MEMOIR

OF

THOMAS CAMPBELL.

honour of having Thomas Campbell

THE city of Glasgow has the given birth to the bard of Hope. was born there in the year 1777. He was the son of a second marriage. His father, who was born in the reign of Queen Anne, was sixty-seven years of age at the time of the poet's birth. The early education of young Campbell was intrusted to Dr. David Alison, a gentleman, whose reputation as a teacher of youth, stood deservedly high in Glasgow, a city eminent then, as it has ever since been, for the excellence of its seminaries and the talents of its teachers.

Campbell, like Pope, "lisped in numbers." There are yet in possession of some of his friends in Scotland, verses written by him at the age of nine years. They are, no doubt, sufficiently childish; but they show at what an early age he received visits from the muse. At the age of twelve, he was placed at the University of Glasgow, where he soon, with a precocity of ambition as well as talent, became a candidate for the colle

giate annuity, conferred on successful competitors for superiority in the classical languages, called a bursary. Campbell carried off the prize from an opponent twice his age. He was indeed extremely industrious; and his ambitious exertions were at once stimulated and rewarded by the obtaining of a variety of prizes in the contests for classical eminence, prescribed to the students at the Glasgow University. In Greek he was an early proficient, and some of the translations from that language, which he made as collegiate exercises, are to be ranked among the best that have yet appeared in our language. It was from Dr. Millar, the eminent lecturer on moral philosophy, in Glasgow, that Campbell acquired his correct habit of analyzation, and the taste for abstract speculation so observable in his best poems.

At about eighteen, Campbell left Glasgow to undertake the duties of a private teacher in a family of distinction in Argyleshire. Amidst the wild scenery which surrounded his new residence, his poetic energies greatly increased, and it was there that he completed some, and planned others, of his most popular productions.

From Argyleshire, Campbell removed to Edinburgh, where at the age of twenty-one, he appeared in full poetical blaze before the world in his first and best production, "The Pleasures of Hope." Several of the booksellers to whom the manuscript of this celebrated poem was offered, with that species of sagacity which so often characterizes the trade, in their estimate of the

value of works offered to them by unknown authors, refused to publish it without a guarantee for the expense. The author was too poor for his own guarantee to be taken, and too modest to solicit that of any other person. He happened, however, at this juncture to show his manuscript to a gentleman of true benevolence, and of well-known taste and discernment in poetical literature. This was Dr. Robert Anderson, the editor of an excellent series of the Lives of the British Poets, with a voluminous edition of their works. This gentleman at once perceived the uncommon excellence of the poetry contained in the rejected manuscript. There were many exuberant passages in it, however, which, at his recommendation, the young poet judiciously expunged; and many others were modified and no doubt improved at the suggestion of the friendly critic. The work, thus carefully revised, Dr. Anderson, to whom the author very gratefully inscribed it, not only caused it to be published, but by glowing eulogiums in several of the Edinburgh journals, so recommended it to the public, that its merits became speedily known, and the fame of the poet was at once established. Campbell, however, in his anxiety to remove every obstacle that stood in the way of the publication, had disposed of the copyright for ten pounds; and this small sum was all the direct remuneration which he at first received, for a work which brought for twenty years to the publishers a profit of nearly three hundred pounds a year. It is said, indeed, that afterwards a small additional sum and the profit of the fourth edi

tion were awarded him. His pecuniary circumstances were at this time very unpromising, and he was, as may be supposed, in no very good humour with the booksellers. It is related, that on a festive occasion he vented his spleen against them, at the apparent expense of his patriotism. The character and conduct of Napoleon was, at the time, generally disliked in Britain. The poet was called on for a toast. To the astonishment of the company, he gave "Bonaparte." An explanation was required. "Gentlemen," said he, "I give you Bonaparte in his character of executioner of the booksellers." Palm, the German bookseller, had been just executed by command of the first consul.

In the year 1800, Campbell went to the continent. He sailed for Hamburg, and travelled over a great part of Germany. He visited the principal of the universities, with the view of acquiring the German language, and forming an acquaintance with the professors and other literati of those seminaries. He happened to be in the vicinity of Hohenlinden at the time of the severe contest which took place there between the French and Austrian armies. He witnessed the combat from the walls of a convent, and afterwards followed the bloody track of Moreau's army over the field of battle.

In Germany, Campbell became acquainted with many literary and political characters of high note, among whom were the two celebrated Schlegels, and the still more celebrated Klopstock, then far advanced

in the vale of life. He spent rather more than a year on the continent, and then for the first time visited London.

While at Hamburg, Campbell wrote his beautifully pathetic song, of the "Exile of Erin." It was set to the national air of "Erin go bragh," and is worthy of being associated with that noble production of Irish minstrelsy, which it will accompany to the latest posterity. He was inspired with the touching strains of this song, by witnessing, in the vicinity of his residence, the grief of some Irish exiles, who had been obliged to leave their country on account of the active part they had taken in the rebellion of 1798.

Soon after his arrival in London, he published his three very spirited and popular odes, "Hohenlinden," "The Battle of the Baltic," and "Ye Mariners of England." In 1803, he married a Miss Sinclair, a lady of great beauty and accomplishments, with whom he lived happily until she died, in 1828. He now took a house in the agreeable village of Sydenham, where he continued to reside for upwards of sixteen years, occupied chiefly in literary avocations.

It was shortly after his retirement to the shades of Sydenham, that Campbell wrote his "Gertrude of Wyoming," which some critics have pronounced, we think very erroneously, his best work. It is a prettily told tale, in the Spenserian stanza, very tender in some of its sentiments, and picturesque in its descriptions. But it is frequently languid in its tone, and monotonously pensive. Its scenes are laid amidst the woods