Excerpt from Portraits of Illustrious Personages of Great Britain, Vol. 12: Engraved From Authentic Pictures in the Galleries of the Nobility and the Public Collections of the Country; With Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Their Lives and Actions Walpole's accomplishments and acquirements were Of a kind admirably suited to Gray's rich and curious mind. These, added to the opportunities given by Walpole's rank and name of the most uncontrouled access to all sources of information and amuse ment, were attractions so alluring, that something of great violence must have occurred to overbalance them, and to cause a separa tion by which Gray must have so materially suffered. It is clear that, to the last, he considered his companion to have been in the wrong; but a freedom, in early youth, from levity on the part of Walpole, when so flattered, and so surrounded by all worldly ad vantages; with a brilliant genius, polished manners, and exuberant activity and gaiety of spirits; would have been too much to expect of humanity. Walpole says of Gray that he had every thing great and rich in his mind and heart, but that he was not agreeable. The truth is that Gray's afflictions from his childhood had de pressed his spirits, and made his melancholy operate as a damp on the joys of gilded prosperity. A timidity, a morbid sensibility, a faulty fastidiousness, a very limited intercourse with the world, and manners perhaps stiff by nature, may account for the violent disruption that severed them. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.