SECTION IV. Page Prefatory narrative. Mr. Gray takes his degree in civil law, and makes Cambridge his principal residence for the rest of his life. The Editor of these Memoirs becomes acquainted with him in the year 1747. He corresponds with Dr. Wharton and several other · persons till the year 1768, when he is appointed Professor of Mo dern History . . . . . . . . . 169 LETTER 1. To Dr. Wharton. On taking his degree of Bachelor of Civil Law · 172 Fragment of an Hymn to Ignorance · · · · · 175 2. To Dr. WHARTON. Ridicule on University laziness. Of Dr. Aken side's poem, on the Pleasures of Imagination . . . . 176 3. To Dr. WHARTON. His amusements in town. Reflections on riches. Character of Aristotle . . . . . . . 178 4. To Mr. WALPOLE. Ridicule on Cibber's Observations on Cicero. On the modern Platonic Dialogue. Account of his own and Mr. West's . . . . 181 5. To Mr. WALPOLE. Criticisms on Mr. Spence's Polymetis . • 184 6. To Mr. WALPOLE. Ludicrous compliment of condolence on the death - of his favourite cat, inclosing his Ode on that sabject . . 187 7. To Dr. WHARTON. Loss by fire of a house in Cornhill. On Dio dorus Siculus. M. Gresset's Poems. Thomson's Castle of Indo·lence. Ode to a Water-Nymph, with a character of its Author · 188 8. To Dr. WHARTON. More on M. Gresset. Account of his own pro jected poem on the alliance between government and education • 190 Fragment of that poem, with a commentary, notes, and detached sen timents relative to it . . . . . . . . 192 9. To Dr. WHARTON. Character of M. de Montesquieu's L'Esprit des Loix . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 10. To Dr. WHARTON. Account of books continued. Crebillion's Ca talina. Birch's State Papers. Of his own studies, and a table of Greek chronology, which he was then forming . . . 200 11. To Dr. WHARTON. Ludicrous account of the Duke of Newcastle's Installation at Cambridge. On the Ode then performed, and more concerning the Author of it . . . . . . 202 12. To his Mother. Consolatory on the death of her sister . . 204 13. To Dr. WHARTON. Wishes to be able to pay him a visit at Durham. On Dr. Middleton's death. Some account of the first volumes of Narrative of the incident which led Mr. Gray to write his Long Story. That poem inserted, with notes by the Editor, and prefaced with 14. To Dr. WAARTON. On the ill reception which the foregoing poem LETTER Page met with in town when handed about in manuscript, and how much his Elegy in a Country Church-yard was applauded : · 216 15. To Mr. WALPOLE. Desires him to give his Elegy to Mr. Dodsley to be printed immediately, in order to prevent its publication in a ma gazine . . . . . . . . . • 217 16. To Dr. WHARTON. Of Madame Maintenon's Character and Letters. His bighi opinion of M. Racine. 'Of Bishop Hall's Satires, and of a few of Plato's Dialogues . . . . . . . 218 17. To Mr. WALPOLE. Concerning the intention of publishing Mr. Bentley's designs for his Poems. Refuses to have his own portrait prefixed to that work . . . . . . . 220 Farther account of those designs, with stanzas which Mr. Gray wrote to Mr. Bentley on that occasion . . . . . . 222 Epitaph on Mr. Gray's aunt and mother in the church-yard of Stoke Pogis . . . . . . . . . . 224 18. To Mr. Mason. On the death of his father . . . . 225 19. To Dr. WHARTON. On Strawberry-Hill. Occasional remarks on Gothic architecture . . . . . . . 226 20. To Dr. WHARTON. Objection to publishing his Ode on the Progress of Poetry singly. Hint of his having other lyrical ideas by him . . . . . . . . 228 Explanation of that hint, and a fragment of one of those lyrical pieces inserted . . . . . . . . . . 229 21. To Mr. STONHEWER. Of Monsignor Baiardi's book concerning Her culaneum. A poem of Voltaire. Incloses a part of his Ode en titled the Bard . . . . . . . . 235 22. To Dr. WHARTON. On his removing from Peter-House to Pembroke Hall. His notion of a London hospital. Of Sully's Memoirs. Mason's four odes . . . . . . . . 237 23. To Dr. Wharton. Of his own indolence. Memoirs of M. de la Porte and of Madame Staal. Intention of coming to town • 239 24. To Mr. Mason. Of his reviewers. Offers to send him Druidical anecdotes for his projected drama of Caractacus . . . 240 25. To Mr. Mason. On hearing Parry play on the Welch harp, and finishing his Ode after it. Account of the Old Ballad on which the Tragedy of Douglas was founded . . . . . 243 26. To Mr. Hund. On the ill reception his two Pindaric Odes met with on their publication . . . . . . . . 244 27. To Mr. MASON. His opinion of the dramatic part of Caractacus . 246 28. To Mr. Mason. Dissuading him from retirement. Advice concern ing Caractacus. Criticisms on his Elegy written in the Garden of a Friend. Refusal of the office of Poet Laureat . . . 251 29. To Dr. WHARTON. Account of his present employment in making out a list of places, in England, worth seeing . . . . 255 30. To Dr. Wharton. On the forementioned list. Tragedy of Agis. Page LETTER Various authors in the last volumes of Dodsley's Miscellany. Dr. Swift's four last years of Queen Anne . . 31. To Mr. STONIEWER. On infidel writers and Lord Shaftsbury · 257 • 256 A paper of Mr. Gray inserted, relating to an impious position of Lord Bolingbroke · · · • • • • • • 260 32. To Dr. WHARTON. On the death of his son, and an excuse for not writing an epitaph . . . . . . . . 265 33. To Mr. PalGRAVE. Desiring him to communicate the remarks he should make in his tour through the North of England . . 267 34. To Mr. Mason. Some remarks on a second manuscript copy of Ca ractacus . . . . . . . . . . 269 35. To Mr. PalGRAVE. Description of Mr. Gray's present situation in town, and of his reading in the British Musæum . . . 271 36. To Dr. WHARTON. On employment. Gardening. Character of Froissart. King of Prussia's Poems. Tristram Shandy · · 272 37. To Mr. STONHEWER. On the latter volumes of M. d'Alembert and the Erse Fragments . . . . . . . . 275 38. To Dr. CLARKE. His amusements with a party on the banks of the Thames. Death of a Cambridge Doctor. More of the Erse Frag ments . . . . . . . . . . 278 39. To Mr. Mason. On two Parodies of Mr. Gray's and Mr. Mason's Odes. Extract of a letter from Mr. David Hume, concerning the authenticity of the Erse Poetry . . . . . . 279 40. To Dr. WHARTON. On his employments in the country. Nouvelle Eloise. Fingal. Character of Mr. Stillingfleet . . . 283 V 41. To Mr. Mason. More concerning the Nouvelle Eloise. Of Signor Elisi, and other opera singers . . . . . . 285 42. To Mr. Mason. On his expectation of being made a residentiary of York. Recovery of Lord * from a dangerous illness. Reason for writing the Epitaph on Sir William Williams . . . 287 43. To Dr. WHARTON. Description of Hardwick. Professor Turner's death. And of the peace . . . . . . . 288 44. To Mr. Mason. On Count Algarotti's approbation of his and Mr. Mason's poetry. Gothic architecture. Plagiary in Helvetius, from Elfrida . . . . . . . . . 290 45. To Mr. Brown. Sending him a message to write to a gentleman abroad relating to Count Algarotti, and recommending the Erse Poems . . . . . . . . . . 296 46. Count AlgaroTTI to Mr. Gray. Complimentary, and sending him some dissertations of his own . . . . . . 297 47. To Dr. WHARTON. On Rousseau's Emile . . . . 298 48. To Mr. PALGRAVE. What he particularly advises him to see when abroad . . . . . . . . . . 300 49. To Mr. BeaTTIE. Thanks for a letter received from him, and an in vitation from Lord Strathmore to Glamis . . . . 304 50. To Dr. WHARTon. Description of the old castle of Glamis, and part of the Highlands • • • • 303 LETTER • Page 51. To Mr. Beattie. Apology for not accepting the degree of Doctor offered him by the University of Aberdeen . . . . 314 52. To Dr. WHARTON. Buffon's Natural History. Memoirs of Petrarch. Mr. Walpole at Paris. Description of a fine lady . . • 316 53. To Dr. Whartox. Tour in Kent. New Bath Guide.' Another · volume of Buffon . . . . . . 318 54. To Mr. Mason. On his wife's death . . . . . 321 55. To Mr. Beattie. Thanks for a manuscript poem. Mr. Adam Fer guson's Essay on Civil Society. A compliment to Lord Gray - 321 56. To Mr. BeATTIE. On the projected edition of our Author's Poems. in England and Scotland. Commendation of Mr. Beattie's Ode on Lord Hay's birth-day . . . . . . . . 324 57. To Mr. Beattie. More concerning the Glasgow edition of his Poems . . . . . . . . . . 326 58. To the Duke of Grafton. Thanking him for his Professorship. . 328 59. To Mr. Nicholls. Account of Mr. Brocket's death, and of his being made his successor in the Professorship , . . • 329 60. To Mr. Beattie. On the same subject . . . . 330 SECTION V. Enumeration of such other literary pursuits of Mr. Gray as were not sufficiently dilated upon in the preceding letters . . · 332 1. To Mr. Nicholls. On the death of his uncle, Governor Floyer, and advising him to take orders . . . . . . . 341 2. To Mr. Nicholls. Congratulating him upon his situation, and men ' tioning his own Ode on the Installation of the New Chancellor · 343 3. To Mr. BEATTIE. His reason for writing that Ode . . . 346 4. To Dr. WHARTON. A journal of his tour through Westmoreland, Cumberland, and a part of Yorkshire . . . . . 347 5. To Dr. WHARTON. Description of Kirkstall-Abbey, and some other places in Yorkshire . . . . . . . . 377 6. To Mr. NichOLLS. Of Nettley-Abbey and Southampton · · 379 7. To Mr. BEATTIE. On the first part of his Minstrel, and his Essay on the Immutability of Truth. Stricture on Mr. D. Hume . . 381 To Mr. How. On receiving three of Count Algarotti's Treatises, and hinting an error which that author had fallen into, with regard to 9. To Mr. How. After perusing the whole of Count Algarotti's works in the Leghorn edition, and his sentiments concerning them · 387 10. To Mr. NICHOLLS. On the affection due to a mother. Description of that part of Kent from whence the letter was written . . 390 LETTER Page 11. To Mr. Nicholls, Character of Froissart and other old French his torians. And of Isocrates . . . . . . 391 12. To Dr. WHARTON. Of his tour, taken the year before, to Mon mouth, &c. Intention of coming to Old Park. And of bis ill state . . . . . . . . 393 Conclusion, with the particulars of Mr. Gray's death. His character by another hand, and some annotations on it by the Editor · 394 APPENDIX. LETTERS TO MR. WALPOLE. 1. The little concern produced by public calamities. Some remarks upon the character of Mr. Pope . . . . . . 405 2. Description of true philosophy. Conduct of Mr. Ratcliffe at his exe. cution . . . . . . . . . . 407 3. Elegy written in a Country Church-yard first forwarded. Hints re specting a work in the press against Mr. Middleton . . . 409 4. Observations upon a dramatic performance, entitled Elfrida, from the pen of Mr. Mason . . . . . . . '. 410 5. Same subject continued . . . . . . . 412 6. Mr. Lyttleton's Elegy and Mr. Walpole's Epistle from Florence con sidered-favourable views of the latter . . . . 413 7. Inquiries concerning a new work of his, containing a history of his own time . . . . . . . . . 415 8. The Hymn to Adversity. Two publications of Dr. Middleton's noticed : 416 : : : 9. Promises a new ode . : : : : . 419 • 419 10. Review of the writers who contributed to Mr. Dodsley's Collection of Poems. A new ode . . . . . . . . 420 11. A visit intended . . . . . . . . . 426 12. Acknowledges the receipt of two specimens of Erse Poetry: is anxo ious to discover the author . . . . . . . 427 13. Complains of bodily indisposition, and begs to be supplied with lite rary amusement . . . . . . . . 428 V 14. Thanks for a copy of Anecdotes of Painting: the Author's plan of an historical work . . . . . . . . . 429 15. Thanks for the Castle of Otranto. Remarks upon a pamphlet and Rousseau's Lettres de la Montague . . . . . 433 /16. Means recommended to secure his restoration to health. Inquiries re lative to an old picture . . . . . . . 435 V 17. Prevailing opinions respecting the work entitled Historic Doubts. Al. garotti's purchase of an excellent Holbein picture. Curious ta- . . . . . . . 458 |