Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

young people whom he thought worthy of his "friendship. His many virtues, his naturally pow "erful understanding, his vast fund of acquired "knowledge, and his liberality in imparting that "knowledge to young men who shewed a modest eagerness to learn, are what I shall cherish with pleasure, and gratitude,

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

"dum spiritus hos regit artus."

The Rev. Mr. Wollaston, of Chiselhurst, has drawn the same character in a masterly epitome; a little more in detail, but without a superfluous word. It is a model of its kind; and I need not add who Mr. Wollaston is: but I should be the most ungrateful of men, if I did not here most gratefully attest my obligations to him, for not only this character of his friend, and mine, but for the copy of that Poem to which I have referred, as written by Mr. WRAY, and preserved by him; a jewel above all price to me at least, who loved the writer to my heart.

His words, written several years ago, but since Mr. WRAY's death, are these:

"In relation to my studies in Divinity, I owe it "to the memory of an old friend of my father, to "confess, that I received more information con"cerning them from him, though a Layman, than "from any of the Clergy who ever came in my “ way—I mean, DANIEL WRAY, Esq. late a Deputy "Teller in His Majesty's Exchequer under the "second Earl of Hardwicke; a gentleman of

great vivacity, and bright parts, with a most un"common degree of learning, and of knowledge in "various branches of literature; and one of the "best friends a young man could have as an ac"quaintance. He had long been intimate in Lord

Chancellor Hardwicke's family; and had assisted "with his advice all the younger branches of it. He "did the same to me, and my brothers; and continued "his kindness, as long as he lived, to my sons, as they began to grow up.

[ocr errors]

"Courting

"Courting the acquaintance of young men, and "studying to make his house, and his company "agreeable to them, he was always open to be asked "advice; and never backward in giving it freely, "but in a most kind way, unasked, when he saw "occasion for it.

"This is said, not in the spirit of flattery towards "one who is far out of its reach; but as a hint for young men to seek out, and cultivate, the acquain"tance of such persons, wherever they can find them."

66

Hav

In addition to this animated, and just éloge, I can say for myself, that, as far back as memory carries me, I contemplate with delight his good-humoured, and laughing countenance, in chat with me. ing no children of his own, he adopted in part the boys, and girls, who were the children of his friends; and was never so happy, as in improving them, with all the weight of a master, but with no pedantic austerities.

It is a picturesque as well as just character of his delight in children of another class, those of his favourite School, which is drawn by Dr. Berd more, then Head Master of the Charter-house School, in his Anniversary Oration, to the honour of Mr. Sutton, the Founder; delivered in the Hall, by Ric. Jo. Hay, the senior Scholar, in 1785. They deserve to lose half the beauty they acquired in a language called Latin, which is almost obsolete in this age, in order to be circulated, though with inferior effect, in a more familiar, and popular channel; attempted for them by me.

"It would be sacrilege, in commemorating those "who were educated here, and have made a figure "as men, to pass over so distinguished a character "as that of DANIEL WRAY; his country's honour, "as well as ours; who departed from us when he "had become almost, if not quite, the senior of us "all. Men of learning were fond of him; and he "was in return so fond of them, as to have remained ❝ a member of that College in Cambridge which bad "received

66

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

"received him from hence, to his dying day. All "the most accomplished, and gifted Scholars, of their day, who were his contemporaries, paid honour "to him. He was, on his part, of so sweet a temper, and of such engaging manners; had such resources of learning, and wisdom, instilled playfully in conversation; that boys, and young men, "in whose company he took delight, heard him "with pleasure, and could not visit him without being sure to leave him better informed, and better "disposed. His memory was incredible, so that "he had a kind of portable treasure at hand, upon "which his drafts were sure to be answered, and " he was never at a loss for a theme of instruction, "or of entertainment.

[ocr errors]

.66

"How often, upon this very festival, has it been "our pride, and joy, to see the venerable old man, favouring the early efforts of genius, and of diligence, with parental zeal, applauding again, and "again, our youthful orators!"

66

He took his Bachelor's degree in 1722. Nicholas Hardinge, my Father, was just one year senior to him; and from the intimacy, like that of brothers, which united them for several years in the world ("city or suburban"), I assume their habits of social intercourse at Cambridge; where they arrived in the very same year, and where I suspect that my father commenced the habit of banter upon his friend's innocent peculiarities, from which he never abstained when both had left college, but chiefly in verse; and which only the most familiar terms in their friendship could justify.

Both were fond of classical studies, and were blessed with no common powers of taste. Both were of Euphrosyne's train; and, though admirable scholars, amused themselves, and their friends by jeux d'esprit in satirical wit-but like that of Horace, not of Juvenal; for which a fund of goodnature, and genuine benevolence, more than a defect of genius, disabled their pen.

Both

Both were Antiquaries, but (in the herald's phrase)" "with a difference:" my father's passion was for old writers of English history, and law; that of Mr. WRAY for scarce books, and for the relicks of antient vertú.

My father had a poetical vein utriusque linguæ; but in Latin verse had few, if any, superiors. Mr. WRAY very seldom offered his love to the Muses; and then, with such prudery, that few of his works remain, though what is extant proves that he wrote vers de société with elegance, facility, and poetical spirit.

But he added a peculiar enthusiasm for Natural Philosophy, in which my father left him to himself, unemulated by him.

As the period is remote, I have to lament that I can give you no list, and much less a character, of all Mr. WRAY'S University associates, at the earliest period of his academical intercourse; but I have seen him with so many attached, and zealous friends who were near his own age, that I am sure he never lost any one real friend, unless by the hand of death.

All those, with whom I have seen him, were men of exemplary characters, and polished manners. He never suffered his passion for genius to supersede the exclusive passport into his threshold, of minds well disposed, and well disciplined.

When I again mention Dr. Heberden as the revered friend of his life, I accredit Mr. WRAY as the admirer of superior talents*, accompanied, and graced by superior virtues. Though I have seen personally but little of that blessing to the human race (for such he was), I saw enough to make me respect him as a man above all competitors in the calm, and philosophical dignity of a serious, and reflecting

* It may not, perhaps, be in general known, that, in the "Athenian Letters" (see afterwards, p. 33), this accomplished, and profound Scholar has written a most ingenious paper upon the life, practice, and writings of Hippocrates. It has the signature of E.

mind, improved by depth of science, and softened by the gentlest manners.

Dr. Johnson whimsically said, that no man could be two minutes with Burke under a penthouse, in a shower of rain, without finding him out as a giant in capacity. I do not go quite so far, nor think it necessary for a man of genius to be a giant in a shower of rain. But I do recollect, besides the fugitive parties in which I have met as a guest this venerable character, one happy night for me, in which he sat close to me at the Royal Society; -As what the reader then laid before us was by accident uninteresting, we fell into chat; and I was never so pleased, or so instructed, in my life.

As I am here upon the topic of Mr. WRAY's ear liest friends, though you are a Warburtonian, I must remind you of Mr. Edwards, who wrote the Canons of Criticism.

When, and where the intimacy began between them, I am unapprized; though I know it was a cordial attachment, and of long standing. It reflected honour on both of them. To say nothing of Mr. Edwards, as a keen satirist, or of his critical acumen (in which, of their kind, he has never been surpassed, perhaps never equalled), he appears to have been a most amiable, and virtuous man; gentle, and affectionate, though full of spirit, and vivacity, when challenged into the field. We have some of his Letters in the correspondence of that singular, but good man, the author of Clarissa, who may also be described as an amiable humourist, though of a rank, and class, very unlike the volatile, and sprightly eccentricities of Mr. WRAY,

There are two Sonnets, addressed by Mr. Edwards, to Mr. WRAY; written, as all his other Sonnets were, in a vein of unaffected elegance, and classical simplicity. They mark the affection, which had united them from youth to age; and, if I am not mistaken, well deserve a record in your work.

WRAY,

« ElőzőTovább »