* ftation, his defire was to be looked upon as a private independent gentleman, who read for his amufe"ment. 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 leaft innocently employed.; "to himself certainly beneficially. His time paffed a greeably; he was every day making fome new ac quifition in fcience; his mind was enlarged, his "heart foftened, his virtue ftrengthened; the world and mankind were fhewn to him without a mafk; and he was taught to confider every thing as trifling, "and unworthy the attention of a wife man, except the purfuit of knowledge, and the practice of virtue, in that ftate wherein God hath placed us." THE |