s?
Would he have added so much to the sum of human happiness? He might
thus have made himself a power for a time, to be dethroned by some
new usurper in the realm of knowledge; now he is a power and a joy
forever to countless thousands."

Two manuscripts of the _Elegy_, in Gray's handwriting, still exist.
Both were bequeathed by the poet, together with his library, letters,
and many miscellaneous papers, to his friends the Rev. William Mason
and the Rev. James Browne, as joint literary executors. Mason
bequeathed the entire trust to Mr. Stonhewer. The latter, in making
his will, divided the legacy into two parts. The larger share went to
the Master and Fellows of Pembroke Hall. Among the papers, which are
still in the possession of the College, was found a copy of the
_Elegy_. An excellent fac-simile of this manuscript appears in
Mathias's edition of Gray, published in 1814. In referring to it
hereafter we shall designate it as the "Pembroke" MS.

The remaining portion of Gray's literary bequest, including the other
manuscript of the _Elegy_, was left by Mr. Stonhewer to his friend,
Mr. Bright. In 1845 Mr. Bright's sons sold the collection at auction.
The MS. of the _Elegy_ was bought by Mr. Granville John Penn, of
Stoke Park, for _one hundred pounds_--the highest sum that had ever
been known to be paid for a single sheet of paper. In 1854 this
manuscript came again into the market, and was knocked down to Mr.
Robert Charles Wrightson, of Birmingham, for 131 pounds. On the 29th
of May, 1875, it was once more offered for sale in London, and was
purchased by Sir William Fraser for 230 pounds, or about $1150. A
photographic reproduction of it was published in London in 1862. For
convenience we shall refer to it as the "Wrightson" MS.

There can be little doubt that the Wrightson MS. is the original one,
and that the Pembroke MS. is a fair copy made from it by the poet.
The former contains a greater number of alterations, and varies more
from the printed text. It bears internal evidence of being the rough
draft, while the other represents a later stage of the poem. We will
give the variations of both from the present version.[3]

[Footnote 3: For the readings of the Wrightson MS. we have had to
depend on Mason, Mitford, and other editors of the poem, and on the
article in the _North American Review_, already referred to. The
readings of the Pembroke MS. are taken from the engraved fac-simile
in Mathias's edition.