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science, and that not fuperficially- but thoroughly. He knew every branch of history, both natural and civil; had read "all the original hiftorians of England, "France, and Italy; and was a great antiquarian. Criticism, metaphyfics, morals, politics, made a principal part of his ftudy; voyages and travels of all forts were his favourite amusements; and he "had a fine taste in painting, prints, archi

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tecture, and gardening. With such a "fund of knowledge, his conversation must "have been equally inftructing and entertaining; but he was alfo a good man, a man of virtue and humanity. There is "no character without fome fpeck, fome imperfection; and I think the greatest de"fect in his was an affectation in delicacy,

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or rather effeminacy, and a visible faftidi"oufness, or contempt and difdain of his

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inferiors in fcience. He alfo had, in fome

degree, that weakness which disgusted Vol"taire fo much in Mr. Congreve: though he "feemed to value others chiefly according to "the progrefs they had made in knowledge, yet he could not bear to be confidered "himself merely as a man of letters; and

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though without birth, or fortune, or sta"tion, his defire was to be looked upon as

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a private independent gentleman, who "read for his amufement. Perhaps it may "be faid, What fignifies fo much knowledge, when it produced fo little? Is it worth taking so much pains to leave no "memorial but a few poems? But let it be "confidered that Mr. Gray was, to others,

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at least innocently employed; to himself, "certainly beneficially. His time paffed agreeably; he was every day making fome new acquisition in fcience; his mind was enlarged, his heart foftened, his virtue strengthened; the world and mankind were fhewn to him without a mafk; and he was taught to confider every thing as trifling, "and unworthy of the attention of a wife man, except the purfuit of knowledge "and practice of virtue, in that state where" in God hath placed us."

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To this character Mr. Mason has added a more particular account of Gray's fkill in zoology. He has remarked, that Gray's effeminacy was affected most before those whom be did not wish to pleafe; and that he is unjuftly

justly charged with making knowledge his fole reason of preference, as he paid his efteem to none whom he did not likewife believe to be good.

What has occurred to me, from the flight inspection of his Letters in which my undertaking has engaged me, is, that his mind. had a large grasp; that his curiofity was unlimited, and his judgement cultivated; that he was a man likely to love much where he loved at all, but that he was faftidious and hard to please. His contempt however is often employed, where I hope it will be approved, upon fcepticism and infidelity. His fhort account of Shaftesbury I will infert.

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"You fay you cannot conceive how lord Shaftesbury came to be a philofopher in vogue; I will tell you: firft, he was a lord; fecondly, he was as vain as any of "his readers; thirdly, men are very prone to believe what they do not understand; fourthly, they will believe any thing at all, provided they are under no obliga"tion to believe it; fifthly, they love to "take a new road, even when that road

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"leads

"leads no where; fixthly, he was reckoned a fine writer, and feems always to mean

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more than he said. Would you have any

more reasons? An interval of above forty <c years has pretty well destroyed the charm. "A dead lord ranks with commoners: va

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nity is no longer interested in the matter; for a new road is become an old one."

Mr. Mafon has added, from his own knowledge, that though Gray was poor, he was not eager of money; and that, out of the little that he had, he was very willing to help the neceffitous.

As a writer he had this peculiarity, that he did not write his pieces firft rudely, and then correct them, but laboured every line as it arose in the train of compofition; and he had a notion not very peculiar, that he could not write but at certain times, or at happy moments; a fantastick foppery, to which my kindness for a man of learning and of virtue wishes him to have been fuperior.

GRAY'S

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GRAY's Poetry is now to be confidered; and I hope not to be looked on as an enemy to his name, if I confefs that I contemplate it with less pleasure than his life.

His ode on Spring has fomething poetical, both in the language and the thought; but the language is too luxuriant, and the thoughts have nothing new. There has of late arifen a practice of giving to adjectives, derived from fubftantives, the termination of participles; fuch as the cultured plain, the dafied bank; but I was forry to see, in the lines of a scholar like Gray, the honied Spring. The morality is natural, but too ftale; the conclufion is pretty.

The poem on the Cat was doubtlefs by its author confidered as a trifle, but it is not a happy trifle. In the first stanza the azure flowers that blow, fhew refolutely a rhyme is fometimes made when it cannot eafily be found. Selima, the Cat, is called a nymph, with fome violence both to language and fense; but there is good ufe made of it when it is done; for of the two lines,

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