Ill health made another journey neceffary, and he vifited (1769) Weftmoreland and Cumberland. He that reads his epiftolary narration wishes, that to travel, and to tell his travels, had been more of his employment; but it is by ftudying at home that we must obtain the ability of travelling with intelligence and improvement.

His travels and his ftudies were now near their end. The gout, of which he had fustained many weak attacks, fell upon his stomach, and, yielding to no medicines, produced strong convulfions, which (July 30, 1771) terminated in death.

His character I am willing to adopt, as Mr. Mafon has done, from a Letter written to my friend Mr. Bofwell, by the Rev. Mr. Temple, rector of St. Gluvias in Cornwall; and am as willing as his warmeft well-wisher to believe it true.

"Perhaps he was the moft learned man "in Europe. He was equally acquainted "with the elegant and profound parts of

"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, metaphysics, morals, politics, made a principal part of his ftudy; voyages and travels of all forts were his favourite amufements; and he “ had a fine taste in painting, prints, archi"tecture, and gardening, With fuch a "fund of knowledge, his converfation must "have been equally inftructing and enter"taining; but he was also 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, "or rather effeminacy, and a visible faftidi"oufnefs, or contempt and difdain of his "inferiors in science. He also had, in some

degree, that weakness which disgusted Vol❝taire so much in Mr. Congreve: though he " seemed 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

"though without birth, or fortune, or fta"tion, his defire was to be looked upon as "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 fo much pains to leave no "memorial but a few poems? But let it be "confidered that Mr. Gray was, to others, "at least innocently employed; to himself, certainly beneficially. His time paffed

66

agreeably; he was every day making fome new acquifition in fcience; his mind was enlarged, his heart foftened, his virtue ftrengthened; the world and mankind were "fhewn to him without a mask; and he was taught to confider every thing as trifling, " and unworthy of the attention of a wise "man, except the purfuit of knowledge "and practice of virtue, in that state where"in God hath placed us."

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 please; and that he is unjustly

7

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

What has occurred to me, from the flight infpection of his Letters in which my undertaking has engaged me, is, that his mind had a large grafp; 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.

"You say you cannot conceive how lord "Shaftesbury came to be a philofopher in

vogue; I will tell you: first, 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

"leads

"leads no where; fixthly, he was reckoned "a fine writer, and feems always to mean "more than he faid. Would you have any more reafons? An interval of above forty 66 years has pretty well deftroyed the charm. "A dead lord ranks with commoners: va

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

he

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

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 arofe 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