Thomas Gray to Richard West (December 1738) Alexander Huber Editor Thomas Gray Archive
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Oxford

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 Correspondence of Thomas Gray, 3 vols. Ed. by the late Paget Toynbee and Leonard Whibley, with corrections and additions by H. W. Starr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [1st ed. 1935], letter no. 58*, vol. i, 93-94 http://www.e-enlightenment.com/search/letters/print/?printref_sourceedition=graythOU0084&printref_docnumber=58* The Correspondence of Gray, Walpole, West and Ashton (1734-1771), 2 vols. Chronologically arranged and edited with introduction, notes, and index by Paget Toynbee. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1915, letter no. 139, vol. ii, 17-19 https://www.thomasgray.org/texts/diglib/primary/TyP_1915ii/1/17 Gray and his Friends: Letters and Relics, in great part hitherto unpublished. Ed. by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1890, section II, letter no. 34, 154-155 https://www.thomasgray.org/texts/diglib/primary/ToD_1890/1/154 The Letters of Thomas Gray, including the correspondence of Gray and Mason, 3 vols. Ed. by Duncan C. Tovey. London: George Bell and Sons, 1900-12, letter no. L, vol. i, 93-94 https://www.thomasgray.org/texts/diglib/primary/ToD_1900i/1/93 Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771 London, United Kingdom West, Richard, 1716-1742

Julian

 English Latin Virgil 'Vade Mecum' Swift, Jonathan Strabo Sévigné, Mme de Ray, John Ovid More, Henry Malebranche, Nicholas Locke, John Gronovius Euclid Cheyne, George Catullus Bussy, Comte de Boileau Aristotle

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As I know you are a lover of Curiosities, I send you the following, which is a true & faithful Narrative of what passed in my Study on Saturday the 16th, instant. I was sitting there very tranquil in my chair, when I was suddenly alarmd with a great hubbub of Tongues. In the street, you suppose? No! in my Study, Sir. In your Study say you? Yes & between my books, which is more. For why should not books talk as well as Crabs & Mice & files & Serpents do in Esop. But as I listend with great attention so as to remember what I heard pretty exactly, I shall set down the whole conversation as methodically as I can, with the names prefixd.

Mad: Sevigné. . Mon cher Aristote! do get a little farther or you'll quite suffocate me.

Aristotle. . Οὐδέποτε γυνὴ &=unk; .. I have as much right to be here as you, and I shan't remove a jot.

M. Sevigné. . Oh! the brute! here's my poor Sixth tome is squeezed to death: for God's sake, Bussy, come & rescue me.

Bussy Rabutin. . Ma belle Cousine! I would fly to your assistance. Mais voici un Diable de Strabon qui me tue: I have nobody in my neighbourhood worth conversing with here but Catullus.

Bruyere. . Patience! You must consider we are but books & so can't help ourselves. for my part, I wonder who we all belong to. We are a strange mixture here. I have a Malebranche on one Side of me, and a Gronovius on t'other.

Locke. . Certainly our owner must have very confusd ideas, to jumble us so strangely together. he has associated me with Ovid & Ray the Naturalist.

Virgil. . 'Me vero primum dulces ante omnia Musæ Accipiant!'

Hen: More. . Of all the Speculations that the Soul of Man can entertain herself withall; there is none of greater Moment than this of her immortality.

Cheyne. . Every Man after fourty is a fool or a Physician.

Euclid. . Punctum est, cujus nulla est –

Boileau. . Peste soit de cet homme avec son Punctum! I wonder any Man of Sense will have a Mathematician in his Study.

Swift. . In short let us get the Mathematicians banishd first; the Metaphysicians and Natural Philosophers may follow them. &c.

Vade Mecum. . Pshaw! I and the Bible are enough for any one's library.

This last ridiculous Egotism made me laugh so heartily that I disturbd my poor books & they talk'd no more.