AS A NATURALIST 
from the compulsion of necessity or of a profession, have em- 
ployed themselves more steadily. There were not many fields of 
knowledge, with the exception of mathematics and the physical 
sciences, which he did not make his own. He read everything; 
and when his younger friend, the Reverend Norton NichoUs, ex- 
pressed surprise at the extent of his reading, he said, "Why 
should you be surprised, for I do nothing else.?" In reality 
Gray did much more than merely read; his "nothing else" took 
no account of the extraordinary range of copious and elaborate 
annotations which he made on the margins of his books, and in 
which the extent and thoroughness of his learning and the va- 
riety of his intellectual interests were abundantly displayed. Nor 
did it take account of his constant and careful observations of 
nature, and his exact records of them. He kept minute diaries, 
in which he entered daily notes on the weather, and recorded 
the opening of the flowers, the ripening of the harvests, the 
changes in the vegetation of the different seasons, the coming 
and departure of the birds, together with many miscellaneous 
remarks on the objects and aspects of nature. 
We have no full description of his rooms in Pembroke Col- 
lege, but from scattered sentences in his letters it is plain that 
they had a pleasant air, and gave evidence in their arrange- 
ments and furnishings of his many accomplishments and fastidi- 
ous taste. He was fond of music, and well acquainted with its 
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