ences between the reader and the poet, in which the
modern muse so much delights, could not be imagined. But what do we
find? The theme is treated in the most general manner. Though
emphasizing the irony of his reflection by the beautiful touch of
memory in the second stanza, the poet speaks throughout as a moralist
or spectator; from first to last he seems to lose all thought of
himself in contemplating the tragedies he foresees for others; the
subject is in fact handled with the most skilful rhetoric, and every
stanza is made to strengthen and elaborate the leading thought. In
the 'Progress of Poesy,' though the general constructive effect is
perhaps inferior to 'The Bard,' we see the same evidence of careful
preconsideration, while the course of the poem is particularly
distinguished by the beauty of the transitions. Of the form of the
'Elegy' it is superfluous to speak; a poem so dignified and yet so
tender, appeals immediately, and will continue to appeal, to the
heart of every Englishman, so long as the care of public liberty and
love of the soil maintain their hold in this country. In this poem,
as indeed in all that Gray ever wrote, we find it his first principle
_to prefer his subject to himself_; he never forgot that while he was
a man he was also an artist, and he knew that the function of art was
not merely to indulge nature, but to dignify and refine it.

"Yet, in spite of his love of form, there is nothing frigid or
statuesque in the genius of Gray. A vein of deep melancholy,
evidently constitutional, runs through his poetry, and, considering
how little he produced, the number of personal allusions in his
verses is undoubtedly large. But he is entirely free from that
egotism which we have had frequent occasion to blame as the
prevailing vice of modern poetry. For whereas the modern poet thrusts
his private feelings into prominence, and finds a luxury in the
confession of his sorrows, Gray's references to himself are
introduced on public grounds, or, in other words, with a view to
poetical effect. He, like our own bards, is 'condemned to groan,' but
for different reasons--

'The tender for _another's_ pain,
The unfeeling for his own.'

"We have already remarked on the public character of the 'Ode on Eton
College;' but the second stanza of this poem is a pure expression of
individual feeling:

'Ah, happy hills! ah, pleasing shade!
Ah, fields belov'd in vain!
Where once my careless chi