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INTRODTJCTOKY ESSAY. 17

of his life, made him more so; that it increased his
restlessness; that what he knew of bad made him
suspect worse, and connect some darker mystery with
his father's early death. I know not how this history
got abroad; if he told it to any one he told it to
Gray; we should never guess from the slightly-ruffled
surface of his correspondence, what deep sighs those
are

Che fanno pullular quest' acq.ua al sommo.

But the reader should know that, beneath, a little
Hamlet-like tragedy is going on; perhaps not without
its good Horatio; and one thinks of Goethe's words
about "the lovely noble nature, without the strength
of nerve which forms a hero, sinking beneath a
burden which it cannot bear and must not cast
away." His last words to Gray ' Vale et vive paullis-
per cum vivis' were written in a cheerful and en-
couraging spirit; but as his friend thought upon
them in after days, they may have seemed like an
unconscious echo of the pathetic commission

—Absent thee from felicity awhile
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain
To tell my story.

In the third place, there are here collected of
Gray's, whatever seemed of general interest, amongst
his hitherto unpublished relics. There are indeed
some evidences of his curious industry which have
not been included either in the edition of Mitford, or



	INTRODTJCTOKY ESSAY. 17 of his life, made him more so; that it increased his restlessness; that what he knew of bad made him suspect worse, and connect some darker mystery with his father's early death. I know not how this history got abroad; if he told it to any one he told it to Gray; we should never guess from the slightly-ruffled surface of his correspondence, what deep sighs those are Che fanno pullular quest' acq.ua al sommo. But the reader should know that, beneath, a little Hamlet-like tragedy is going on; perhaps not without its good Horatio; and one thinks of Goethe's words about "the lovely noble nature, without the strength of nerve which forms a hero, sinking beneath a burden which it cannot bear and must not cast away." His last words to Gray ' Vale et vive paullis- per cum vivis' were written in a cheerful and en- couraging spirit; but as his friend thought upon them in after days, they may have seemed like an unconscious echo of the pathetic commission —Absent thee from felicity awhile And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain To tell my story. In the third place, there are here collected of Gray's, whatever seemed of general interest, amongst his hitherto unpublished relics. There are indeed some evidences of his curious industry which have not been included either in the edition of Mitford, or