XZH LIFE OF GRAY.
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eglected ; but his time was so assiduously occu-pied in a regular and studious perusal of the bestGreek authors, that in six years he had read allthe writers of eminence in that language, digest-ing and arranging their contents, remarking theirpeculiarities, and noting their corrupt and difficultpassages with great accuracy and diligence. Inthe winter of 1742, he was admitted a bachelorof civil law ; and a short recreation of his studiesappears in a ' Fragment of an Address to Igno-rance,' which contains a satire on the Universitywhere he resided,* whose system of education healways disliked and ridiculed, and against whichhe used to speak so openly, as to create manyenemies. It is plain, from his Letters, that he will hardly be considered as the sole motives. 9 ' Dr. Parr,however, does not assign any other motives that influencedGray, in his choice of the University for a residence.Nee tu credideris urbanee commoda vitaeQueerere Nasonem, quaerit et ilia tamen. Ov. Ep. ex Pont. 1. 8. 29.* In p. 117 of the Spital Sermon, Dr. Parr says: " At thatvery time in which Mr. Gray spoke so contemptuously of Cam-bridge, that very University abounded in men of erudition andscience, with whom the first scholars would not have disdainedto converse: and who shall convict me of exaggeration, whenI bring forward the names of Bentley, Davies, Asheton — ofJesus: Provost Snape, Middle ton, Tunstall the public orator,Baker — of St. John's: Edmund Law, John Taylor, ThomasJohnson, Waterland, Whaley (afterwards regius professor ofdivinity), Smith (the nephew of Cotes), afterwards master ofTrinity, Roger Long, Colson, the correspondent of Sir IsaacNewton, and Professor Saunderson 1 " LIFE OP GRAY. XXHl thought the attention and time bestowed there onmathematical and metaphysical pursuits, wouldhave been more profitably spent in classical stu-dies. There is some resemblance in the style ofthis Fragment to part of Pope's Dunciad ; thefourth book of which had appeared but a yearor two before: and Gray, I should think, hadthat poem in his mind when he wrote these lines,to ridicule what he calls "that ineffable Octo-grammaton, the power of laziness." In 1744 the difference between Walpole andGray was adjusted by the interference of a ladywho wished weD to both parties. The lapse ofthree years had probably been sufficient, in somedegree, to soften down, though not entirely oblite-rate, the remembrance of supposed injuries oneither side ; natural kindness of temper had reas-sumed its place, and we find their correspondenceagain proceeding on friendly and familiar terms.About this time Gray became acquainted with Mr.Mason, then a scholar of St. John's College, whosepoetical talents he had noticed ; and some of whosepoems he revised at the request of a friend. Hemaintained a correspondence with his intimateand respectable friend, Dr. Wharton, of Durham ;and he seems to have lived on terms of familiaritywith the celebrated Dr. Middleton,* whose loss • Br. Middleton died the 28th of July, 1750, in the sixty-seventh year of his age, at Hildersham, in Cambridgeshire.
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