The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1882-07-23
A New Life OF Gray.

N WV OF Srhys
The latest addition to the series OF Eng
lish Men OF Letters " tHarpers) is devoted to
critical estimate Of Thomas cray by Mr. Ed
MUND w. GossE. The author has undertaken
to vindicate Gray's reputation against the at
tack begun by Dr. johnson and renewed by
Mr.. Swinburnc in our own day. There can he
no question that in the process of time the
great popularity Of the Lives of the Poets"
did much to injure Gray with the unthinking.
Against tho condemnation Of johnson there
were placed almost instantly the enthusiastic
pra.ecs OF Adam Smith, Gibbon Hume. Mackin-
tosh, and others OF no less authority, who
were unanimous in ranking his poetry
only just below that Of Shakespeare and
Milton This view continued to prevail
until TIE splendors OF the neo-romantic
school, and especially the regulations Of
Wordsworth and Byron eclipsed tho academic
luminary The Lake SCHOOL and particularly
Coeridgc. averred that the Cambridge poet
had been unfairly ovcrrated, and 1t was rather
Byron and Shelley who in our century sus-
tanned Gray's fame as in some directions they
continued his artistic traditions. The one
writer Of authority who since the death OF
Johnson has ventured to depreciate Gray's po-
etry, Mr. Swinburne. who, in his ardor to do
justice to Collins has been unjust to the greater
man, has felt constrained to extol the :" Elegy
in Country Churchyard" rs q poem Of high
perfection and universal appeal to the tender
est and noblest depths Of human feeling" and
to admit that as an elegiac poet Gray holds.
for all ages to come. his unassailable and SOW
ereign station"
1t s certain that the fame Of Gray's Elegy"
has spread to all countries. and has exercised
an influence on all the poetry Of Europe from
Denmark TO Italy and from France to Russia.
With the exception Of certain works Of Byron
and Shakespeare. no English poem has been so
widely admired and initiated abroad. and after
more than a century OF existence we find it Us
fresh as ever when its copies. even the most
popular OF all-Lamnrtine's lie Ldc-are faded
and furnished. 1t possesses the charm Of In
comparable felicity; of a melody that is not too
subtle to charm every ear of Il moral persua-
| siNeness that appeals 10 every mind and Of n
metrcal skill that in every line prociaims
the master. Mr.. Gosse looks upon the
Elegy" rs the typical piece OF English
verse. as our poem Of poems; not that
it is the most brilliant or profound
lyric in our language but because 1t
combines in more balanced perfection than any
other all the qualities that go 70 the production
of fine poetical effect. The biograrher re-
minds us that the measure itself from first TO
last is an attempt to render in English the sol
emn alienation Of passion and reserve. the in
terchange Of implorng and responding tones
that is found in the Latin eegac. and it is note
worthy that Gray gave his poem in the first
publication an outward resemblance to the
text OF Tibullus by printing It without any
stanzaic pauses We may here mention that
this poem. instantaneous and universal
as its success was brought the au-
thor no money. He gave the right of
publication to Dodsley as he did in
! 4 4.
another bookseller that Dodsley made nearly
thousand pounds by Gray's poetry. Gray had
aQuiXotic notion that II was beneath gentle
man to take money for his inventions from
booksellers. n view in which, We need not say
the latter warmly conceded. Grays contem-
porary DR.. Johnson. held a widely different
view. and it is hard 10 understand how the
former conceived such preposterous idea. for
II there is anything in the doctrine of heredity
Gray ought to have evinced the instincts
OF a shopkceper. His grandfather and father
We're tradcsmen and his mother was mllincr
who paid for her sons schooling at Eton and
his maintenance at Cambridge from the earn
inGs OF her shop. Grays affectation. therefore.
OF indifference to the pecunary proceeds OF the
| only work he knew how TO do strikes us as SUI
premely silly. The truth is that Gray was es-
sentally a snob. whose notions of life were
permanently moulded by the relation of para
site. which during his youth and for some time
afterward he occupied toward Horace Wapoe.
We are told. in fact. by Mr. Temple, who knew
him well. that Gray had the weakness which
disguised Votaire so much lin Congrevc. He
could not bear to be considered merely rs
man of letters. and though without birth. or
fortune, or station. he desired to be looked
upon rs u private gentleman.
II cannot be gainsaid that Gray is the main
example in our literature OF poet possessing
the Greek quality of structure in his lyrical
work. and Mr.. Gosse points out how through
out his career, it never left him. even on occa-
sions when he was deserted by every other
form Of inspiration. This power Of structural
evolution has not by any means been common
among lyrical poets. even Of high rank. In
Milton. for example, II is strangely absent, and
you feel that all his odes, beautiful as they are.
do not bud and branch and fall in fruit closing
with the exhaustion OF their functions but
merely cease because all poems must stop some
where. In Collins you notice the same fail
ing; the poem is a burst OF emotion. but
not an organism. Shelley too. in his longer
odes seems to lose himself in beautiful. mean
dering oratory. and to stop. as he began in re-
Spouse to mere change Of purpose. Keats
on the other hand. is always consistent in his
evolution and so is Wordsworth AT his more
elevated moments, aud Mr. Gosse recognizes
the same merit in Edgar Poe. But Grays
poems are never chains OF consecutive stan2as.
each line. each group Of lines. has It's proper
place in structure that could not be SHORTER
or longer without radical Encouragement OF
ideas.
Miserable Manuals of Scientific knowledge.
Undoubtedly the methods generally en-
ployod in our schools for teaching the rud-
ments OF science are very miserable. Those
who believe most strongly in the benefits to he
derived from the Introduction Of scientific
studies into all schemes Of education. are now
foremost in saying that. rs at present pursued.
such studies do more harm than good. 1t has
even been recommended that they should be
entirely abandoned. in preference to continu-
ing the perverted methods which now prevail
Yet even the most partisan advocate Of classi-
cal education would certainly wish that every
anil