II. No cold or unperforming hand Then drew the lawgivers around, For not a conqueror's sword, Nor the strong powers to civil founders known, r St. John's spirit loose, nor Atterbury's rage. While thus our vows prolong Thy steps on Earth, and when by us resign'd Thou join'st thy seniors, that heroic throng Who rescued or preserv'd the rights of human kind, O! not unworthy may thy Albion's tongue Thee still, her friend and benefactor, name: O! never, Hoadly, in thy country's eyes, May impious gold, or pleasure's gaudy prize, Make public virtue, public freedom, vile; Nor our own manners tempt us to disclaim That heritage, our noblest wealth and fame, Which thou hast kept entire from force and factious guile. L THOMAS GRAY. D T THOMAS HOMAS GRAY, a distinguished poet, was the son laureat, vacant by the death of Cibber, was offe of a money-scrivener in London, where he was to Gray, but declined by him. In the same yea born in 1716. He received his education at Eton-published two odes, "On the Progress of Poes school, whence he was sent to the university of and "The Bard," which were not so popular as a Cambridge, and entered as a pensioner at St. Pe- Elegy had been, chiefly, perhaps, because they ter's College. He left Cambridge in 1738, and less understood. The uniform life passed by occupied a set of chambers in the Inner Temple, eminent person admits of few details, but the tra for the purpose of studying the law. From this action respecting the professorship of modern hist intention he was diverted by an invitation to accom- at Cambridge, a place worth four hundred pocas pany Mr. Horace Walpole, son of the celebrated a year, is worthy of some notice. When the st statesman, with whom he had made a connection at ation became vacant in Lord Bute's administra Eton, in a tour through Europe. Some disagree- it was modestly asked for by Gray, but had alres ment, of which Mr. Walpole generously took the been bespoken by another. On a second vac blame, caused them to separate in Italy; and Gray in 1768, the Duke of Grafton being now in part returned to England in September, 1741, two months it was, "unsolicited and unsuspected," confer before his father's death. Gray, who now depended upon him; in return for which he wrote his chiefly upon his mother and aunt, left the law, and for Music," for the installation of that noblema returned to his retirement at Cambridge. In the chancellor of the university. This professors next year he had the misfortune to lose his dear though founded in 1724, had hitherto remitet friend West, also an Eton scholar, and son to the perfect sinecure; but Gray prepared himself a Chancellor of Ireland, which left a vacancy in his execute the duties of his office. Such, howe affections, that seems never to have been supplied. were the baneful effects of habitual indolence, t From this time his residence was chiefly at Cam- with a mind replete with ancient and modern ko bridge, to which he was probably attached by an in- ledge, he found himself unable to proceed farthe satiable love of books, which he was unable to gra- than to draw a plan for his inauguration speed tify from his own stores. Some years passed in this But his health was now declining; an irreg favourite indulgence, in which his exquisite learning hereditary gout made more frequent attacks th and poetic talents were only known to a few friends; formerly; and at length, while he was dining in and it was not till 1747, that his “ Ode on a distant | College-hall, he was seized with a complaint in t Prospect of Eton College" made its appearance stomach, which carried him off on July 30, 1771. before the public. It was in 1751 that his cele- the fifty-fifth year of his age. His remains a brated "Elegy written in a Country Church-yard," deposited, with those of his mother and aunt, in te chiefly composed some years before, and even now church-yard of Stoke-Pogis, Buckinghamshire. sent into the world without the author's name, made its way to the press. Few poems were ever so popular it soon ran through eleven editions; was translated into Latin verse, and has ever since borne the marks of being one of the most favourite productions of the British Muse. In the manners of Gray there was a degree of effeminacy and fastidiousness which exposed him to the character of a fribble; and a few riotous young Inen of fortune in his college thought proper to make him a subject for their boisterous tricks. He made remonstrances to the heads of the society upon this usage, which being treated, as he thought, without due attention, he removed in 1756 to Pembroke-hall. In the next year, the office of poet It is exclusively as a poet that we record name of Gray; and it will, perhaps, be thoug that we borrow too large a share from a single sma volume; yet this should be considered as indicat of the high rank which he has attained, compr with the number of his compositions. With respe to his character as a man of learning, since his a quisitions were entirely for his own use, duced no fruits for the public, it has no claim particular notice. For though he has been calie by one of his admirers "perhaps the most learne man in Europe," never was learning more thro away. A few pieces of Latin poetry are all that b has to produce. and pr AWAKE, Æolian lyre, awake, And give to rapture all thy trembling strings Oh! sovereign of the willing soul, And frantic passions, hear thy soft control: Of Jove, thy magic lulls the feather'd king Thee the voice, the dance, obey, =ith antic sports and blue-ey'd pleasures, low-melting strains their queen's approach declare : n gliding state she wins her easy way: The bloom of young Desire, and purple light of Love. II. Man's feeble race what ills await, abour and Penury, the racks of Pain, Disease, and Sorrow's weeping train, Two coursers of ethereal race, [ing pace. With necks in thunder cloth'd, and long-resound And Death, sad refuge from the storms of Fate! Hark, his hands the lyre explore! The fond complaint, my song, disprove, And justify the laws of Jove. ay, has he given in vain the heavenly Muse? Her spectres wan, and birds of boding cry, In climes beyond the solar road, [war. Where shaggy forms o'er ice-built mountains roam, The Muse has broke the twilight gloom To cheer the shivering native's dull abode. And oft, beneath the odorous shade Of Chili's boundless forests laid, She deigns to hear the savage youth repeat, In loose numbers wildly sweet, Their feather-cinctur'd chiefs, and dusky loves. Th' unconquerable mind, and Freedom's holy flame. Woods, that wave o'er Delphi's steep, Or where Mæander's amber waves Left their Parnassus, for the Latian plains. They sought, oh Albion! next thy sea-encircled coast. III. Far from the Sun and summer-gale, In thy green lap was Nature's darling * laid, To him the mighty mother did unveil Her aweful face: the dauntless child "This pencil take," she said, "whose colours clear Richly paint the vernal year: * Shakspeare. Bright-ey'd Fancy, hovering o'er, Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn. But ah! 't is heard no more Oh! lyre divine, what daring spirit Beneath the good how far-but far above the great. ODE ON THE SPRING. Lo! where the rosy-bosom'd Hours, The untaught harmony of Spring: Where'er the oak's thick branches stretch. Beside some water's rushy brink (At ease reclin'd in rustic state) Still is the toiling hand of Care: Yet hark, how through the peopled air |