38 Poetry. [Chap. XX. 



SECTION VIII. 



ELEGIAC POETRY. 



That part of the poetry of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury which falls under this head is worthy of par- 

 ticular notice. It may be pronounced greatly 

 superior to all the productions of a similar kind 

 which belong to any preceding age. In this sec- 

 tion several of the productions of Pope may be 

 with propriety arranged, and must have assigned 

 to them a high place. The elegies of Hammond, 

 though scarcely possessing first-rate excellence, 

 have been also celebrated. But the writer who 

 confessedly stands in the first rank of elegiac poets 

 is Gray. His Elegy 171 a Countni Churchyard 

 will be read with admiration and delight, as pos- 

 fieSsing beauties of the most rich and exquisite 

 kind, as long as taste and sensibility shall exist *. 



* Thoi-nSs Gray was born in London in 1716, and died in 

 1771. His character, as drawn by a friend, is as follows : " Pep- 

 haps he Avas the most learned rnan in Europe. He was equally 

 acquainted with the elegant and the profound parts of science; 

 and that not superficially, but thoroughly. He knew every 

 branch of history, both natural and civil ; had read all the origi- 

 nal historians of England, France, and Italy ; and w as a great 

 antiquarian. Criticism, metaphysics, morals, politics, made a 

 principal part of his study. Voyages and travels of all sorts were 

 his favourite amusements; and he had a fine taste in painting, 

 prints, ajchitecture, and gardening. With such a fund of know- 

 ledge, nis conversation must have been equally instructing and 

 entertaining ; but he was also a good man, a man of virtue and 



