GRAY 



2581 



GRAYLING 



ander Graham Bell (which see). Mr. Gray was 

 for a number of years engaged in the manufac- 

 ture of telegraph apparatus in Chicago and 

 Cleveland. He was the author of Harmonic 

 Telegraphy .and Telephony and Nature's Mira- 

 cles. 



GRAY, GEORGE (1840- ), an American 

 jurist and legislator, who rendered his country 

 distinguished service as member of such im- 

 portant arbitration boards as the Joint-High 

 Commission between Canada and the United 

 States (1898), the Anthracite Coal Strike Com- 

 mission (1902), of which he was chairman, and 

 the North Atlantic Coast Fisheries Arbitration 

 of The Hague (1910). He was born at New 

 Castle, Del., was graduated at Princeton Col- 

 lege in 1859, and after studying law at Harvard 

 was admitted to the bar in 1863. From 1879 

 to 1885 he was attorney-general of Delaware, 

 being elected in the latter year to the United 

 States Senate. In the Senate, where he served 

 twelve years, he was one of President Cleve- 

 land's most loyal supporters at times when 

 the President's quarrels with Congress reached 

 the acute stage. He was appointed judge of 

 the United States Circuit Court in 1899 and 

 served until his resignation in 1914. Under 

 the Hague Convention of 1900 Judge Gray was 

 made a member of the International Perma- 

 nent Court of Arbitration. 



GRAY, THOMAS (1716-1771), an English 

 poet, author of one of the best-known and 

 also one of the most perfect poems in English 

 literature, Elegy Written in a Country Church- 

 yard. In the opening lines of this beautiful 

 poem, Gray revealed himself as herald of the 

 new movement in English literature that came 

 to full flower in the first part of the nineteenth 

 century (see ROMANTICISM): 



The curfew tolls the knell of parting day ; 

 The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea ; 

 The plowman homeward plods his weary way, 

 And leaves the world to darkness and to me. 



He was born in Cornhill, London, and 

 studied at Eton College and at Cambridge 

 University. He left the university without 

 taking a degree, and from 1739 to 1741 traveled 

 on the continent with his friend Horace Wai- 

 pole, son of England's Prime Minister. Re- 

 turning to England, he resumed his studies at 

 the university, receiving a degree in 1743. He 

 passed nearly all the rest of his life in Cam- 

 bridge, devoted to writing and the study of 

 literature. 



The publication of his Elegy, in 1750, estab- 

 lished his fame, and' in 1757. he was offered 



the poet laureateship, which he declined (see 

 POET LAUREATE). The same year appeared his 

 odes, The Progress of Poesy and The Bard. 



THE "CHURCHYARD" OF THE "ELEGY" 

 The place has changed but little In appearance 

 since the poet's death. Beneath the window rich 

 with Ivy is the grave of Gray an ideal resting 

 place for one who has identified his name forever 

 with its peaceful beauty. 



The latter, a thrilling denunciation of the 

 cruel King Edward, uttered by the last of the 

 Welsh bards, is so filled with the spirit of 

 Romanticism tKaT it is justly considered one 

 of the epoch-making poems of English liter- 

 ature. Then followed The Fatal Sisters and 

 The Descent of Odin, which helped to bring 

 the literary world to a realization of the ro- 

 mantic beauty of Norse mythology. Gray was 

 also an admirable letter writer, and he com- 

 posed very good Latin verse. 



GRAY 'LING, "the flower of fishes," so called 

 by Saint Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan. This 



THE GRAYLING 



family contains only five species, all of which 

 are very beautiful and live in the rivers of 

 cool or Arctic regions. In Europe they reach 



