180 GRAY uses of the different species. His writings are comprised under the following heads : the gen- eral subject of natural history, the mammalia, birds, reptiles, fishes, articulate animals, the mollusca, and the radiata. His papers on the mammalia and the mollusca in 1852 amounted to considerably over 100 in each department, those on the latter subject being particularly valuable on account of their extensive and exact information. The most important of them is the " Systematic Arrangement of Mol- luscous Animals, with Characters of Families." In his conchological studies he has received much assistance from his wife, an accomplished naturalist, and the author of "Figures of Mol- luscous Animals for the Use of Students," de- scriptions of which have been given by Mr. Gray. A larger share of his attention has however been devoted to herpetology than to any other branch of natural science, and more than 70 papers describing the structure and habits of species from many parts of the world are included among his writings. Dr. Gray has been prominent in the work of reforming prison discipline and in sanitary measures, founded the Greenwich society of useful knowl- edge, and claims to have originated the plan of cheap postage prepaid by stamps. II. George Robert, an English naturalist, brother of the preceding, born at Little Chelsea, July 8, 1808. He early began the study of zoology at the British museum, was employed in the zoolo- gical department from 1831, and in 1869 be- came assistant keeper of the zoological collec- tions. He is the author of several works and papers on entomology and ornithology, and in 1832 contributed the entomological portion to the English edition of Cuvier's " Animal King- dom." He published a "List of the Genera of Birds," reedited in 1841 and in 1855. His large work, "Genera of Birds " (3 vols., 1837- '49), is universally valued by naturalists. In 1870 he published his " Hand List of the Gen- era and Species of Birds," embracing 2,915 genera and subgenera, and 11,162 species. GRAY, Thomas, an English poet, born in Oornhill, London, Dec. 26, 1716, died July 30, 1771. He was educated at Eton and Cam- bridge, where his expenses were borne by his mother, his father refusing to maintain him. At Eton Gray formed an intimacy with Richard West, a son of the lord chancellor of Ireland, and also with Horace Walpole, with whom in 1739-'41 he travelled in France and Italy. He spent 11 months at Florence, and there began his Latin poem De Principiis Cogitandi. He returned in 1741, and became bachelor of the civil law at Cambridge, though he never of- fered to practise, but continued to live at his university. He corresponded frequently with West, and communicated to him a portion of a tragedy called "Agrippina," in which Nero and Jiis mother and Seneca were to be promi- nent characters, but which West induced him to abandon. He was easily affected by discour- aging criticism, and had nearly laid aside his " Progress of Poesy " because Mason said he did not think it would take with the public. Hav- ing become estranged from Walpole, and West having died in 1742, Gray was much depressed. At this time he wrote his " Ode to Adversity " and the ode " On a Distant Prospect of Eton College." About the same time he was en- gaged on his Latin poem De Principiis, in which he designed to teach Locke's meta- physics in hexameters. From 1742 he remain- ed at Cambridge, always dissatisfied with the place, and never professing contentment. In 1748 he began a poem, which he never com- pleted, "On Government and Education." If has some fine lines, in spite of the unpoetical subject. Gray, although of refined tastes and manners, shrank from society, living chiefly among scholars. He encouraged Mason, then a young poet, revised his verses, and helped him to an election as fellow of Pembroke hall. Mason became his constant associate, and was afterward his biographer. In 1749 Gray fin- ished the " Elegy written in a Country Church- yard," said to have been begun seven years before, in the churchyard of Stoke-Pogis, Buckinghamshire, in which town his mother was living. It originally appeared in 1752, and achieved an immediate popularity, four editions being called for within a year. Seve- ral of his pieces were printed in 1753 with de- signs by Mr. Bentley, and, being too few to make a book of the usual size, were printed only on one side of the leaf. The poems and the plates together sold well. In 1756 he re- moved to Pembroke hall. His odes, "The Progress of Poesy " and " The Bard," appeared in 1757, and were received with much ridicule. Few professed to understand them, but the public finally learned to admire. His poems were parodied in two odes which not long after appeared on "Obscurity" and "Oblivion." Between the years 1759 and 1762 he occupied lodgings in Southampton row, near the British museum, then just opened, and made extracts from the Harleian and other collections which filled a considerable folio volume. On the death of Cibber the laureateship was offered to him, which he declined. He was appointed in 1768 professor of modern history at Cambridge. His health now rapidly declined. In the au- tumn of 1770 he was able to travel in Wales; he saw Westmoreland and Cumberland, and wrote in correspondence a delightful narrative of his travels. He died of gout in the stomach, and was buried at Stoke-Pogis. Gray was small, delicate, of handsome features, and stu- diously refined. His manners were nice to ef- feminacy, his dress carefully adjusted to the fashions of the day. He speaks of himself as a person of great pride and reserve ; but he was capable of strong and tender emotion. He could often be satirical, and among his inti- mate friends his conversation was singularly entertaining and instructive, but he spoke little in company. To his great attainments all his friends bear testimony, but he left no public
