LIFE OF GRAY. XXI
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inal Melchior de Folignac ; a poem which hadbeen long expected, and appeared about that time.The failure, however, of M. de Polignac's poemmay be attributed partly to its length, (for it con-tains above thirteen thousand verses,) and to awant of sufficient variety and digression in thecomposition. The versification is not always fin-ished and compact, and the language has lostmuch of its elegance in the endeavour to accom-modate it with precision to the subject. Gray's residence at Cambridge was now conti-nued, not from any partiality to the place where hereceived his education, but partly from the scanti-ness of his income, and in a great measure, nodoubt, for the convenience which its libraries af-forded.* Original composition he almost entirely employed on it, and recited it so often, that many parts werestolen, and inserted in the works of other authors. Le Geregot a fragment by heart, and published it in one of his literaryjournals. The cardinal died while his work was unfinished,and before he could add two more books to it against the Deists.See Anecdotes par Grimm, vol. i. p. 455. The line writtenunder Franklin's picture, " Eripuit coelo fulmen, soeptrumquetyrannis " — is an imitation of one in the Anti-Lucretius, " Eri-puitque Jovi fulmen, Phoeboque sagittas." * In a note to the Spital Sermon, p. 117, Dr. Parr says:" After the opportunities which Mr. Gray enjoyed, and of whichhe doubtless had availed himself, for observing the state ofliterature and the characters of literary men upon the Conti-nent, he did not merely visit the University, but fixed hischief residence there. And of a choice to which he adheredso steadily and so long, the scantiness of his fortune, the loveof books, and the easy access he had to them in many libraries,
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