"norant of the partiality of men, and the arts they employ to seduce us? Nourished "in a contempt for our sex, it is not us, it is their pleasures that they love. "Cruel as they are, they have placed in the rank of the virtues the barbarous "fury of revenge, and the mad love of their country; but never have they "reckoned fidelity among the virtues. Without remorse they abuse innocence, " and often their vanity contemplates our griefs with delight. But no; fly far "from me, ye odious thoughts, my lover will come! A thousand times have I "experienced it: As soon as I perceive him my agitated mind is calm, and "I often forget the too just cause I have for complaint; for near him I can only know happiness. Yet if he is treacherous to me; if, in the very "moment when my love accuses him, he consummates the crime of infidelity in "another bosom, may all nature take up arms in revenge! may he perish! What "do I say? Ye Elements, be deaf to my cries! Thou Earth, open not "thy profound abyss! let the monster walk the time prescribed him on thy "splendid surface, let him still commit new crimes, and still cause the tears "of the too credulous maids to flow; and if heaven and if heaven avenges them and punishes him, may it at least be at the prayer of some other unfortunate "woman"."

-My truant heart

Forgets each lesson that Resentment taught,

And in thy sight knows only to be happy.

In the French it is more literal, " Pres de lui je ne sçais qu'etre heureuse."

Till then, ye elements, rest; and thou firm earth,

Ope not thy yawning jaws; but let this monster

Stalk his due time on thine affrighted surface :
Yes, let him still go on, still execute

His savage purposes, and daily make
More widows weep, as I do.

Here ends this odd instance of plagiarism. When M. Helvetius was in England, a year or two after I had made the discovery of it, I took my measures (as Mr. Gray advised me) to learn how he came by it; and accordingly requested two noblemen, to whom he was introduced, to ask him some questions concerning it; but I could gain no satisfactory answer. I do not, however, by any means, suppose that the person who cooked up the disjointed parts of my drama into this strange fricassee, was M. Helvetius himself; I rather imagine (as I did from the first) that he was imposed upon by some young English traveller, who contrived this expedient in order to pass with him for a poet. The great philosopher, it is true, has in this note been proved to be the receiver of stolen goods ; but out of respect to his numerous fashionable disciples, both abroad and at home, whose credit might suffer with that of their master, I acquit him of what would only be held criminal at the Old Bailey, that he received these goods knowing them to be stolen.-Mason.·

LETTER CVI.

MR. GRAY TO MR. BROWN *.

February 17, 1763.

YOU will make my best acknowledgments to Mr. Howe; who, not content to rank me in the number of his friends, is so polite as to make excuses for having done me that honour.

I was not born so far from the sun, as to be ignorant of Count Algarotti's name and reputation; nor am I so far advanced in years, or in philosophy, as not to feel the warmth of his approbation. The Odes in question, as their motto shews, were meant to be vocal to the intelligent alone. How few they were in my own country, Mr. Howe can testify; and yet my ambition was terminated by that small circle. I have good reason to be proud, if my voice has reached the ear and apprehension of a stranger, distinguished as one of the best judges in Europe.

I am equally pleased with the just applause he bestows on Mr. Mason; and particularly on his Caractacus, which is the work of a Man: whereas Elfrida is only that of a boy, a promising boy indeed, and of no common genius: yet this is the popular performance, and the other little known in comparison.

*Now Master of Pembroke-Hall.-Mason.

Neither Count Algarotti nor Mr. Howe (I believe) have heard of Ossian, the Son of Fingal. If Mr. Howe were not upon the wing, and on his way homewards, I would send it to him in Italy. He would there see that Imagination dwelt many hundred years ago, years ago, in all her pomp, on the cold and barren mountains of Scotland. The truth (I believe) is, that without any respect of climates, she reigns in all nascent societies of men, where the necessities of life, force every one to think and act much for himself*.

Adieu !

* One is led to think from this paragraph that the scepticism, which Mr. Gray had expressed before, concerning these works of Ossian, was now entirely removed. I know no way of accounting for this (as he had certainly received no stronger evidence of their authenticity) but from the turn of his studies at the time. He had of late much busied himself in antiquities, and consequently had imbibed too much of the spirit of a profest antiquarian; now we know, from a thousand instances, that no set of men are more willingly duped than these, especially by any thing that comes to them under the fascinating form of a new discovery.-Mason.

LETTER CVII.

COUNT ALGAROTTI TO MR. GRAY.

Pisa, 24 Aprile, 1763.

SONO stato lungo tempo in dubbio se un dilettante quale io sono, dovea mandare alcune sue coserelle a un Professore quale è V. S. Illusmo, a un arbitro di ogni poetica eleganza. Nè ci volea meno che l'autorità del valorissimo Sigr How per persuadermi a ciò fare. V. S. Illmo accolga queste mie coserelle con quella medesima bontà con cui ha voluto accogliere quella lettera che dice pur poco delle tante cose, che fanno sentire alle anime armoniche di ammirabili suoi versi. Io saro per quanto io porrô, Præco laudum tuarum, e quella mia lettera si stamperà in un nuovo Giornale, che si fa in Venezia, intitolato la Minerva, perche sappia la Italia che la Inghilterra, ricca di un * Omero, di uno † Archimede, di un ‡Demostene, non manca del suo Pindaro. Al Sig. How le non saprei dire quanti obblighi io abbia, ma si maggiore è certamente quello di avermi presentato alla sua Musa, e di avermi procurato la occasione di poterla assicurare della perfetta ed altissima stima, con cui io ho l'honore di sottescrivermi,

LETTER CVIII.

MR. GRAY TO DR. WHARTON.

DEAR DOCTOR,

YOU may well wonder at my long taciturnity: I wonder too, and know not what cause to assign, for it is certain I think of you daily. I believe it is owing to the nothingness of my history, for except six weeks that I passed in town, towards the end of Spring, and a little jaunt to Epsom and Box-hill, I have been here time out of mind, in a place where no events grow, though we preserve those of former days by way of Hortus Siccus in our libraries. My slumbers were disturbed the other day by an unexpected visit from Mr. Walpole, who dined with me; seemed mighty happy for the time he stayed, and said he could like to live here; but hurried home in the evening to his new gallery, which is all gothicism and gold, and crimson, and looking-glass. He has purchased, at an auction* in Suffolk, ebony chairs and old moveables, enough to load a waggon.

Mason and I have received letters from Count Algarotti, Chambellan de sa Majesté le Roi de Prusse, with observations (that is panegyrics) on our Tragedies and our Odes, and a present of certain Italian Dissertations, which he has lately published, on the state of Painting and Musick: one of them

* See Mr. Walpole's Letter on the subject to G. Montague. Works, Vol. V. p. 639.