
 fhall end where they began :" and fo he fufFered 
 it for ipm.e time to ftand, in application, no 
 doubt, of his own idea of a clofing thought, 
 which ought,' as he exprefTes himfelf t, " to 
 have a flower ftuck in it," or cc to be twirled 
 off into an apophthegm." The flower, how* 
 ever, in time, ceafed to pleafe him : yet, with, 
 fo faultering a hand did he pluck it out, and 
 fo awkwardly did he re-adjuft the parts that 
 remained, that, as his Editor obferves, the 
 change was for the worfe, and the thought loft 
 its original poignancy J. 
 
 When I am told that <f all the Air a folemn 
 ftillnefs holds," I hefitate, and endeavour to 
 difcover which of the two is the holder, and 
 which is the held. If it is the Air that holds 
 the ftillnefs, too great liberty is taken with the 
 verb j and if it is the ftillnefs that holds the 
 Air, the action is too violent for fo quiet a per- 
 fonage : but the found was neceflary, to aflift 
 the bell-wedders to complete the lulling of the 
 folds. 
 
 * Ode on Spring. f Mafon. % Ibid. 
 
 D 2 Having
 
 [ * 3 
 
 Having cleared the way in the preceding 
 ftanzas, he now enters upon his ground, and 
 lays out his Church-yard in form. Here Cri- 
 ticifm is pofed, unable to anfwer the queftion, 
 " What is the moft proper Church-yard ?" 
 Whether4:here be a Tafie in Church-yards s and 
 a feledtion of Capabilities required in this, as 
 well as in other modifications of terrene fur- 
 face, I am uncertain. Nor do I know that 
 Kent, or the other Englifh architects, ever 
 laid out a Church-yard -, though it appears 
 that the Scotch, who are eager to make the 
 moft of every thing, have taken even that into 
 their general plan of*pleafure ground. Gray's 
 Church-yard has been defigned : But the fancy 
 of Cipriani, wedded to the foftnefs of Bar- 
 tolozzi, has not been able to produce from it 
 any thing that makes a decifive appeal to .any 
 one feeling of the heart. 
 
 Neither of Parnell, nor of Gray, does the 
 Church-yard contain any thing that any church- 
 yard mightnot contain. Of Parnell, the Church- 
 yard and its environs are thus prefented to the 
 Reader's view. <f In diftant profpeft, a lake : 
 ** reding on its bofom, the Moon, furround- 
 *' ed by Stars, having for ground a fky deep 
 " azure: on the right, riling grounds, "retiring 
 " in dimnefs from the fight ;" on the left, the 
 " Church-yard j or (as he, in imitation of the 
 
 * Called by them Policy. 
 
 " Hebrew
 
 [ 21 ] 
 
 " Hebrew fimplicity, calls it) the Place of 
 t* Graves, furrounded by a wall, which is lav- 
 <f ed by a filent ftream : a fteeple, belonging 
 " no doubt to the Church : a charnel-houfe, 
 <f over-canopied with yew : graves, with their 
 ff turf ofier-bound : other graves, with fmooth 
 ,f flat ftones infcribed : and others ftill, fplen- 
 " didly done out with marble, &c." 
 
 Gray's Church-yard is thus connected with 
 its adjuncts, and prefented to the Reader's eye. 
 <c In near profpect, a Village : herds and la- 
 " bourers returning home : glimmering land- 
 " fcape : tower ivy-mantled, having for creft 
 f{ an owl, in profile and perfpeclive, fkirting 
 5* the moon : rugged elms : fhady yew : an 
 f old thorn ; and the furface fwelling here 
 c and there with common graves. Hard by is 
 " a wood, a nodding beach, and a brook 
 " running over pebbles." 
 
 Of the two Defigns, taken in a general view, 
 that of Parnell feems the more perfect. The 
 afiemblage takes in every thing that a Church- 
 yard (hould contain; and a. gradation of graves 
 is introduced, with due attention to the distinc- 
 tion of ranks, which is not loft even in a 
 Church-yard. In this refpect Gray's Church- 
 yard is imperfect, and the imperfection has 
 deprived his meditation of fome of its intereft. 
 It has, befides, no charnel-houfe. In other 
 refpects it is much as it mould be, which, at 
 6 belt,
 
 [ |9 3 
 
 beft, is but a negative merit. The abfence of 
 blemiih is not perfection : and of that Officer, 
 fmall will be the claim to praife, who, com- 
 plying with the rule of the fervice, comes out 
 to mount guard in his regimentals. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Of inaccuracy in the formation of the thought, 
 the fourth quatrain furnifhes fome examples. 
 It is more according to truth, as well as con- 
 venience, tofuppofe a Church-yard hedgedround 
 with trees, than planted with them. A Church- 
 yard is not a thicket. A human body buried 
 at the foot of a large tree, with ftrong fpread- 
 ing roots, is more confonant to poetry, than 
 to practice. It is not true, that in an ordinary 
 aflemblage of graves, the <c turf heaves in 
 mouldering heaps." If the ground heaves, no 
 doubt the turf will heave with it : but the 
 " heaps," if they are " mouldering heaps," 
 muft heave through the turf, not the turf in 
 them. " Rude forefathers of the hamlet," is 
 equivocal. The forefathers of a hamlet mould 
 mean other, ancienter hamlets. But of ham- 
 lets there are no genealogies, Among them 
 no degrees of confanguinity are reckoned. 
 
 V.
 
 [ n ] 
 
 v. VI. 
 
 The two following ftanzas contain a para- 
 hrafe of the two laft lines of the preceding; viz. 
 
 Each in his narrow cell for ever laid, 
 The rude forefathers of the hamlet fleep. 
 
 And of this Paraphrafe it may be granted 
 that the language is pleafing ; but of the cir- 
 cumftances brought into view, there is no 
 pointed and refpective application to the dif- 
 ferent orders of dead that are fpecified. Though 
 the fleepers are fubjected to clafliflcation, and 
 diftinguiihed into four fets, Reapers, Tillers, 
 Team-drivers, and Wood-cutters ; and though 
 the Roufers to morning labour are alfo enu- 
 merated as four ; yet the departments are not 
 fet off diftinclly, nor are the founds that are to 
 roufe, characterifticaUy appropriated to each. 
 Neither the " twittering of the fwallow," nor 
 the * clarion of the cock," have reference to 
 one fet of fleepers more than to another : and 
 the " echoing horn" feems to have nothing 
 to do with any of them. What is meant by 
 the <c breezy call of incenfe-breathing morn," 
 as an help to early rifing, is not very plain : 
 though this is one of the lines that it is thought 
 creditable to apprehend and feel. 
 
 Thorn-
 
 [ 24 ] 
 
 Thomfon, indeed, has afked the following 
 queftion : 
 
 Falfely luxurious, will not man arife, 
 And, fpringing from the bed of floth, enjoy 
 The cool, the fragrant, and the filent hour* ? 
 
 But the motive contained in this expostulation 
 is not phyfical, but moral ; it is directed to 
 thofe that are already awake, but who, from 
 lazinefs, continue a-bed, when they fhould be 
 ftirring about. 
 
 " Twitter," applied to the fwallow, is one of 
 thofe words whofe meafure and articulation are 
 fuppofed to refemble what they denote. Gray 
 found it in Drydenj and, as Thomfon had 
 done before him, took it on truft. But what 
 fhall we fay of the " clarion of the cock ?" It is 
 no doubt allowed to Poetry to exait the little, 
 by comparing it to the great ; but, funt certi 
 fines. To fwell out an infignificant little ani- 
 mal, by an accumulation of glaring trappings; 
 and to compare his little fhrill pipe to a bold 
 inftrument of martial mufic, is to fubject the 
 animal, as well as the defcription, to contempt. 
 Incredulus odi. 
 
 When Cupid, in an Ode of Anacreon, gives 5 
 the name of winged Dragon to a Bee, and calls 
 
 Summer* 
 
 the
 
 t H \ 
 
 the puncture received from his fling a " mortal 
 wound," the levity of the piece, as well as the 
 defign, reconciles us to the hyperbole. In 
 making his grey fly <f wind a horn," Milton has 
 gone fully as far as he ought. It is not enough 
 for the j unification of Gray, that his offence 
 is not greater than Milton's j that " clarion" 
 is not more to the cock, than " horn" is to the 
 beetle. The juftnefs of poetical defcription 
 has nothing to do with the doctrine of ratios. 
 JHIamlet's advice concerning chafte playing, 
 applies equally to chafte defcription. There 
 may be an ** outftepping the modefty of nar 
 lure" in both. 
 
 If " ftraw-built fhed" be meant as defcrip- 
 tive of a fwallow's neft, it is an affected expref- 
 fion, and adopted in defiance of obfervation. 
 A fhed is a roof or covering : the roof or co- 
 vering has, in the cafe of a fwallow's neft, no- 
 thing to do with ftraw ; nor js it built by the 
 fwallow at all. 
 
 In the fixth ftanza we are told, that the 
 * blazing hearth burns :" although it is ob- 
 vious, that the hearth neither blazes nor burns; 
 but the fire upon the hearth. But more than 
 this might be forgiven to the picture of do- 
 meftic happinefs which the ftanza holds out, 
 and which is drawn with great intereft, and 
 much fimplicity. * . 
 
 E Thorn.
 
 [ 26 1 
 
 Thomfon had faid, in a cafe fomewhat fimi- 
 Jar, 
 
 In vain for him th' officious wife prepares 
 The fire fair blazing, and the yeftment warm : 
 In vain his little children, peeping out 
 Into the mingling ftorm, demand their fire, 
 With tears of artlefs innocence. Alas ! 
 Nor wife nor children more mall he behold, 
 Nor friends, nor facred home*. 
 
 Here are the fame images. The blazing fire j 
 {he bufy wife plying her evening care j and the 
 children anxious for their father's return. They 
 occur alfo in nearly the fame order. The 
 image of the children, however, Gray has im- 
 proved by the addition of a tender ftroke not 
 in the original : 
 
 Nor climb his knees the envied kifs to fhare % 
 
 VII. VIII. 
 
 In the feventh quatrain is contained the dis- 
 criminated catalogue of the dead, already al- 
 luded to j and in the eighth, the caveat to 
 grandeur and ambition. Of this latter ftanza, 
 however, the laft two lines ferve little other 
 puirpofe than to complete the number to four. 
 
 Winter. 
 
 The
 
 t 27 j 
 
 *fhe idea was already fully in our polfefliori. 
 fi Grandeur" is but "Ambition" in his Sunday's 
 clothes. Ambition's < f mockery," and Gran- 
 deur's " difdainful fmile," are the fame : and 
 the " fhort, but fimple annals of the poor," 
 are their t( ufeful toil 1 homely joys ; and ob- 
 fcure deftiny;" But this is a fault chargeable 
 bn Gray throughout the whole Elegy* In 
 every defcription we recognize the rhetorician^ 
 fludioufly prefenting his object in a multitude 
 of different afpects* and creating an artificial 
 encreafe of dimenfion by a minute and tedious 
 enumeration. 
 
 ix. 
 
 In the three firft lines of the ninth ftanza is 
 inculcated a ferious truth, by way of check to 
 the fneers of grandeur and ambition. But 
 Beauty is forced awkwardly into the company of 
 thefe fcoffers. As Ihe was no accomplice in 
 their mockery, fhe is unjuftly, as well as un- 
 politelyi involved in their mortification. Of 
 the third line the expreflion is faulty, becaufe 
 it is obfcure. The fignification of the word 
 te await/' is not yet pointedly afcertained. 
 E 2 Whe- 

 
 [ tf ] 
 
 Whether does the hour of death await pomp 
 and beauty j or do they await it ? Both modes 
 of phrafeology have examples in our language. 
 
 ven as the wretch, condemn'd to lofe his life, 
 Awaits the falling of the murderous knife j 
 
 is faid by Fairfax. But the other is the more 
 generally received ufage. We rather accuftom 
 ourfelves to fay, that " the evil awaits the fuf"- 
 ferer j" than that " the fufferer awaits the evil.'" 
 According to this view, it fhould be awaits. 
 But as by this means the nominative and the 
 verb would change places, and the arrange- 
 ment be awkward to an Englifh ear j in 
 fcveral editions, and particularly in Mr. Ma- 
 ion's, it has been printed {f await." There is 
 a difficulty both ways. When in the ufe of 
 any expreffion, an author finds himfelffo pinch- 
 ed and befet, he ought to abandon it altoge- 
 ther, and fubftitute one of more extenfive capa- 
 bility. 
 
 The flanza concludes with a conceit. It is 
 not true, that tc the path of glory leads but to 
 to the grave." Nor is it becaufe it is the path 
 of glory that it leads thither at all. Parnell's 
 thought, with lefs conceit, has in it more of 
 intereft, and much more of piety. 
 
 Death's but a path that muft be trod, 
 If man would ever pafs to God *. 
 
 Night-Piece. 
 
 la
 
 In a feries of ftanzas that follow, the Author 
 fets himfelf to expoftulate with the proud j 
 and undertakes to prove the abfurdity of the 
 contempt which he fuppofes them ready to 
 pour on the <c unhonoured dead," for their 
 want of more fuperb monuments, from a regu- 
 lar fucceffion of common places. 
 
 i. It was no fault of theirs that they had them not. 
 
 2. They would have flood them in little ftead. 
 
 3. Worth and genius may be without them. 
 
 4. It was the injuftice of fortune that made them 
 
 want them. 
 
 5. The account was balanced for them another way* 
 
 All which topics are handled with decent plau- 
 fibility, and at decent length. 
 
 X. 
 
 It is in the tenth ftanza that this train of* 
 thought commences. But the introduction is 
 not clear of incumbrance. " Impute not to 
 thefe the fault," is an affected and inadequate 
 expreffion for <c don't treat them with fcorn.'* 
 The two laft lines are the mod majeftic in the 
 whole Elegy. But they contain an appeal to 
 feelings, which none but thofe who are fo hap- 
 
 4 py
 
 >y as to have been bred up in a veneration for" 
 the folemn forms and fervice of the National 
 Church, can expect to pofTefs; The palate of 
 a Sectary, accuftomed to the reception of flen- 
 der foodSj will naufeate the full meal fet be- 
 fore him in thefe lines : 
 
 Where thro' the long-drawn ifle, and fretted vault; 
 The pealing anthem fwells the note of praife. 
 
 Of this 1 aft line, however, Criticifm mull remark; 
 that either the compofition of the thought is 
 faulty, or the arrangement of the expreflion is 
 inverted. It is not the anthem that fwells the 
 note, but the agglomeration of notes that fwells 
 the anthem; I am content to fuppofe this to 
 have been his meaning; communicated in a 
 mode of arrangement, unpleafing to an Eng- 
 lifh reader in his own language, but of which 
 he admits the propriety in Latin compofitions. 
 I have feen this line mod: correctly transferred 
 into that language in many different modes; 
 all of them meritorious, in a collection of ex- 
 ercifes written by the Boys of the firrr. form in 
 Merchant Taylor's School, and fent to me with 
 a view, of which I will not gratify my vanity 
 with the publication; though juftice requires 
 that of the worthy matter I mould folace the 
 labours, by recording the unwearied diligence; 
 and by bearing teltimony to thofe abilities that 
 
 are
 
 t 3* 1 
 
 fire exerted in forming the rifing hopes of an,- 
 pther age. 
 
 XI. 
 
 Fault has already been found with Gray for 
 (conforming to the affected ufe of participles in 
 place of adjectives. tf Honied fpring;'' <c mad- 
 ding crowd, Sec." " Storied urn;" is of the 
 fame family, and even more exceptionable, be- 
 caufe liable to mifapprehenfion. The meaning 
 of theepithetis, "having (tories figured upon it." 
 }n the Penferofo of Milton it is to be found as 
 an epithet applied to windows, of which the pane? 
 are of painted glafs. It is alfo ufed by Pope. 
 f* Flattery foothing the ear of death, " is cha- 
 racteriftical. What is faid of ?' honour's voice'* 
 is not faid happily. There is a want of appro- 
 priation. " Silent duft," is one of thefeexpref- 
 fions, which Voltaire ufed to denominate des 
 Suijfesi always ready at a call, and willing tq 
 engage in any fervice. 
 
 xir. XIII. 
 
 In the two following quatrains is well de T 
 fcribed the depreffion of genius under ignorance 
 
 and
 
 C y- 1 
 
 and poverty. But here too allowance muft be 
 made for a little of the old leaven. Hands are, 
 metaphorically, faid to " fway the rod of em- 
 pire," and literally to bring forth founds from 
 the lyre. " Living lyre" is from Cowley ; 
 and of his obligation to the royal poet of Ju- 
 dah, for the application of the idea " awake" 
 to the eliciting of founds from the harp or lyre, 
 he has thought the acknowledgment deferv- 
 ing commemoration. In the whole of the 
 Elegy, Criticifm has not been able to find two 
 more happy lines than the following : 
 
 Chill penury reprefs'd their noble rage, 
 And froze the genial current of the foul. 
 
 Here are really two ideas. Penury, in the 
 .character of froft, deprives the current of its 
 heat, and checks its onward motion. I am 
 unwilling to fuppofe the metaphor to be a 
 broken one ; and that Gray jumbled into one, 
 the images of horfemanfhip, and watery mo- 
 tion, as Addifon has done in the following cou> 
 plet; 
 
 I bridle in my flruggling mufe with pain, 
 That longs to launch into a nobler ftrain *. 
 
 Letter from Italy. 
 
 XIV,
 
 I 33 1 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Of the melancholy truth, that great parts 
 are often kept from expanfion, by the influ- 
 ence of poverty and ignorance, the fourteenth 
 Stanza feems to promife the illuftration, by re- 
 ference made to analogous depreflions of excel- 
 lence in the material and vegetable kingdoms. 
 But more is promifed than performed. The 
 examples are made up of fhewy images ; but 
 they are not examples in point. Noti erat his 
 kens. 
 
 The propofition to be illuftrated was, *' that la- 
 a tent poffibilities of perfection, which favour- 
 " able fituations and circumftances might have 
 " brought out, are fometimes, by circumftances 
 " of an untowardly kind, prevented from being 
 * f duly unfolded." Of this pofition illuftra- 
 tions might eafily have been found, had not 
 Gray confounded it with another, equally true 
 with the former, yet altogether diftinct. That 
 other polition is, " that of perfections already 
 " unfolded) there may occur extrinfic caufes to 
 " prevent the benefdal difplay." 
 
 F It
 
 t 34 1 
 
 It is of this latter pofition, that Gray has 
 given the illuftration, in the images of " the 
 " get** whofe brightnefs is hid by its depth in 
 " the fea 5" and of <c the flower, whofe beauty 
 < c and fragrance are loft, on account of the 
 <c defert in which it grows." It is nothing to the 
 illuftration of the former pofition, that the flower 
 blufhes unfeen j or that the gem may grow 
 where no hand can reach it. Had the 
 brightnefs of the gem remained folded up in 
 the crufti or the flower been froft-nipt in the 
 budy the images had been in point. 
 
 Of the images themfelves I have already al- 
 lowed the merit. They are both, however, to 
 be found in Thomfon, from whom Gray feems- 
 to have borrowed more than he thought fit 
 to acknowledge. Speaking of the influence of 
 the Sun, and univerfal operation of light j he 
 fays *, in the way of addrefs to the operator, 
 
 The unfruitful rock itfclf, impregn'd by thee, 
 In dark retirement forms the lucid ftone. 
 The lively diamond drinks thy purejl rays \ 
 Collected light compact. 
 
 And, defcribing the retirement of a rural 
 beauty f, 
 
 As, in the hollow breaft of Apennines 
 Beneath the fhelter of encircling hills, 
 
 Summer. f Autumn. 
 
 A myrtle
 
 [ 35 ] 
 
 A myrtle rifes, far from human eye, 
 And breathes its balmy fragrance o'er the wild ; 
 So flourilh'd, blooming, and, unfeen by all, 
 Thzfuveet Lavinia. 
 
 In the former example, the U diamond" of 
 Thomfon becomes the f< gem" of Gray ; both 
 ate formed in retirement^ though Gray has chang- 
 ed the place; and tranfplanted the diamond 
 into the fea, for caufes that do not appear, and 
 with a propriety of which Criticifm entertains 
 a doubt, Both ftones are of <{ pureft ray." 
 
 Of the latter image, the identity is Hill more 
 obvious i although it has been difguifed by the 
 change of a myrtle into a flower j and, per- 
 haps, by a ihifting of the fcene from Italy to 
 Arabia Deferta. Why a. flower was thought 
 better than a myrtle ; or a defert more proper 
 than ajhelter'd wafte, for rearing a tender plant, 
 we are not informed. To fee the fenfe of jus- 
 tice return, is pleafant even when the return 
 is late. Gray, towards the end of his life, 
 dived to the bottom for the gem ; and, hav- 
 ing brought it up, replanted it in the earth, 
 to be brought forth as occafion might call* 
 To the myrtle he made more fignal amends, 
 for its long transformation into a flower, by 
 making in tereft with the Chancellor of the Uni- 
 vcrfuy of Cambridge to have it created abifhop, 
 
 F* Thy
 
 [ 3 ] 
 
 Thy liberal heart, thy judging eye, 
 Thtfower unheeded fhall defcry, 
 And bid it round Heaven's altar fhed, 
 The fragrance of its blufhing head; 
 Shall raife from earth the latent gem. 
 To glitter on the diadem *. 
 
 Thomfon's myrtle <f breathes its balmy fra-? 
 grance o'er the wild ;" Gray's flower <c waftes 
 its fweetnefs on the defert air." cf Waftes," in 
 place of cc breathes," is an improvement; 
 though, whether one air is more " defert" than 
 another, the authority of Shakefpeare himfelf 
 will not hinder us to doubt. 
 
 It is often entertaining to trace imitation. 
 To detecl: the adopted image, the copied de- 
 fign, the transferred fentiment, the appropriat- 
 ed phrafe, and even the acquired manner and 
 frame, under all the difguifes that mutilation, 
 combination, and accommodation may have 
 thrown around them, muft require both parts 
 and diligence ; but it will bring with it no or- 
 dinary gratification. A book, profeflfedly on the 
 " Hiftory and progrefs of imitation in poetry," 
 written by a man of perfpicacity, and an adept 
 in the art of difcerning likeneffes, even when 
 minute ; with examples properly feledted, an4 
 gradations duly marked; would make an im- 
 portant acceflion to the ftore of Human lite- 
 rature, and furnifh rational curiofity with an 
 high regale. 
 
 * Inftallation Ode, 
 
 I remem.-
 
 [ 37 ] 
 
 I remember to have once heard, I know not 
 where, or from whom, that Swift had project- 
 ed a work of this kind. But Swift was full of 
 projects j and fcarcely pofleffed fteadinefs or 
 induftry fufficient to carry fuch adefign through. 
 I fhould have had better hopes of its fuccefs in 
 the hands of Addifon than of Swift. But I 
 return to Gray. 
 
 To the exprejfion in fome parts of this Stanza, 
 certain objections have been propofed. The 
 word " bear," is thought to be improperly 
 ufed, and to have been produced by the exigen- 
 cies of the rhyme : " the caves of ocean fup- 
 pcrting the precious ftones that are formed 
 there," is faid to be an idea inept and infig- 
 nificant. To this it has been urged in reply, 
 that " bear," in this paflage means " produce," 
 in analogy to vegetable birth. But I am not 
 fure that the analogy is not rather to animal 
 production. Thus Waller, in a fimilar cafe, 
 fpeaking of the fea : 
 
 'tis fo rocklefs and fo clear, 
 
 That the rich bottom does appear 
 Pav'd all with precious things, not torn 
 From fhipwreck'd veflels, but there bom *. 
 
 And of the application of " born" to the flower 
 itfelf, the fame may be the account. It is not 
 metaphyfically ufed to denote neceflity or fate; 
 but phyfically to denote production ; The ufc 
 * Loving at firit-fight. 
 
 of
 
 [ 3 ] 
 
 of " born" for C{ deftined," is too proverbial 
 for poetry. 
 
 " Pureft ray ferene," has been cenfured by 
 fome as obfcure, and by others as redundant. 
 But that an expreflion, which feems to have 
 been ftudioufly fought, fhould have had no 
 meaning in the mind of its author, it is fcarcely 
 reafonable to fuppofe. Gray, in the maturer 
 part of his life, addicted himfelf to the ftudy 
 of natural hiftory. It is not impofiible that, 
 in fome of the writers he had read on thefe 
 fubjecls, he had found <e ray ferene jV [raggio 
 fereno j] ufed, as a technical term, for what, 
 in precious ftones, is commonly called the 
 water. 
 
 " Pureft ray>" taken by itfelf, is the expref- 
 fion of Thomfon j who afterwards calls it 
 " collected light compact," according to a 
 mode, not uncommon with him, of thrufting 
 in his noun betwixt two fhouldering epithets; 
 in the ufe of which mode, he and his fellow 
 imitators were, as I have heard Savage hu- 
 moroufly obferve, kept in countenance by Mil- 
 ton's " human face divine f." 
 
 Of this Stanza before I conclude the exa- 
 min-ation, I am willing to gratify the Reader 
 with a communication on the fubjecl:, made 
 me by the late Dr. Calvert Blake, a gentleman 
 of eminent tafte, and moft extenfive acquaint- 
 f Paradife Loft, Book Hi. 
 
 ance
 
 [ 39 I 
 
 ahce with the body of Englilh poetry; and 
 who, by the cabals of trufted Malignity, was 
 driven from high hopes of merited preferment; 
 and forced, through a feries of accumulating 
 misfortunes (of the greateft part of which, as he 
 informed me, he had a regular prefentiment), 
 to feek refuge in the mountains of Wales, 
 where he taught the private fchool founded by 
 the benefaction of the late Colonel Perkins, 
 till death put an end to his diftrefs. 
 
 It was the opinion of Dr. Blake, that Gray 
 was drawn into this expreflion incidentally, 
 by the inftinctive operation of his ear, prefent- 
 ing him with indiftinct and faint renewals of 
 founds which he had treafured up mechani- 
 cally, and without purpofe of recal. Thom- 
 fon had faid, " pureft ray,'* and Milton, with 
 an arrangement very like the prefent, c< fo 
 thick a drop ferene J ;" and from the two toge- 
 ther was formed by Gray his " pureft ray fe- 
 rene. " Thus far Dr. Blake. Whether his 
 conjecture be well founded, I do not here 
 mean to inquire. The coincidence of rhythm 
 and form is remarkable. <c Drop ferene/' is a 
 tranflation of " gutta ferena," a technical ex- 
 preflion for a difeafe of the eyes, proceedino- 
 from an infpirTation of humours, and terminat- 
 ing in the lofs of fight. Of the application of 
 the term ferene> to a cafe where there is a total 
 fhutting out of light, Phyfic may be left at her 
 own leifure to give her account. 
 \ Paradife Loft, Book iii,. 
 
 XV.
 
 I 40 ] 
 
 XV. 
 
 Of the fifteenth Stanza I find little to praife 
 either in the Poetry or Politicks : for politicks 
 it does contain j although it is part of a me- 
 ditation on Death. Gray had pafied his youth 
 like mod young men, who are taught, or teach 
 themfelves, to confider ibmething peculiarly re- 
 ipe&able as aflbciated with the charadterof Whig, 
 Of the ebullitions of his uninformed youth, he 
 was unfortunate enough to referve confiderable 
 part for the plague of his riper age. Of his 
 whiggilh prejudices his poetry is full. 
 
 That whiggifm is the beft poetical fide of the 
 queftion, Candour is content to allow. If it 
 feldom puts much money into the Poet's purfe, 
 or brings with it much quiet to his mind, it 
 is ufeful to him in the way of his profef- 
 fion j and when he works himfelf up to faction, 
 he may be faid to M labour in his vocation." 
 Of Liberty, the idea is fo vague, and the di- 
 menfion fo little fettled, that the Poet may 
 make of it what he will. The fairy land is all 
 his own j and, however fantaftic his combina- 
 tions may be, he will not want for fantaftic 
 
 hearers tJ liften to his tale. 
 
 5 He
 
 [ 41 ] 
 
 He may transform his Mortal into a ff God- 
 defs" at will. He may chufe out for her what 
 proportions, and inveft her with what attributes 
 he chufes. He may array her in robes that 
 are " heavenly bright." He may defcribe 
 her as offering "Blifs" with profufion, and ready 
 to be delivered of "Delight :" "Pleafure" walk- 
 ing, crowned,withher armin arm ; and "Plenty," 
 drefl in fmiles, bearing up her train behind ; 
 whilft ihe fcatters her gifts on every fide ; giv- 
 ing to Nature gaiety, to the Sun beauty, and 
 to the Day pleafure f. When he has thus finifhr- 
 ed off his . goddefs, he may think of introdu- 
 cing her into company; and, whatever be the 
 fate of her gentleman ufher, the Goddefs is fure 
 of being well received by thofe that know the 
 value of fuch a vifitant. 
 
 Whatever may in general be urged or admits 
 ted on the one fide or the other, concerning li- 
 berty, Criticifm muft be allowed, with pertina- 
 city, to maintain, that the political creed of 
 Thomas Gray had nothing to do in the Elegy 
 written in a Country Church-yard. Not only is 
 this infertion out of place j it is alfo ill-timed. 
 The zealots of rebellion are no longer heroes in 
 Britain ; and the appeal to the admiration of 
 the Reader, is tofTed back in the Author's face. 
 Other times have brought with them other 
 principles. Tempera mufantur & nos . The 
 fubtle diftinclion, and inflammatory reafonings^ 
 f Addifon. Letter from Italy. 
 
 Q that
 
 [ 42 ] 
 
 that countenanced the fhedding of fanctifiecl 
 blood, are no longer allowed a hearing. Even 
 the whiggifh Addifon has declared fuch reafon- 
 ings to be profanation^ pronouncing, almoft 
 a century ago, and of his own favoured Mil- 
 ton, that 
 
 Now the language can't fupport the caufe *. 
 
 Of diftinguifhed models of human excellence 
 of characters high-finifhed, both in under- 
 ftanding and heart, there is no want, either in 
 the general hiftory of mankind, or in the par- 
 ticular hiftory of this ifland : and Aftonifhment 
 cannot help doubling her ufual portion of won- 
 der, that from among the afiembled worthies 
 of the world, Gray could find none deferving 
 felection, as patterns of greatnefs to Man, fave 
 three defperate partizans of faction, and pro- 
 moters of a rebellion, that fubverted both the 
 laws and government of his country. 
 
 Of thefe three characters, only one is held 
 up to any cenfure. Even on him the cenfure 
 is made to fall obliquely, and after it has had 
 its force broken by a whiggifh arm. The cen- 
 fure itfelf too is of whiggifh make. Of Crom- 
 well, the crime is declared to have been the 
 Jhedding his country's blood. For his King's, 
 Gray returns " ignoramus" on the bill, 
 
 Account of the greateft Englifh Poets. 
 
 XVI.
 
 t +3 3 
 
 XVI. 
 
 In the fixteenth Stanza is contained more, in 
 the way of allufion to thefe heroes and their 
 tranfaclions ; but allufion, at which Criticifm 
 finds herfelf obliged to Hop fhort. Though 
 the evil temper of the times did enable them to 
 cc command the applaufe of liflening fenates," 
 which is poetical language, for being well heard 
 in the Houfe > yet, with what propriety, can any 
 of them be laid to have " fcatter'd plenty o'er 
 a fmiling land ?" Of a land that has its plough- 
 mare turned into a fword, the plenty is not 
 great : nor was England dreft in fmiles in the 
 time of the great rebellion. 
 
 In this Stanza too, Gray is guilty of an in- 
 confiftency. " To defpife the threats of pain 
 and ruin," is not of the clafs of virtues that 
 the poor man's lot forbids, even according to 
 the views of Gray. On his Cf village Ham- 
 den," notwithftanding the meannefs of his lot, 
 he forgets that, in the former Stanza, he con- 
 ferred a dauntlefs breafi, in all the forms of 
 inveftiture. But the difgrace of this incon- 
 fiftency is due to him, for having, on an occa- 
 fion like this, fufFered his mind to be bewil- 
 dered with politicks. It is a great blot upon 
 the piece. Of a work, fuch as this, the fenti- 
 G 2 ments
 
 [ 44 ] 
 
 ments ought to be fuch as every heart will re- 
 turn j the appeals, fuch as every mind will 
 admit. Death generalifes the fpecifications of 
 political tenets. The Grave takes in all parties. 
 There is no Shibboleth among her fubjedts. 
 
 The cc reading their hiftory in a nation's 
 eyes," is a thought that holds more of Rheto- 
 rick than Poetry. " Hiftory" is too indefinite 
 a term. There is good hiftory, and there is 
 bad. It is no exclufive privilege of the good, 
 to be able to read their hiftory thus. The bad 
 come in for their fhare. Nor do the rich enjoy 
 here any power of appropriation, which extends 
 not alfo to the poor, in degree. The exprejfion 
 is a forced one. We commonly read the hifto- 
 ries of others : feldom our own. 
 
 
 XVII. XVIIL 
 
 Of the two following Stanzas, the compo- 
 'fiiion is faulty in refpect to their connection 
 with the preceding, and with each other. Even 
 where the compofition is in couplets, the fafti- 
 dious critic is unwilling that the fenfe mould 
 be made out by the couplets' bearing in upon 
 each other. When the Stanza exceeds two 
 lines in number, the effect is yet more difagree- 
 
 able.
 
 [ 45 ] 
 
 libit. The plea of necefiity is urged with left 
 reafon ; and the contrail betwixt the complet- 
 ed circumfcription of found, and the yet un- 
 completed accumulation of fenfe, become* 
 more revolting, as it becomes more felt. 
 
 With this biemifh, the Stanzas under con- 
 fideration are chargeable. Gray was not un* 
 apprized of it j and, that it might be lefs per* 
 ceptible as a biemifh, he gave orders, in the 
 firft edition, that no diftinction of Stanzas (hould 
 be marked *. In a Scotch edition, however, of 
 his Poems, which he feems to have thought 
 likely to extend his fame, the natural diftinc- 
 tion of Stanzas is reftored, as - it is in many 
 others, particularly in Mr. Mafon's. The 
 device was but a fhallow one, and very pro- 
 perly relinquifhed. In Verfe of this alternate 
 ftru&ure,. the lines /<?n# them/elves into quater- 
 nions : and the bringing out thefe quaternions 
 feparately to the eye, is only a technical con- 
 trivance, enabling us to parcel them more rea- 
 dily. Inftead of attempting to conceal the 
 fault, Gray mould have tried to mend it. 
 
 In the fenfe I find little to blame, that may 
 not be referred to fome of the former ftrictures 
 on this Elegy. " Virtues," and f< crimes," are 
 ideas too particular for the Author's view in 
 this place, which is meant to . extend to the 
 circumfcription, from caufes extrinfic, of the 
 fange of natural, as well as moral, action. 
 * Mafon. 
 
 cc Hiding
 
 [ 46 1 
 
 " Hiding the ftruggling pangs of confciotis 
 truth," and cc quenching the blufhes of inge- 
 nuous fhame," are only different defcriptions of 
 the fame action, viz. the " checking the dictates 
 of confcience." " Quenching blufhes," is an 
 idea fcarcely correct j though by the quench- 
 ing of beat, blufhes may be made to dis- 
 appear. That the poor man's lot forbids the 
 bearing down the fuggeftions of confcience, is 
 only relatively true. Profligacy is free of all 
 corporations. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 In the nineteenth Stanza is defcribed, in a 
 manner that is pleafing, the calm and content- 
 ed ftate of an unafpiring and meek mind. But 
 what defcription can there be, in which fuch a 
 picture will not pleafe ? The two firft lines are, 
 from the arrangement, equivocal : but we 
 know what the Author ought to mean. It is 
 not, that " their wifhes never ftrayed far from 
 the ftrife of the crowd ;" but that, " naturally 
 retired from that ftrife, they formed no wifh 
 to ftray from fuch retirement." Yet the 
 words " crowd," and " ignoble," are not hap- 
 pily fele&ed, to be brought forward in a de- 
 fcription
 
 [ 47 ] 
 
 {cription of the contentions of the " mighty," 
 and the 5 C great." The two clofmg lines havd 
 in them fomething of foftnefs, that makes 
 Criticifm deal cenfure with reluctance : 
 
 Along the cool, fequeftered vale of life, 
 They kept the noifelefs tenor of their way. 
 
 Yet even here, the idea, as ufual, is prefented 
 to us in different afpecls. Ambition is painted 
 as a hot, and then as a noijy, perfonage ; and 
 to thefe views of his character are oppofed the 
 f c cool vale," and the f* noifelefs tenor," that 
 are thought fit to be aflbciated with the cha- 
 racter of the Man of Content. Gray never 
 could be brought to fee when he had faid 
 enough. 
 
 XX. XXI. XXII. XXIII. 
 
 The four Stanzas that follow, are to me the 
 moft pleating in the Elegy. The notions ap- 
 pear to Memory, original; though to Belief and 
 Feeling, imitations. But, great as is their gene- 
 ral merit, in fome particulars they are faulty. 
 The facrednefs of the Critic's truft, impofes on 
 him fometimes the exertion of fclf-denial ; 
 obliging him to range for blemifhes, where 
 his wifhes are to find nought but beauties. 
 
 In
 
 [ 48 3 
 
 In the firft of the four, the expreflion " thefe 
 bones," where only -perfons had been fpoken of, 
 is awkward. " Their bones," would have been 
 lefs exceptionable. To " protect from infult, 
 is profaic j and, if the end of the " memo- 
 rial", was this protection, there is no neceflity 
 that we be put in mind, by the fuggeflion of 
 the frailnefs of that memorial, that the end will 
 not be anfwered. A memorial, protecting from 
 \nfuUy is a mpde of expreflion approaching to 
 nonfenfe. If protection be ever the refult 
 of its erection, it is only in a fecondary way. 
 
 The twenty-firft Stanza does not fet out hap- 
 pily. " Their name," their years :" whofe 
 name ? whofe years ? They were bones, not 
 perfons, that were mentioned : and a nomen- 
 clature of bones, followed with the age of each, 
 engraved over their refpedtive repofitories, is 
 too ludicrous a fancy to be allowed place in 
 the judgment for a moment. Of the meaning 
 there is no doubt j but of that meaning, the 
 expreflion is unlucky. In all compofitions that 
 are ferious, the remoteft temptation to what is 
 ludicrous fhould be refilled. Of this idea, 
 Gray himfejf feems to have felt the truth, and 
 has alluded to it forcibly in his fhort ftrictures 
 pn * Sterne's Sermons, " They are juft," 
 fays he, " what fermoqs fhould be: but the 
 " Preacher often totters on the verge of ri(i 7 
 
 Mafon. 
 
 I bility,
 
 C 49 ] 
 
 " bility, and feems ready to dafh his periwig in 
 " the faces of his auditors." Sterne's rifibility 
 was buffoonery j and an outrage to tafte as well 
 as decency. With this Gray is not chargeable. 
 But in a cafe where much caution is neceflary, 
 it is not enough not to have erred with inten- 
 tion. The writer is bound to be watchful. For 
 even in the funeral proceffion levity is fome- 
 times. feen to mixj and ftands perked up in 
 the corner of the aile, with the grin already 
 lined on his face, and prepared to come out 
 full in a moment, if but the flighteft down 
 from the plumage of the hearfe, born towards 
 him by the gentleft breath, mould chance to 
 tickle his cheek. Hunc tu Romane caveto. 
 
 u The unlettered mufe fpelling out the 
 " names of the rufticks upon their tomb- 
 <c ftones," is a good image. It has in it more 
 alfo of life than Parnell's idea : 
 
 The flat fmooth ftones that bear a name, 
 The duffel's flender help to fame. 
 
 The " ftrewing of the holy texts" too is gra- 
 phical. 
 
 That fome fcho oling is necefTary to induce re- 
 fignation to death, the general pofition is juft j 
 though not requiring the quantity of dilatation 
 he has given it in the two following ftanzas. 
 Of the word "Moralift," the application isfalfe 
 and provincial. A Moralift is <f one who 
 "teaches the duties of life." It is the unlet- 
 
 II tcred
 
 [ 50 ] 
 
 tcred Mufe that is the moralift, not the ruftic $ 
 who only takes the leflbn which his teacher of*- 
 fers to give. Should we even ftretch the com- 
 pafs of the word, fo as to make it comprehend 
 both the teacher and the taught, the term 
 would be ftill improper in this place. The 
 leffbns are not in morality, but religion. They 
 are not arguments, but authorities. I do not 
 know that the verfe would have fuffered much, 
 either in ftrength or beauty, had the Author's 
 piety perfuaded him to prefent it thus : 
 
 That teach the ruftic Chrijllan to die. 
 
 Gray had top much devotion about him to be 
 afhamed of the word Chriftian* His obfer- 
 vations on Lord Shaftefbury's character and 
 writings fhow that he was himfelf a Chriftian, 
 although a polite man j and that he had fenfe 
 enough to fee, and fpirit enough to defpife, the 
 duplicity and cowardice of him, who rears up 
 morality into a mole, which he may make ufe 
 of in battering revelation. 
 
 Should Criticifm be afked, what blemifh (he 
 has difcovered in the two flanzas that follow : 
 " For who to dumb forgetfulnefs, &c." fhe 
 has this general objection to propofe againft 
 them, that they are too diffufive. The thought 
 has been already dated. Of that thought they 
 are meant to be illustrative. But the illuftra- 
 tion is too long. Of correct writing, it is one 
 A of
 
 [ 5i ] 
 
 of the effential laws not to fwell out the com- 
 ment fo as to become more momentous than 4, 
 the text. The acceflbries are proper in their 
 own place : but to joflle out the principal, 
 they mould never be allowed. 
 
 What the firft of thefe two ftanzas chiefly 
 holds out to Cenfure, is its exprejjion. It is noc 
 clear in what view <f Forgetfulnefs" is pronounced 
 <f dumb." That what is not remembered will, 
 of courfe, not be uttered, is a truth; but of 
 denominatives the felection is better made^ by 
 reference to the internal nature of the object, 
 than to circumftances only confequential. 
 Cf Warm precincts" has been cenfured ; and 
 " precincts of day." Yet " luminis oras" is 
 faid by Virgil; and c< aridos fines Libya' by 
 more writers than I can name. c ? Precinct" is 
 fynonymous with " ora" and "fines-" and Sig- 
 nifies not the " outline" only, but alfo the 
 *' enclofed fpace." In this laft fenfe, wjth r.he 
 accent differently placed^ it is ufed by Mil- 
 ton * : 
 
 Through all reftraint broke loofe, he wings his way 
 Not far off heaven, in the precinfts of light, 
 Directly towards the new-created world, 
 
 That Gray, moving, himfelf, in the precinffs 
 of light ; and within the pale of an univerfity 
 claiming to herfelf a monopoly of that, and other 
 
 * Paradife Loft, iii. 87. 
 
 H 2 fciences;
 
 [ 5* ] 
 
 fciences j mould have fo far unlearned the phi- 
 lofophy of light, as to fuppofe that the man 
 who is placed in a region where light exiits not, 
 may take up the objects of fight, is matter of 
 fome furprife. He that has already left the 
 precincts of day, will caft no cc lingering look" 
 either behind or before : he has no look to cait. 
 Vifibility and illumination reciprocate j and 
 from a place to which the rays of the object 
 extend not, the object is not feen. 
 
 Of <f longing lingering look," the con- 
 ftruction, in refpect to found, is in his ufual 
 ftyle. " High-born Hoel's harp." * Light 
 Llewellyn's lay," What is acquired to the 
 defcription by the three /*s in " longing lin- 
 gering look," it is not eafy to fee. But Cri- 
 ticifm is willing to check the feverity of cen- 
 fure for a fault, which Criticks have in a great 
 meafure caufed. The flack and folemn dic- 
 tates that have parTed from mouth to mouth 
 upon the fubject of reprefentative poetry, from 
 the days of Homer to thofe of his tranflator 
 Pope, have milled men of greater tafle and 
 judgment than Gray. On this occafion, how- 
 ever, he feems to have forgot his accidence ; and 
 miftaken what his mailers taught. Liquids, 
 according to the doctrines of the reprefentative 
 fchool, are imitative of accelerated motion. Of 
 
 
 Soft. 
 
 thefe
 
 [ 53 ] 
 
 thefe doctrines, in the prefent cafe, he has 
 made but a froward application, when he makes 
 his liquids reprefentative of the motion of the 
 laggard paflengers that hang hack in their way 
 to death. 
 
 Of all the elementary conftituents of oral 
 articulate found, there is no one which has had 
 more attention paid to it by the adepts in re- 
 prefentative compofition, than the femi-vocal 
 incompofite /. It is eafy of accefs, ready to 
 grant, or even proffer its fervices j and ever 
 within call. To it, of all the reft, Gray feems to 
 have paid peculiar court. The kindnefs of 
 Dr. Curzon, late of Brazen Nose, and now 
 refiding in Italy for his health, and to whom I 
 embrace this opportunity of recording my 
 obligation for materials that have been of ufe 
 to me in the prefent work, has put me in pof- 
 fefiion of a little relic of Gray, furnifhing a 
 ftriking illuftration of his fondnefs for this let- 
 ter, and how much, as the Doctor terms it, it 
 had infenfibly gained his ear. Of this relic I 
 do not know that, in any edition of Gray's 
 works, the communication has yet been indulg- 
 ed the Public j not even in that one in which 
 the Author's literary correfpondence, and frag- 
 ments of projected poems j have been printed. 
 1 am contented, therefore, to give it to the 
 world, with part of the letter into which it was 
 
 copied,
 
 [ 54 ] 
 
 copied, as particularly connected with the pre- 
 fent fubjecl:, and as illuftrative moreover of that 
 leading feature in the character of Gray, the 
 Uve of project j hoping that I may do it with- 
 out offence ; as, in offering this gratification 
 to rational literary curiofity, for which I have 
 the Doctor's permiffion, I invade no property, 
 nor violate any known right. 
 
 Of this piece the fubjed, when mentioned, 
 will convince thofe that write for the informa- 
 tion of mankind at large, what danger attends 
 the enunciation of univerfal propofitions j and 
 how much credit vyith the Public thofe have 
 rifked, who have taken upon them to maintain 
 with pertinacity, that at no period of his poe- 
 tical life Gray ever wrote verfes on love. It is 
 a little piece, fomewhat of the Namby Pamby 
 kind ', wrought out in the manner of a fong, 
 and comnofed (if one may judge, from internal 
 marks, of writings whole dates are purpofedly 
 concealed) at the particular time of his life at 
 which his enthufiafm for Italian poetry and 
 Italian mufic raged mod. He calls it a 
 POETICAL RONDEAU j a title which pro- 
 bably he would have altered afterwards, had he 
 thought the piece worth claiming. Of the 
 nature of the project: (for fo he modeftly enough 
 calls it), together with the view which gave 
 
 rife to it, he gives the following account j at 
 
 once
 
 [ 55 ] 
 
 once tending to fhew it to be fomewhat lin- 
 gular, and proving the folly of him who, irk 
 this aged ftate of literary communication, fhall 
 fay to himfelf, " Go to j I fhall fit down, and 
 " write me fomething new." 
 
 *' I have often wondered," fays he, " that 
 ct the analogies of thefe fitter Arts (he had been 
 " fpeaking of Poetry and Mufic) have not 
 " been more keenly traced out and marked, 
 " with a view to mutual transference. Each 
 ct has many things in her budget, which fhe 
 " might give out occafionally in loan to the 
 " other, without inconvenience to herfelf. 
 " Mufic, for inftance, who is the more fprightly 
 " of the two, and moreover the younger and 
 " handfomer (but let than be under the rofe), 
 " having had a great many different lovers, 
 " fome of them far travelled, and very /<?#-ifh 
 " of courfe, has picked up, during the time 
 " they have danced after her, a world of little 
 " curiofities and trinkets, as well as things of 
 " more ferious ufe, in the way of drefs, orna- 
 " ment, &c. with all which fhe occafionally 
 " tricks herfelf off, and makes in them, I affure 
 " you, a charming fweet figure \ fhe has alfo had 
 " now and then a.pen/ive lover : but from them 
 " fhe has borrowed little elfe than ferious man- 
 " nerj whichfhevery quickly puts off again, left, 
 f as fhe fays, it fpoil her flow of fpirits. So 
 
 " much
 
 t * ] 
 
 " much for Mifs Mufic. Now for her filler j 
 " with whom you mud know I am a lit 
 " tie acquainted^ She again is of a more 
 " fteady deportment : keeps her looks very 
 " well : has no averfion to a frolic now and 
 " then : but then it mull be with thofe fhe is 
 " well acquainted with ; for fhe is more referv- 
 " ed than her fitter, and fets up more on fenfe 
 *' than fprightlinefs* She too has had fome 
 " lovers j though fhe does not give them much 
 " encouragement, confidering them in general 
 " as danglers; but of the few whom fhe efteem- 
 " ed and thought fhe could truft, fhe has not 
 " difdained now and then to accept fomething 
 " in the way of remembrance, and even to wear 
 " it occafionally for their fake. Now what I 
 "would have thefe two ladies do is this. I 
 " would have each of them empty her drawers 
 f and band-boxes, throw all the things together, 
 " and turn the two wardrobes into one. By this 
 41 means, as I told them, the things of each would 
 "in .effect: be doubled; for the world is not to 
 " know.To this fcheme the younger, who thought 
 " it a fine frolic, very readily agreed. The elder 
 * has afked time to think of it ; and in the 
 " mean time has got, at my inftigation, a mil- 
 " liner engaged to look over her fitter's things, 
 " and fee which will fit her beft. By par- 
 " ticular defire alfo of your humble fervant, 
 
 " ( na y
 
 t 57 1 
 
 (i (nay don't look wife, for ff 'pon *onnor" 
 " (he won't have me) me is to make her firft ex- 
 <c periment to-morrow, and come down to tea 
 " in a trim airy drefs of her fitter's, which I 
 <c always liked on Mifs Mufic, and which, I 
 <f pledged my tafte, would become her too* 
 
 U Quo te Mceri pedes ? you fay well, as you 
 <f have been civil, and have put up your Mceri 
 " in your pocket, which I grant you might have 
 " flung at me, though mark, the quantity would 
 cc have been too much, I fay, as you have dealt 
 " by me like a civil gentleman, I am going to 
 " cOme down from my flights, and tell you 
 f fhortly what I mean, Summa fequar fajligia 
 <f reruml* A long and unintermitted enthu- 
 cc fiafm for mufic has, you know, led, volven- 
 <f tibus annis, to the difcovery of many varied 
 <e modes of mufical exprefiion 5 and introduced 
 " multiplied conveyances of mufical pleafure. 
 *' There are many of thefe which I think might 
 " be transferred to the filter art Poetry with 
 " fuccefs* The enclofed, which you no doubt 
 <c read before the letter, and I hope have done 
 u me the honour to think the ferious effufion 
 c< of a non-erubefcend flame (by the way, the 
 * c word is notyetEnglifh I believe*), contains 
 * f an EfTay Piece in the way of this fcheme. 
 " The fame is entitled a Poetical Rondeau. Nay, 
 
 . There is as ye? no fuch Englifh word. The word n*n- 
 defcript, lately introduced, upon a fimilar analogy, is not 
 lefs ridiculous. 
 
 * I "do
 
 [ 5 ] 
 
 u do not ftare. Be fure the flranger prove no 
 kc old acquaintance, before you thruft him from 
 *' your chambers, and fhut the door in his face. 
 ct You know the principle of the Rondeau in 
 V mufic. It is " to give a fubjecl: eafe by the 
 * familiarity arifing from repetition, and intereft 
 " by diverfification." What is known, alter- 
 " nates with what is unknown. They mutu- 
 * c ally lead in each other : and give to each 
 c other a mutual relief. The little trifle I 
 " fent you enclofed, is an attempt at this al- 
 " ternation, in Poetry, Accordingly, when you 
 t have firft duly armed yourfelf with your 
 * c double concaves, you fhall fee, in the piece 
 u before you, firft of all, come in the Sub- 
 " tect j which is afterwards to come in, as the 
 return. This Subject you fhall fee to 
 c be taken from the department of Love ; 
 H viz. " the pain of parting ;" which B-tt-e, 
 c if you find him in the mood, will pour away 
 <c to you with his ufual fenfibility, in a different 
 " fhape, in the character of Polly Peachum.* 
 " Well then, the Subjeft drawing to aclofe, you 
 < c fhall fee us nick the time, and prepare the 
 laft cadence, fo as to lead in what feems to 
 be anew fubjecl:, but is nothing but a modi- 
 fication of the oldi this is the firft departure', 
 ' which muft be fo managed as to preferve at 
 < the clofe of it a ready lead in to the return, 
 which now makes its appearance again, 
 i '* fhews
 
 [ 59 ] 
 
 " which mud be fo managed as to preferve at 
 " the clofe of it a ready lead in to the return, 
 which now makes its appearance again, 
 * f mews itfelf away a^little, and then -leads 
 " off to the fecond departure. This mud be, at 
 " ohce, a diveffification of the Subject, and of the 
 " firjl departure -, it may contain a more labour- 
 " ed air,' and greater changes of key j or, &c. 
 " we muft not however keep long upori it : for 
 tf lo! cometh the Return again j then lead we 
 " off to the third departure, with a very learned 
 * e modulation, plying in fo at the end however, 
 " as to admit the Return; zfourth time.- Now 
 <f for the great trial of fkill, in leading off 
 cc to the laft departure, which is to be a minore s 
 " and muft, if it is to be worth a farthing, be 
 " connected; at the expence of fome pains* 
 " with the clofing cadence of the Return that 
 " precedes it. Then Warble away at the minors 
 * c itfelf ; which muft repay the favour, and 
 f make way courteoufly for the faid Return 3 
 tl which now comes in, once more, to claim 
 * f her firft occupancy, and remain miftrefs of 
 
 " the premifes. Thus far Theory, now 
 
 if enter Practice/' 
 
 I 2 POETICAL
 
 t ] 
 
 POETICAL- RONDEAU. - 
 
 Firft to love, and then to part, 
 
 Long to feek a mutual heart, 
 
 Late to find it : - and, again, 
 
 Leave, and lofe it oh the pain ! 
 
 Some have loved, and loved (they fay) 
 'Till they loved their love away - y 
 Then have left ; to love anew : 
 But, I wot, they loved not trice I 
 
 True to love, and then to part, 
 
 Long to feek a mutual heart, 
 
 Late to find it, and, again, 
 
 Leave, and lofe it oh the pain ! 
 
 Some havejjov'd, to pafs the time j 
 And have lov'd their love in rhyme : 
 Loath'd the love ; and loath'd the fong : 
 But their love could not hejlrong ! 
 
 Strong to love, and then to part, 
 
 Long to feek a mutual heart, 
 
 Late to find it and, again, 
 
 Leave and lofe it, oh the pain ! 
 
 They who juft but felt the flame, 
 Lightly lambent o'er their frame, 
 Light to them the parting knell : 
 For, too fure, they love not well! 
 
 Well to love, - and then to part, 
 
 Long to feek a mutual heart, 
 
 Late to find it, and, again, 
 
 Leave, and lofe it, oh ! the pain ! 
 But when once the potent dart, 
 Cent'ring, rivets heart to heart, 
 Then to fever what is bound, 
 Is to tear the clofing wound. 
 
 Thus to love, and then to part, 
 
 Long to feek a mutual heart, 
 
 Late -to find it, and, again, 
 
 Leave, and lofe it, oh ! the pain ! . . . . 
 
 * f Nous vofla and now for my friend Bentley 
 
 "to do me off nicely the device; being two- 
 
 2 <f faithful
 
 [ 6> ] 
 
 ct faithful hearts, that lhall feem both two and 
 w one-, fo clofely are they hafped together with 
 <c a true love dart : the barb holding faft the 
 " one, and the "grey goofe wing that is there- 
 " on" the other j take notice though the 
 <e ether is the female heart ; and take notice of 
 " the emblem too. It is only kept on by the 
 <c feather. A little matter will make it flip off." 
 
 Thus far the letter and its illuftration. To 
 him who is not an adept in any art, it is a mat- 
 ter of difficulty to afcertain whether he has 
 apprehended aright the import of the tech- 
 nical terms and phrafes ufed in the language of 
 that art. But if I have attained a proper con- 
 ception of what is aimed at in the levity how 
 inferted, the idea itfelf is not fo novel, as the 
 manner of dating it feerns to make it. Of 
 the ancient Dithyrambick Odes, whofe chief 
 excellence feems to have been their obfeurity 
 and affectation (qualities in which they mighr 
 find many of the modern lyrical compofkions 
 qualified to vie with them), a particular fpecies 
 were denominated Cyclic^ or circular. Thefe 
 circiiUrGdesprobablyproceeded on the principle 
 of Gray's Poetical Rondeau; as did alfo certaiti 
 of the more fprightfly and convivial fangs or 
 glees j fuch for example as that one of Anacre- 
 on, of which the return or burthen is 
 'Or tyu 7?iu rov otvov. 
 
 As to the levity itfelf, I think I may fay 
 with truth, that its compofition mud have coft 
 
 more
 
 <* i 
 
 more labour than it is ever likely to pay. It 
 holds of the Italian fchool : has in it more of 
 found than fenfe : and the little fenfe it has, is 
 not much helped forward by the found ; not- 
 withstanding the accelerating power of the let- 
 ter /, which he has here ufed upon the prin- 
 ciples of his matters, although with too much 
 profufion, and fcarcely with any fuccefs. 
 Enough of the letter /.; reprefentative poetry $ 
 and poetical Rondeaus. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 in the twenty-third Stanza, the laft of the 
 four formerly mentioned, is held out a fentiment 
 which Criticifm is willing to praife, till, col- 
 lecting her ideas, fhe remembers having beftow- 
 ed praife on its contrary. Does the " fome 
 fond breaft," do the " fome pious drops," al- 
 luded to, contribute to take from the bitter- 
 ncfs of death, and fmooth the paflage to the 
 world of fpirits ? So fays Gray. But what fays 
 Parnel *, in a cafe pretty fimilar ? Audi alteram 
 fart em ; 
 
 Night-Piecew 
 
 Nor
 
 [ 3 ] 
 
 Nor can the parted body know, 
 Nsr needs the foul thefe forms of woe* 
 
 And Thomfon * : 
 
 How many ftand 
 
 Around the death-bed of their deareft friends, 
 And point the parting anguijh! 
 
 Sterne too, whofe diflipation was too fhort- 
 lived, completely to deftroy in him the feeds 
 of fenfibility and nature, has defcribed, in a 
 Book of which about one-fifth part is worth 
 reading, the fympathies of furrounding friends^ 
 as conftituting the acuteft part of a dy- 
 ing man's anguifh. Having recorded his 
 wifh to die in an inn (a fpecies of death for 
 which there are few competitors), he proceeds 
 thus : " At home, I know it, the concern 
 of my friends, and the laft fervices of wiping 
 " my brow, and fmoothing my pillow, which 
 * the quivering hand of pale Affection fhall pay 
 ft me, will fo crucify my foul, that I fhall die 
 " of a diftemper which my phyfician is not 
 f* aware of," 
 
 Amongft Doctors who thus difagree, who 
 fhall fettle the difpute ? To a mind given to 
 fhift its views, and to Senfibilities not yet pro- 
 perly made up, both afpects of the fact, and both 
 impreflions of the fentiment, offer themfelves 
 
 Winter. 
 
 in
 
 [ 64 ] 
 
 in turn ; and both are in turn approved. Of 
 this vicijjitude of feeling, no man is without his 
 fhare. As the frame of the mind alters, {o 
 alter its likings, and its prepoifeffion in favour 
 of a fentiment, or its oppofite. Of fentiments 
 exclujively juft, the catalogue would be but 
 fmall. Relative truth is all we have a title to 
 expect in the department of Tafte; of which, 
 as no flandard exifts, it is vain to fuppofe any 
 ftandard mould be found. Scepticifm, dan- 
 gerous in philofophy, and impious in religion, 
 urges a reafonable plea for admiflion into the 
 Court of Criticifm ; of whofe decifions (he may 
 temper the feverity, and diminifli the fclf-im- 
 portance. 
 
 With thefe mutually contradictory fentiments 
 (to which the late Mr. Savage gave the name of 
 ambidextrous *, and of which he had made large 
 collections from the body of Englifh Poetry 
 that then exifted), to which the mind makes 
 alternate love, as the Antiquary beftows his ad- 
 
 *' The appropriation of the word is contrary to analogy. 
 Colliding would have been more proper. On the occasions 
 alluded to, it is the mind that is ambidextrous ; not the 
 fentiments. Savage, whofe fancy led him to form more 
 projects than his fituation allowed him to execute, 
 feems to have intended fome work upon this fubjeft. But 
 to render the defign complete, his Collections, of which I 
 retain an indiitinfl idea, Ihould have taken in profe-writers 
 as well as poets, and ether languages as well as the Eng-^ 
 Jifo. 
 
 miration,
 
 [ H 1 
 
 m i ration , now on the image of the medal, and 
 now oa the reverfe, the writings of all authors 
 of fancy are replete. We recognife them, at 
 times contradicting each other, and at times 
 contradicting themlelves. The language of the 
 Leafowes is, that to the pafTionate lover, the 
 wonted haunts of the beloved object give gra- 
 tification, when from thefe haunts {he. is abfent. 
 
 They tell me, my favourite maid, 
 The pride of that valley, is gone : 
 Alas ! tuber e with her I have Jlrayed, 
 J could wander with plea fur e alone *. 
 
 The image is one that pleafes for the time : but 
 reflected from the lakes of Hagley, which is 
 only a few miles off, it meets the eye with its 
 form inverted j and yet it pleafes ftill. 
 
 The fhades of Hagley now have loft their boaft. 
 How, in the world, to me a defert growrr, 
 Abahdoned and alone, 
 Without my fweet companion, can I live ! f 
 
 There are frames of mind that fuit either view. 
 It is not in Poetry as in Logic. Here two con- 
 tradictories may dwell together, each of equal 
 authority with its oppofite. 
 
 Though Poetry may be juftifiable in prefent- 
 ing us with oppofite views, each of which may 
 be true for the time, yet fhe ought to beware, 
 when fhe is dealing out her univerfaUy that fhe 
 
 Shenftone. Abfence. + Littleton. Monody. 
 
 K offer
 
 [ 6 ] 
 
 offer us not a relative y in place of an abfelute> 
 truth. It is in this view that Gray is cenfurable 
 in the prefent inftance. That the fympathies 
 of friends give eafe to a dying man, may be, in 
 genera], as juft a fentiment as that they give 
 him pain j that they /often his anguifh, as that 
 they point it : but here the enunciation is di- 
 dactic. The Poet fpeaks in no character, and 
 to no particular clafs, but brings forth the 
 Sentiment in the form of a pqfition ; and con- 
 fidered as a pofition, it is not true. 
 
 The third line of the Stanza contains an hy- 
 perbole, which is out-hyperboled in the fourth : 
 
 Even from the grave the voice of Nature cries : 
 Even in our afhes live their wonted fires. 
 
 a pofition at which Experience revolts, Credu- 
 lity hefitates, and even Fancy (lares. He who can 
 bring himfelf to believe, that he has heard the 
 voice of Nature crying from the grave of a 
 dead man, is in train to affent in time to the 
 propofition, that " even in our afhes live their 
 * c wonted fires :" though Friendfhip mould 
 caution him to flop fhort, and Pleafantry fug- 
 geft to him that fur/ace views are oft delufive ; 
 and that he may find himfelf, on this occafion, 
 if he goes farther on, incedere per iGKEsfup- 
 pojitos cinere doloso. But I am afhamed at 
 the expenditure of precious time, incurred by 
 the examination of a propofition contrary to all 
 
 truth,
 
 [ 67 ] 
 
 truth, abftracl: or poetical -, which Madnefs can- 
 not fhape itfclf to the conviction of, nor elon- 
 gations more that Pindaric bring Imagination 
 in contact with even for a moment. 
 
 What makes this conceit (if by the name 
 conceit may be called that which cannot be 
 conceived) the more unpardonable in Gray is, 
 that, (by a procefs of judgment the reverfe of 
 that formerly commemorated, with regard to 
 the clofing line of a ftanza in his Ode on Spring) 
 he introduced the line in which it is conveyed 
 in place of another j and as an improvement 
 of the original thought -f. The Stanza in its 
 firft ftate concluded with this line, 
 
 Awake ami faithful to her wonted fires. 
 
 which, if we chaften ftill farther, upon the 
 fuggeftion of Mr. Mafon, into 
 
 Awake and faithful to her firji defirts ; 
 
 we mail then, inftead of two hyperboles, have 
 only one, lengthened by the addition of a tail. 
 I think Mafon has informed us, that he advifed 
 him to alter the line. But Gray could not 
 afford to want it .: for here it is probable he 
 once intended to conclude the Elegy j and this 
 mode of " twirling off the thought into an 
 " apophthegm," he thought the moil ftriking 
 he could find. 
 
 f Mafon. 
 
 K 2 Gray
 
 [ 68 ] 
 
 Gray has, in a note on this line, endeavoured 
 to juftify the thought by a reference to a paf- 
 fage in Petrarch. But no authority can give 
 dignity to nonfenfe, or tranfmute falfe tafte 
 into true. As to the writings of Petrarch, it 
 may be allowed that in them, as in moft of the 
 Italian poetry, many inftances of conceit oc- 
 cur. Yet more have been fancied than found. 
 A Poet who pofTefTes this vein in himfelf, ima- 
 gines he meets with-it wherever he goes. 
 Thoughts apparelled in the fimpleft garb,' ap- 
 pear to him dreft out in point. The ideas that 
 pafs in review before him, partake of the co- 
 lour of his mind ; and his fancy, like Shake- 
 fpeare's green-eyed monfter, " makes the food 
 *.j it feeds on." Ovid abounds in conceits anc} 
 quaintnefTesj but the eyes of Cowley multi- 
 plied them, as they did thofe of Petrarch, to 
 infinity. 
 
 After reference thus foberly made to the au- 
 thority of Petrarch, Curiofity will, no doubt, 
 prick up his ears when he is told, that the paf- 
 fage quoted from that Poet, contains not the 
 fentiment in queftion. Mafon, whofe tafte was 
 too good to make him admit the authority of 
 Petrarch in defence of an unnatural thought, 
 feems not however to have doubted that the 
 thought was really his. And indeed if, of the 
 fonnet referred to, the three lines quoted by 
 Gray be taken detached from the reft, they 
 
 may j
 
 [ 69 ] 
 
 may, though fomewhat awkwardly, be made 
 to convey that thought. Taken along with the 
 context, and in connection with its defign, the 
 wildnefs of the idea vanifhes, and propriety 
 and nature inveft it. 
 
 The Poet is complaining of the hopeleffnefs 
 of his love*. " The flame I cherifh, fays he, 
 <c how intenfe ! yet how unrewarded ! and even 
 " unperceived! unperceived by her whoml alone 
 " wifh to recognife it, though marked by all 
 " befides ! Ah, diftruftful fair-one ! in whom 
 " much beauty is mixed with little faith, lqok 
 tc at my love-lorn eye, and doubt my pafllon 
 " if you can. No, you cannot, you do not 
 " doubt it j but my lucklefs ftar hardens your; 
 <f heart againft my ardent love. Yet not un- 
 f rewarded fhall be my pafllon, although un- 
 <{ rewarded by you. The tuneful homage 
 " which you regard not, (hall gain me immor- 
 " tal fame. The flame which you repay not 
 " with kindred flame, fhall fpread its conta- 
 f{ gion over many hearts. As a living prin- 
 <l ciple, it ihall pervade my verfe. I fee it in 
 " Fancy's eye, fhooting its fparks into future 
 ct ages i and (when the two fair orbs that in- 
 " fpired it are fliut, and the tongue that fung 
 tc their praifes is cold) fetting the world on 
 f c fire." Vcrfified thus : 
 
 * Petr. Son. 169. 
 
 Ah!
 
 [ 70 j 
 
 Ah ! how within me glows the fubtle flame ! 
 To all but one fair infidel confefs'd. 
 She, only dear, fupreme in worth and fame, 
 She only, doubts her empire in my breaft : 
 Thou rich in beauty ! yet, in faith how poor ! 
 Speaks not my fever'd eye the wafting grief ? 
 But for my lucklefs ftar, ere now, full fure, 
 Some drops from Pity's fount had brought relief. 
 
 Yet glows not, meedlefs quite, the warm defire ; 
 But, when our duft has filled the fatal urn, 
 
 Long, in my verfe, (hall live the genial fire, 
 Which thy cold bofom warm'd to no return. 
 
 Wide fhall its fparks the kindred flame infpire ; 
 And other Lauras melt j and other Petrarchs 
 mourn. 
 
 So much for this celebrated fentiment in the 
 Elegy written in a Country Church-yard, which 
 it is herefy not to maintain, and fluggifhnefs 
 not to feel ; and fo much for the paflage of 
 Petrarch, on which Gray fuppofed he had built 
 it. If * one line, in which there is a little of 
 points be excepted, the fonnet of which it makes 
 the clofe, is as fimple as ever was fung. A 
 tuneful lover confoles himfelf for the hardnefs 
 of his miftrefs's heart, by anticipating the en- 
 thufiafm with which pofterity will read the 
 verfes in which he has fung her praife. Here 
 is no voice of Nature crying from the grave of 
 the dead ; here are no inurned allies glowing 
 with pofthumous fires. It is not the a{hes of 
 * " Fredda una lingua, et due begli occhi chiufi." 
 
 Petrarch
 
 [ 7i ] 
 
 Petrarch and Laura that glow, but pofterity 
 that glows when they are no more. 
 
 On this fonnet of Petrarch, misfortune feems 
 to have been entailed, Cowley, to whom Pe- 
 trarch was an inexhauftible mine, ftruck upon 
 it in one of his days of digging. He knew it 
 by its general appearance to be ore, and fet 
 himfelf accordingly to fmelt it j but fo clumfily 
 did he perform the operation, and fo much he- 
 terogeneous metal did he fuffer to run into it, 
 that the mod (killed affayers can fcarcely know 
 to what compofition to refer it. It makes one 
 of the pieces o(Tbe Mijlrefs, and is here given to 
 the Reader, both as being a curiofity in itfelf, 
 and as illuftrating that part of Cowley's poeti- 
 cal character, hinted in thefe ftrictures on 
 Gray, and ftated el fe where at length. 
 
 HER UNBELIEF. 
 
 I. 
 
 'Tis zjlrange kind of unbelief in you, 
 That you your vitfriei fhould not fpy : 
 
 Vi&'ries begotten by your eye. 
 
 That your bright beams, as thofe of comets d. 
 Should kill ; but not know how, or who. 
 
 II. 
 
 That, truly> you my idol may appear, 
 
 Whilft all the people fmell and fee, 
 
 The od'rous flames I offer thee, 
 
 Thou fitt'ft, and do'ft not fee, nor fmell, nor hear, 
 
 Thy conftant^ zealpus, worfhipper. 
 
 III.
 
 [ 7* ] 
 III. 
 
 They fec't too well, who at my fires repine, 
 Nay, th* -concern'd themfelves do prove 
 Quick- ey'd enough to fpymy love. 
 Nor does the caufe in thy face clearer mine* 
 Than the ejfetl appears in mine. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Fair infidel ! by what unjuft decree', 
 Muft /, who, with fuch reftlefs care, 
 Would make this truth to thee appear, 
 Muft I, who preach, and pray for't, be 
 DamrCd, by thy incredulity ? 
 
 I, by thy unbelief am, guiltlefs, flaim 
 O have but faith, and then, that you 
 That faith may know for to be true. 
 It ftiall itfelf b' a miracle maintain ; 
 And raife me from the dead again. &c. 
 
 What an heterogeneous mafs is here ! what a 
 chaos of jarring elements ! Frigida pugnantia 
 calidis, humentia Jiccis. This fad Miftrefs is, 
 firft, an infidel, then (he is a gainer of battles -, 
 which battles are begot-, and their father is her 
 eye. That eye however is a blind one; as blind 
 as a comet. Then fhe becomes the idol Baal ; 
 and is not only blind but deaf; and without the 
 fenfe of fmelling : but that does not hinder her 
 face from Jhining. Next flie is transformed into 
 6 Caufe -,
 
 [ 73 ] 
 
 Caufei and her lover into Effecl: after which ihe 
 becomes an infidel again ; and her lover is 
 transformed into a prieji j in which character 
 he both preaches and prays, to convert her; 
 but all to no purpofe: for, after having run 
 the rifk of damnation, he is actually put to 
 death: yet that does not damp his zeal. He 
 is refolved to make one trial more ; and, 
 finding all other arguments fail, propofes 
 the great one of miracles ; undertaking, if fhe 
 will firft believe on truft, to rife, himfelf, from 
 the dead, in order to confirm her faith. 
 Such is the procefs in this piece; a procefs, in 
 the contemplation of which Reafon feels her- 
 felf humbled -, and Fancy, put to fhame \ 
 whilft Religion reclaims indignant, that her 
 myfteries fhould fuffer profanation by fuch 
 abfurd and wanton allufions. 
 
 What now remains of the Elegy, partakes of 
 the nature of an After-piece. In his " Elegy 
 " to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady," 
 the vanity of Pope had tempted him to intro- 
 duce himfelf. For this he had fome plaufible 
 colour ', as with this Lady (who feems to have 
 been more foolifh than unfortunate^ and to dis- 
 cover whofe family and private hiftory Curio- 
 fity has laboured in vain) he had, or thought 
 L it
 
 [ 74 ] 
 
 it creditable to be thought to have had, fome 
 connexion in the way of friendfhip or love. 
 The example of Pope has, in this inftance, 
 been imitated by Gray, who had not the fame 
 motive to infpire the defign, nor the fame abi- 
 lity to regulate the execution. In the abrupt- 
 refs of the introduction of their own affairs, 
 and the want of art in engrafting them on the 
 general defign, there is a confiderable fimi- 
 larity. The little Pope had to fay of himfelf, 
 he thought likely to come beft from his own 
 mouth. . Gray, who has not faid much more 
 of himfelf, has put what is to be faid in the 
 mouth of another. Pope has alluded to his 
 own death ; but Gray, advancing a ftep far- 
 ther, has proceeded to the circumftances of 
 his burial, and even given us the epitaph on his 
 ftone. Of this After-piece, rather adhering to 
 the Elegy than uniting with it, Criticifm thinks 
 it unneceflary that the examination fhould be 
 minute or long. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 That a c< kindred fpirit" fhould be more 
 interefted in the fate of the writer, than one 
 of a different temperament, is natural; but 
 how this kindred fpirit fhould, m his lonely 
 
 contem-
 
 { 75 ] 
 
 contemplations, Humble into the fame Church- 
 yard in which this Elegy was written, we fearcb. 
 in yain for a probable account. One is tempt- 
 ed to fuppofe Gray to have fometimes figured 
 this Elegy as fixed up in the Country Church- 
 yard, as well as originally penned in it. But 
 this only leads us from one incongruity, to land 
 us immediately in another. Why does the 
 kindred fpirit enquire the fate of him, whofe 
 fate is commemorated in the Elegy that made 
 him originally known; asisalfo the very enquiry 
 he is here fuppofed to make. But I haften 
 from this part of the Piece, afraid of being in- 
 volved in its entanglements, and apprehenfive 
 of the confufion of ideas that it feems to 
 threaten to him who fhall dwell on it long. 
 
 That Gray, in a work foferious, mould have 
 intended to amufe himfelf, or his Reader, with 
 picturing the talkativenefs of the Ruftic Cha- 
 racter, or the excurfivenefs of Narrative Age, 
 I am not willing to believe. But certain it is, 
 that the " hoary-headed fwain" tells the " kin- 
 dred fpirit" more than was afked of him ; and, 
 inftead of fimply relating the fate of the writer, 
 enters fomewhatdiffufely into his charaQer. Here, 
 again, the manners are violated ; and the ruitic 
 is made to tell his tale, in language the raoft 
 chafte and polifhed, and ftyle the moil poeti- 
 cal that the Elegy contains. Gray feems, by 
 a kind of perverfenefs of application, to have 
 L 2 finiihed
 
 t 76 ] 
 
 finished off this paffage with all the care of 
 which he was matter j and to have given it out 
 of his hand with a confeioufnefs of fuccefs, that 
 brings back to memory the felf-complacency of 
 Bayes, after one of his moft ranting pafiages, 
 in which he thinks he has brought out every 
 excellence to which even his powers were ade- 
 quate (t That is as well as I can do." 
 
 That Gray mould have formed a wifh to 
 exert himfelf with more than ordinary earneft- 
 nefs on a fubjed"t fo near to him, is not to be 
 wondered at. But he forgets that the enthu- 
 fiafm and fancy which might be allowable in 
 a defcription of his character, when that de- 
 fcription came from himfelf, are inadmiffible 
 in the mouth of another, and that other a 
 ftranger, and a clown. But this is one of the 
 moft ftrongly marked peculiarities of hispoetical 
 temperament. He is always more attentive to 
 the grandeur and magnificence of his building, 
 than to the propriety of its fite. He is ever 
 meditating a great ftructure ; taking it for 
 granted, that it may fland in all places alike. 
 From all quarters he fatigues himfelf in collect- 
 ing ponderous and bulky materials, which he 
 encourages himfelf to pile up till they fhall 
 have reached theEmpyreum* without confider- 
 ing the incongruities in the defign, or the ob- 
 ftacles that may ruin its execurion : like the 
 commemorated projectors of a tower that was 
 3 to
 
 [ 77 ] 
 
 to reach to heaven, which they began to build 
 in a plain, and without confidering that the 
 very laws of matter, on which the operation of 
 building proceeds, entailed impracticability on 
 their fcheme. The epithet ptXtorovdetlos, beftow- 
 ed by an ancient Critick * on Euripides, may, 
 with propriety, be transferred to Gray ; as may 
 alio his defcription of the ftrained and labour- 
 ed elevation of that Poet's tragical imagery, 
 in which he is ludicroufly compared to Homer's 
 Lion, <c lafliing his hips with his tail, and for- 
 r cing himfelf forward to fight." 
 
 XXV. XXVI. XXVII. XXVIII. XXIX. 
 
 Nor is much of the Poet's character unfolded 
 by the ruftic ; though many words are ufed. 
 " That he was a man given to mufing; that he 
 " loved to meet the fun in the morning, and to 
 * repofe in the fhade at noon j that he walked by 
 " the fide of a wood, and lounged on the bank 
 " of a brook j and that, after having been two 
 M days a milling, he was decently buried on the 
 if third at the foot of an old thorn" is all that 
 the hoary-headed fwain can fay about him : 
 for* the reft he refers to the Epitaph, or, as he 
 calls it, the Lay, engraved upon hit tomb- 
 
 * Longin. de Sublim. 
 
 ftone f
 
 I 7* ] 
 
 ftone; and which, from the kindred fpirit'* 
 knowing him by this Elegy, he doubts not he 
 is qualified to read. Here is little gratification 
 to curiofity : and, as for the original queftion 
 about h\s fate, we are left almoft as much in 
 the dark as before. That he is now dead and 
 buried, is all of his fate we know : though 
 the fhortnefs of the interval between his burial, 
 and the time when he was laft feen, with his 
 loitering fo much by the fide of the water, fur- 
 nishes, in the cafe of fo melancholy a man, 
 matter for further conjecture, and wakes fuf- 
 picion offuicide. 
 
 Of the three-ftanza'd Epitaph, which the 
 ruftic terms a Lay, the fupplemental information 
 is not great. u That he was poor, obfcure, pen- 
 " five, not unlearned, fympathifing, and bleffed 
 with a friend [I fuppofe of his own fex], with 
 " fomething more that might be mentioned., 
 <c were it not unneceflary to go deep into tl^e 
 ff character of a dead man" is all the inform- 
 ation we draw from it j information not mo- 
 mentous enough to make us regret the want 
 of more. 
 
 The manner in which the character is " made 
 out," though in particular inftances fortunate, 
 is not without faults. The haftinefs of his 
 fteps in mounting " the upland lawn," and 
 the purpofe for which he mounts it, are cir- 
 cumftances more aflbciable with the Allegro 
 
 character,
 
 [ 79 ] 
 
 character, than with the Pen/erofo. So thought 
 the great Difcriminator of thefe Characters. 
 His Man of Cheerfulnefs is eager to obferve 
 the glory of the rifing fun j his Penfive Man's 
 morning is not bright, but " kerchief'd in a 
 
 c comely cloud." So alfo Thomfon, to 
 
 whofe authority, on mod occafions, he has 
 not fcorned to pay fome regard. 
 
 As, through the falling glooms, 
 Penfive I ftray ; or, with the rifing dawn, 
 On Fancy's eagle wing excurfive (bar *. 
 
 In Thomfon thefe actions belong to two defcrip^. 
 tions of character. Gray has wrought both into 
 ene. If the <c fteps"//?be"hafl:y," the operation 
 of brufhing the dew from the grafs will not 
 help him to mend his pace ; it is an action 
 tending rather to impede accelerated motion, 
 than promote it. 
 
 " Chance," in the twenty-fifth Stanza, ufed 
 adverbially, though jullified by a Latin idiom, 
 is rebuting to an Englifh ear. But the Poet 
 was in diftrefs. The necefiity of his fituation 
 called for the idea twice within the compafs of 
 three lines. A word of two fyllables brought 
 him relief in the one cafe j and a word of one 
 fyllable in the other. He could not ufe ( hap- 
 ly" twice, " Lonely contemplation," is not 
 
 * Summer. 
 
 well
 
 [ 8 ] 
 
 well faid. Who is there that goes into com- 
 pany to contemplate ? One is furprifed to fee 
 a writer who deals in fC trembling hope," 
 <c living afhes," " little great," put up fo con- 
 tentedly with " folemn ftillnefs," " lonely 
 contemplation," and " flowers that blow." 
 Gray, fpeaking of water, has ufed " ambient 
 tide." He that has dipt much in " am- 
 bient tide," will foon emerge to tc ambient 
 air:** then we fhall find him among " feather- 
 ed fongfters ;" a fet of company rarely now to 
 be met with even in Poetry's horn-book. 
 
 His " poring on the brook," is character- 
 iftical. But his ftretching himfelf at the foot 
 of a beech, is no more than the lounging Tity- 
 rus had done before him. Tityrus' beech is 
 a fpreading one, as what beech is not ? Of 
 Gray's beech it is left to be fuppofed that it 
 fpreads j but we are exprefsly told that it nods ; 
 and that it <f wreathes its old fantaftic roots 
 high." "What is meant by a tree wreathing 
 its roots high? Vegetation feems here inverted, 
 and Age endowed with the pliancy of Youth. 
 
 Theory can in no other way account for the 
 ftrange form in which this beech appears, than 
 by fuppofing it to have been an image, not of 
 Fancy, but of Fact. A mind ftrongly irritable 
 upon the approximation of external forms, 
 treafures up the grotefque images both of liv- 
 ing
 
 [ 81 ] 
 
 ing and ftili nature, as they prefent themfelves, 
 and brings them forth afterwards as the effects 
 of Infpiration. Gray had cafually come in the 
 way of fome lufus natura of the beech tribe, 
 of whofe fantaftic form the outline had con- 
 tinued upon his mind, and impreft his fancy 
 with a vivid picture of it. Of Gray's infpira- 
 tions, it is known, that many derived their ori- 
 gin from cafual imprefllons, made on the or- 
 gans of fenfe. The fight of the * Welch harper 
 Parry ; and the rapture he felt at his execu- 
 tion, animated him to the finilhing his Bard, 
 after it had lain by for two years hopelefs: and 
 the " loofe beard" and <f hoary hair ftreaming 
 " to the wind," with which he has inverted his 
 tuneful Cambrian, were derived from a rcpre- 
 fentation, by Raphael, of the Supreme Being, 
 in the vifion of Ezekiel f. 
 
 The beech feems literally to have been Gray's 
 " favourite tree $" and in the contemplation of 
 it in all its varieties, he feems to have pafifed 
 many poetical hours. In the year 1737, he 
 met with beeches, in grounds belonging to his 
 uncle, of fo fingular a character, that I am 
 willing to indulge the Reader the defcription 
 of them in the Poet's own words J. 
 
 And, as they bow their hoary tops, relate, 
 In murmuring founds, the dark decrees of fate j; 
 While vifons, as poetic eyes avow, 
 Cling to each leaf, and fwarm on every bough, 
 
 Mafon. f Ibid. } Ibid. 
 
 M With
 
 V * 3 
 
 With fuch beeches he was fortunate enough 
 again to meet in Italy, after an interval of three 
 years , and them alfo he has celebrated, though 
 in the ancient language of their country *. 
 
 Hzerent fub omni nam folio nigri 
 Phoebaea luci (credite) fomnia j 
 Argutiufque et lympha et aura? 
 Nefcio quid folito loquuntur f. 
 
 The thorn in Glaftonbury church-yard is known 
 to have fuggefted to Gray, in the Elegy, the idea 
 ofthat/iw, under which he fuppofes himfelfto 
 be buried. What particular tfo& he had in his 
 eye, there is now no means of knowing. Chro- 
 nology forbids us to fuppofe it to have been the 
 beech which he found in the Highlands of Scot- 
 land, and which, to the aftonifhment of lefs 
 fortunate travellers, he reports, upon his own 
 menfuration, to have been upwards of fixteen feet 
 in the girth } and no lefs than eighty feet high\, 
 
 * Mafon. 
 
 -J- Of viftons in fieri, latent on the leaves of trees, till 
 poetis eyes fhall look them into form., the conception, unlefs 
 borrowed from the Mors: , may be new : though it was the 
 opinion of Dr. Blake, that the fancy of Gray was fecretly 
 led , in the formation of it, by the obfeure recollection of 
 the Legend of Sir John Mandeville, according to which, 
 in certain very cold latitudes, articulate founds were arretted 
 by uhe froft, at the moment of their emiffion from the 
 mouth of the fpeaker, and continued in that torpid ftate, 
 until they were again thawed into vocality, by the return 
 of the warm feafon. 
 
 % Mafon. 9 
 
 Why
 
 [ 3 ] 
 
 Why the Penfive Man mould lie rather un- 
 der the (hade of a beech, than under any- 
 other fhady tree, except Gray's predilection for 
 the beech, no reafon can be affigned. In a 
 fituation nearly fimilar, Thomfon ftretches him- 
 felf under an oak. The general idea is the fame. 
 
 Let me hafte into the. mid-wood made, 
 Where fcarce a fun-beam wanders thro' the gloom j 
 And, on the dark green grafs, befide the brink 
 Of haunted Jlrea?n i that by the roots of OAK 
 Rolls o'er the rocky channel^ tie at large *. 
 
 XXX. XXXI. XXXII. 
 
 Of the Epitaph much more need not be faid. 
 The head of him who is immerfed in earth, 
 can with little propriety be faid to reft on her 
 lap. The transference of the word lap 3 is not 
 happy. It is tf velvet green" over again. 
 The ground of the objection is the fame. A 
 metaphor drawn from Nature ennobles Art. 
 A metaphor drawn from Art degrades Nature, 
 As Gray is known to have been learned, that 
 t( Science frowned not on his birth," may be 
 faid with truth, according to the ufual accept- 
 ation of the words. But phrafcs, fuch as 
 f* Fortune fmiled on his birth," (t Science 
 * Summer. 
 
 M i frown'd
 
 [ 8 4 ] 
 
 " frown'd not on his birth," are become flat 
 by ufage. They were poetical ; are now rhe- 
 torical j and will /con be prolaic. 
 
 He who gives to Mifery all he has," 
 when that all is a tear, may be free'd from the 
 charge of hard-heartednefs $ but will be af- 
 fectedly denominated bountiful j as his giving 
 this kind of all, will be with quaintnefs called 
 giving largely. " Recompence" is ufed im- 
 properly. For lofs or fuffering we make re- 
 compence, but for bounty we offer return: 
 and we are not properly faid to <f difclofe" that, 
 which by investigation we difcover. <f Merits 
 * and frailties repofing on the bofom of his 
 tf father, and his God," is an idea which Appre- 
 henfion doubts if fhe has clearly made out : 
 but, if " Father" and " God" relate to the 
 fame Being, the idea is pious, and the Elegy 
 ends better than it begun. Meditation guides 
 to Morality j Morality "infpires Religion; and 
 Religion fwells out into devotion. 
 
 It is furprifing that a writer like Gray mould 
 think the authority of Petrarch necelfary to 
 the justification of the expreffion, cc trembling 
 " hope j" an expreffion, which, though it has a 
 little of the concetto in it, has it in lefs degree 
 than feveral others he has ufed without fcruple. 
 But Gray was fond of Petrarch, and had no 
 objection that his fondnefs (hould be known. 
 
 In
 
 [ S ] 
 
 In his Notes he is oftentatious of authorities 
 in the defence of his expreffions. Had it be- 
 come expedient for him, on any occafion, to 
 ufe the c< joy of grief," he would no doubt 
 have referred his Reader to the Pfeudo-Gallic 
 Poems, which, at a particular time, he wrought 
 up his fancy to relifh, and almoft his under- 
 
 ftanding to believe authentic. On the- pre- 
 
 fent occafion, there was no need to travel fo far 
 as Petrarch for an authority j for what is the 
 mode of fpeaking or writing that will not have 
 its authority in the compofitions of every lan- 
 guage. Pope's " trembling, hoping," was at 
 hand. Even the copartenery of Tate and Brady 
 would have furnilned him with " awful mirth." 
 Of the, * Stanza that Gray once published as 
 part of this Elegy, and afterwards faw caufe 
 to withdraw, Criticifm choofes to decline the 
 examination, unwilling to fhew eagernefs to 
 condemn him, who has already condemned 
 himfelf. For the difcontinuance of it in the 
 after-editions, Mafon has afligned this caufe, 
 that it was thought by its Author to be awk- 
 wardly parenthetical. But there were other 
 reafons that rendered it expedient that itfhould 
 
 There, fcatter'd oft, the earlieft of the year, 
 By hands unfeen, are fhow'rs of violets found ; 
 The Red-breaft loves to build and warble there, 
 Jind little' footfteps lightly print the ground. 
 
 be
 
 [ 86 J 
 
 be fuffered to Jlip out quietly. The fame 
 images, delineated and affembled nearly in the 
 fame manner, are to be found in fome of Col- 
 lins' Pieces, publifhed about 1746. I am aware 
 that to fix imitation upon Gray, is not to be- 
 llow originality upon Collins. Some of Col- 
 lins' images can be traced to Pope j and fome 
 of Pope's, as well as Collins', to ages of high 
 antiquity. " By foreign hands thy dying eyes 
 <f were clofed, &c." make part of the wailings 
 of Electra in Sophocles, for the fuppofed death 
 of Oreftes: "The turf lying light on the breaft," 
 (to which a ludicrous contrail is on record) 
 ftanding now fo high in the lift of elegiac 
 common places, occurs in the Alceftis of Eu- 
 ripides ; and Homer has made his Mountain 
 Nymphs (the Fays of thofe times) plant elms, 
 fince converted into flowers, around Eetion's 
 grave. Property in fancy is like other pro- 
 perty. Priority of appropriation muft found 
 the original right j and of that priority our in- 
 veitigation muft determine with the Record. 
 
 Of the writers to whom Gray has done ho- 
 mage for his tenure, I think Pope is not one. 
 Let it not however be imagined, that, though 
 nothing is acknowledged, nothing is owing. 
 The ".Elegy to the Memory of an unfortunate 
 < Lady," has given to the " Elegy written in a 
 " Country Church-yard," many things both in 
 the way of fentiment and delign. 
 
 The
 
 [ 87 ] 
 
 The " ftoried urn" of Gray, is the " weep- 
 " ing Loves" of Pope : and " animated bud," 
 is only an obfcure expreffion for Pope's " po- 
 lilhed marble emulating the face."' 
 
 What though no facred earth allow the room, 
 Nor hallowed dirge be mutter'd o'er thy tomb, 
 
 has furnifhed the perhaps improved idea ex- 
 prefled in 
 
 Tho' Mem'ry o'er their tomb no trophies raife, 
 Where thro' the long-drawn aile and fretted vault, 
 The pealing anthem fwells the note of praife. 
 
 That funeral honours, however fcrupuloufly 
 paid, cannot " back from its manfion call the 
 " fleeting breath," is alfo to be found in Pope, 
 though flated in a different way : 
 
 So peaceful refts without a (tone, a name, 
 What once had beauty, titles, wealth and fame ; 
 A heap of dull alone remains of thee: 
 *Tis all thou art ; and all the proud /ball be. 
 
 tc The Morn bellowing her earliefl tears;" 
 (poetical language for dew) cf ihefrft rofes of 
 <f the year blowing, &c." are images which 
 both Collins and Gray thought worth gather- 
 ing. 
 
 ********** 
 
 Here Criticifm is content to flop : congra- 
 tulating herfclf on the termination of a labour 
 
 irkfome,
 
 [ 88 ] 
 
 irkfome, but not overwhelming*, invidious, 
 but not void of ufe. If fhe has defcended into 
 too minute an examination, it has not been 
 with a view to darken counfel, but to furnifh 
 light. Of fine writjng, the perfection is not fo 
 well promoted by abftract canons, as by indi- 
 vidual illuftrations ; by the inculcating what 
 jlwuldbe written, as by the examination of what 
 has. The detection of particular blemiihes, is 
 more productive than the difplay of general 
 perfection. There is a common-weal in tafte, 
 as well as in government. Minute and cha- 
 racteriftical exhibitions, of errors as well as of 
 excellence, are neceffary for improvement, in 
 both. Indetibiytuaque reipublic/e, quod imitere, 
 capias \ tndefcedum inceptu, fcedum exitu, quofc 
 vites. In the execution of this neceffary taflc, 
 Criticifm finds herfelf engaged in much labour, 
 and fubjected to much felf-denial : impeded 
 by Prejudice, and thruft back by Mifconftroc- 
 tion. But the labour is honourable ; and the 
 end ufeful. She is content to forget the hard- 
 lhips (he has fuffered j and folace herfelf with 
 the view of the good (he has done. 
 
 In examining the Elegy written in a Country 
 Church-yard, (he has found much room for 
 cenfure, and fome room for praife. The Piece 
 has been much over-rated j and many ferious 
 perfons, who meditate on death from a fenfe 
 
 of
 
 C 89 3 
 
 of duty., confider Gonfcience as concerned in 
 their finding this Meditation perfecl. Of per- 
 fections no doubt it contains fomej but it 
 contains blemifhes too ; and if Criticifm grant 
 it nothing but its merit, what then will be its 
 praife ? 
 
 To rate that merit precifely, is perhaps not 
 eafy : but, where the premifes are, the con- 
 clufion may be found. Thofe who are refolved 
 to fortify themfelves in the feeling they have 
 encouraged themfelves to entertain of its per- 
 fections, may find many ftrong pofitions, in 
 which they may maintain themfelves, with- 
 out immediate danger of being forced. The 
 fubjecl: is ferious ; the views interefting ; the 
 thoughts tender ; the verification, in general, 
 
 fmooth j the language not unfuitable. 
 
 The flights are fometimes bold j often catching: 
 and the execution often finking j and fometimes 
 natural. But what, of all things, is likely 
 to enfure this Performance a lafting and ge- 
 neral Interefl is, that it abounds with images 
 which find a mirrour in every mind, and with 
 fentiments to which every bofom returns an 
 echo. Where fo many beauties are, room 
 may be afforded for faults : of thefe, Criticifm 
 has not concealed what came in her way; and 
 to fuch as may urge her to a farther fearch, 
 N flic
 
 ihe will content herfelf with tendering, con- 
 cerning the Elegy, the admonition which its 
 Writer has tendered concerning himfelf : 
 
 NO FARTHER SEEK ITS MERITS TO DISCLOSE, 
 NOR DRAW ITS FRAItTIES FROM THEIR DREAD 
 ABODE. 
 
 FINIS* 
 
 /
 
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