GRAY.

Born 1716-Died 1771.

Mr. Gray was accounted in his time, according to Dr. Johnson, the most learned man in Europe-doubtless he was among the most learned; but his learning dignifies his memory less than his genius and his taste. Gray's letters, which give short sketches of the places and curiosities which he visited as a traveller, and express the feelings of a good son, and an affectionate friend, exhibit the elegance of an accomplished mind, and the sentiments of a sincere and pure heart. The Elegy in a Country Church Yard, is the most popular of Gray's poems it is not inserted here because it may be found in every miscellaneous collection. The less admired and exalted, but more sprightly and happy toned Ode to Spring, and verses on the Drowned Cat, are suitable to the design of these specimens.

ODE ON THE SPRING,

Lo! where the rosy-bosom'd Hours,
Fair Venus' train, appear,
Disclose the long-expected flowers,

And wake the purple year!

The attic warbler pours her throat,
Responsive to the cuckoo's note,

The untaught harmony of Spring:
While, whispering pleasure as they fly,
Cool Zephyrs through the clear blue sky
Their gather'd fragrance fling.

Where'er the oak's thick branches stretch
A broader browner shade,

Where'er the rude and moss-grown beech
O'er canopies the glade.

Beside some water's rushy brink

With me the Muse shall sit, and think

(At ease reclin'd in rustic state) How vain the ardour of the croud,

*The Swallow.

How low, how little are the proud,
How indigent the great!

Still is the toiling hand of Care;
The panting herds repose:
Yet hark, how through the peopled air
The busy murmur glows!
The insect youth are on the wing,
Eager to taste the honied spring,
And float amid the liquid noon :
Some lightly o'er the current skim,
Some show their gaily-gilded trim
Quick-glancing to the sun.

To Contemplation's sober eye
Such is the race of Man :
And they that creep, and they that fly,
Shall end where they began.
Alike the busy and the gay

But flutter through life's little day,

In Fortune's varying colours dress'd: Brushed by the hand of rough Mischance, Or chill'd by Age, their airy dance They leave, in dust to rest.

ON THE DEATH OF A FAVOURITE SAT2
Drowned in a tub of Gold Fishes.

'Twas on a lofty vase's side,
Where China's gayest art had dy'd
The azure flowers that blow;
Demurest of the tabby kind,
The pensive Selima, reclin'd,
Gaz'd on the lake below.

Her conscious tail her joy declar'd;
The fair round face, the snowy beard,
The velvet of her paws,

Her coat, that with the tortoise vies,
Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes,
She saw; and purr'd applause.

Still had she gaz'd: bút midst the tide
Two angel forms were seen to glide,
The Genii of the stream:
Their scaly armour's Tyrian hue
Though richest purple, to the view
Betray'd a golden gleam.

The hapless Nymph with wonder saw
A whisker first, and then a claw :
With many an ardent wish,

She stretch'd, in vain, to reach the prize :
What female heart can gold despise ?
What cat's averse to fish?

Presumptuous Maid! with looks intent
Again she stretch'd, again she bent,
Nor knew the gulf between :
(Malignant Fate sat by, and smil'd)
The slippery verge her feet beguil'd,
She tumbled headlong in.

Eight times emerging from the flood,
She mew'd to ev'ry wat❜ry god,
Some speedy aid to send.

No Dolphin came, no Nereid stir'd :
Nor cruel Tom, nor Susan heard.
A fav'rite has no friend!

From hence, ye Beauties, undeceiv'd,
Know, one false step is ne'er retreiv'd,
And be with caution bold.

Not all that tempts your wand'ring eyes
And heedless heart, is lawful prize :
Nor all that glistens gold.

CAMPBELL.

Thomas Campbell, the author of the Pleasures of Hope, of Gertrude of Wyoming, &c., is among the most popular of living writers. As a poet and a critic, he ranks with the first of the age. Mr. Campbell is now principal of the university of Glasgow. Lochiel's Warning, one of Campbell's shorter pieces, is often read and recited in schools, but it cannot be comprehended without some acquaintance with Scottish history and cha

racter.

England and Scotland were governed by separate kings till 1603. In that year Elizabeth of England died, and named as her successor James VI of Scotland. James was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. James was descended from Henry VII of England, and among his ancestors was a long line of Scottish kings: as their descendants, the people of Scotland cherished an ardent affection for James and his posterity. The Scots are remarkable for their attachment to power. The heads of the Clans, and the hereditary prince, were to the people objects of the highest enthusiasm; and they esteemed it a duty, and even a privilege, to die in their service.

James was succeeded by his son Charles I, who did not know how to govern, and was beheaded by his subjects. After Charles' death, England was a common. wealth, or republic, governed for nine years by Oliver Cromwell. In 1668, Charles Stuart, the second of that name, was made king of England, as the legitimate successor of his father, Charles I. Charles II died 1685, and his brother James, duke of York, was immediately proclaimed king; but by the laws of England he was incapacitated for the sovereignty.

In the reigns of Edward VI, and his sister Elizabeth, the Protestant faith became the foundation of what is called the Established Church of England; and it was made a law that the king, and all persons holding places under the government, should acknowledge themselves

to be Protestants, and worship aecording to the forms prescribed by the national Church. James II was a Catholic. When the people were convinced of this fact, and of the king's inclination to restore Popery in Britain, they sent over to Holland to William, prince of Orange, a grandson of Charles I, and to his wife, Mary, daughter of the English king, James II, to come over to England, and take the government upon themselves. William and Mary were crowned king and queen 1689. A party in Scotland, attached to the Stuarts, refused to acknowledge them; but in the same year the Scottish army was defeated at Killycrankie in Perthshire.

The banished James endeavoured to make friends in Ireland, but his adherents were defeated by king William, at the battle of the Boyne, and he was forced to retire into France. The Jacobites (the friends of James) long continued their machinations to restore the Stuarts to the throne of Britain, but all their plans were ultimately frustrated.

James Stuart died in France in 1701, and his daughter, the princess Anne, succeeded William III. She was proclaimed queen in April 1702, and died in 1714. Anne was succeeded by George I of the house of Brunswick. George was a German prince, descended in the female line from James I of England. This new family were destined for ever to exclude the Stuarts from the throne of Britain; but one of that race, sometimes called the Pretender, and sometimes the chevalier St. George, went from France to Scotland in 1715, and there, assisted by the favourers of his unfortunate pretensions, made some attempts to recover his forfeited inheritance. These were unavailing; he was forced to return to France, and many of his adherents were executed as traitors to their king and country.

The rebellion of the Stuarts did not end here. The following narrative details its progress and termination.

"In 1745 the son of the old pretender resolved to make an effort at gaining the British crown. Being furnished with some money, and still larger promises from