On their comparative merits a deal of critical ink has been spilt, Arnold's characterisation of Gray is well known--"he never spoke out." Sterility fell upon him because he lived in an age of prose just as it fell upon Arnold himself because he lived too much immersed in business and routine.

But in what he wrote he had the genuine poetic gift--the gift of insight and feeling.

Against this, Swinburne with characteristic vehemence raised the standard of Collins, the latchet of whose shoe Gray, as a lyric poet, was not worthy to unloose.

"The muse gave birth to Collins, she did but give suck to Gray." It is more to our point to observe that neither, though their work abounds in felicities and in touches of a genuine poetic sense, was fitted to raise the standard of revolt.

Revolution is for another and braver kind of genius than theirs.