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LIFE OF GRAY.
ix
Æmula Trinacriis volvens incendia flammis.
Mira fides! credetne virum ventura propago,
Cum segetes iterum, cum jam hæc deserta virebunt,
Infra urbes, populosque premi?"
Statii Sylv. IV. iv. 78.[1]

At Naples the travellers stayed ten days; and Gray's next letter to his father, in which he talks of his return to England, is dated again from Florence; and whence he sent, soon after, his Poem on the 'Gaurus' to West. He remained, however, at that place about eleven months; and during this time commenced his Latin poem 'De Principiis Cogitandi.' He then set off with Walpole, on the 24th of April, for Bologna and Reggio,[2] at the latter of which towns an unfortunate difference took place between them, and they parted. The exact cause of this quarrel has been passed over by the delicacy of his biographer, because H. Walpole was alive when the Memoirs of Gray were written. The former, however, charged himself with the chief blame; and lamented that he had not paid more attention and deference to Gray's superior judg-

  1. ↑ See also Martial. Epig. Lib. iv. Ep. 43, ed. Delph, and the note by Stephens on Statii Sylv. v. 3. 205, p. 155.
    Jamque et flere pio Vesuvina incendia cantu
    Mens erat, &c.
  2. ↑ Dr. Johnson has two slight mistakes in his 'Life of Gray,' He says that they quarrelled at Florence and parted, instead of Reggio. He says also, that Gray begun his poem 'De Principiis Cogitandi' after his return: but it was commenced in the winter of 1740, at Florence.
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