Gray's letters, and Bishop Warburton's polemical writings, show, that
in more respects than one they were gifted with a like temperament:
but in the following instances they form a contrast to each other. In
the library of the British Museum is an interesting letter occasioned
by the death of the Rev. N. Nicholls, LL.B., Rector of Loud and
Bradwell, in Suffolk, from the pen of the now generally acknowledged
author of "The Pursuits of Literature," J. T. Mathias, M.A., in which
he says, that shortly after that elegant scholar, and lamented divine,
became a student of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, at the age of eighteen, a
friend introduced him to Gray, the poet, at that time redolent with
fame, and resident in Peter-House, to speak to whom was honourable;
but to be admitted to his acquaintance, or to his familiarity, was the
height of youthful, or indeed of any ambition. Shortly after this, Mr.
N. was in a company of which Mr. Gray was one; and, as it became his
youth, he did not enter into conversation, but listened with
attention. The subject, however, being general and classical, and as
Mr. Nicholls, even at that early period, was acquainted not only with
the Greek and Latin, but with many of the best Italian poets, he
ventured, with great diffidence, to offer a short remark, and happened
to illustrate what he had said by an apposite quotation from Dante. At
the name of Dante, Mr. Gray suddenly turned round to him and said,
"Right: but have you read Dante, sir?" "I have endeavoured to
understand him," replied Mr. N. Mr. Gray being much pleased with the
illustration, and with the taste which it evinced, addressed the chief
of his discourse to him for the remainder of the evening, and invited
him to his rooms in Pembroke Hall; and finding him ready and docile,
he became attached to him and gave him instruction in the course of
his studies, to which, adds Mr. Mathias, "I attribute the extent and
value of his knowledge, and the peculiar accuracy and correct taste
which distinguished him throughout life, and which I have seldom
observed in any man in a more eminent degree." And I wish every young
man of genius might hear and consider, observes Mr. M., commenting
upon an incident so honourable to all parties, "the