Excerpt from The Cabinet of Poetry, Vol. 5 of 6: Containing the Best Entire Pieces to Be Found in the Works of the British Poets His poems and letters, with memoirs of his life and writings, were published some years after by his friend and executor, Mr. Mason. From the narrative of this gentleman, who possessed kindred genius, it may be collected, that Gray was more anxious to improve and amuse himself, than to court profit or fame by the ap plication of his great power to any practical purpose. He was well bred, charitable, and humane, and passed his learned leisure among books rather than men. Yet he was warmly attached to his friends, and by them re ciprocally beloved. 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.