XXIX. "The next, with dirges due, in sad array, "Slow through the church-way path we saw "him borne. Approach and read (for thou can'st read) the lay, "Grav'd on his stone beneath yon aged thorn." THE EPITAPH. XXX. HERE rests his head upon the lap of earth, XXXI. Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere ; He gain'd from Heav'n ('twas all he wish'd) a XXXII. No farther seek his merits to disclose, Or draw his frailties from their dread abode, (There they alike in trembling hope repose,)' The bosom of his Father, and his God. (There they alike in trembling hope repose.)] paventosa speme. PETR. Son. 114. [11] CRITICISM, &c. My Y process has brought me at last to the far-famed "Elegy written in a Country Church-yard." Of this Elegy, caution seems to dictate, that censure should say but little, where praise has said so much. Even obstinacy is content to admit it to be possessed of the presumptive claim to commendation, which is derived from popularity. Literary history furnishes not many instances, where the anxieties of authors have been fully removed, before the public was in possession of their work. Yet such was the case in the instance before us. The favourable opi nion of the world, with respect to this poem, was ascertained whilst it was yet in the birth; and attention was roused by repeated whispers, about a noble elegiac production, circulating among a few confidential friends, and of whose author it was said (in the cant usual on such occasions) that the diffidence withheld it from the public eye. In such situations there are never wanting encouragers, to cocker and spirit up the modest author; who yields at last to importunity, and the dread of a mutilated and surreptitious publication. It is, however, but fair to confess, that, on this occasion, the solicitations of Gray's friends were not merely complimental. The recital of certain brilliant stanzas had secured approbation to the whole, Praise in this instance preceded publication, as in some other instances he found it follow far behind; and Gray felt himself in a situa tion singular among authors; not soliciting public favour, but solicited to accept it. The " Elegy written in a Country Church-yard" has become a staple in English poetry. It is even beginning to get into years. Of those that now frequent the haunts of them that make verses, or that judge of them, the greater part remember not the time when it was not recited with approbation: and, when a few laggers, who witnessed its first introduction, and heard now and then a tone of dissent interrupting the notes of admiration, shall have "fretted their hour," and gone away, the custom of praising it will be entitled to the denomination of a good custom, which, in criticism as well as law, holds of prescription; being "That whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary." Though the curiosity of the public had done nothing to push forward this Elegy, |