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Memoir of Thomas Campbell.

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his translations were said to be superior to any before offered for competition in the university. Campbell thus furnishes an exception to the majority of men of genius, who have seldom been remarkable for diligence and proficiency in their early years, the lofty powers they possessed not being exhibited until mature

It is not a little singular that the Tyrtæus of modern English poetry should at the same time be one of the most tender as well as original of writers. Campbell owes less than any other British poet to his predecessors or contemporaries. He has lived to see his verses quoted like those of earlier poets in the literature of his day, lisped by children, and sung at public festivals. The life. Campbell while at the University made war-odes of Campbell have nothing to match them in the English language for energy and fire, while their condensation and the felicitous selection of their versification are in remarkable harmony. Campbell, in allusion to Cimon, has been said to have « conquered both on land and sea, from his naval Odes and Hohenlinden» embracing both scenes of warfare.

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dom and free thought which he has invariably shown upon all questions in which the interests of mankind are concerned.

poetical paraphrases of the most celebrated Greek poets; of Eschylus, Sophocles, and Aristophanes, which were thought efforts of extraordinary promise. Dr Millar at that time gave philosophical lectures in Glasgow. He was a highly gifted teacher and a most excellent man. lectures attracted the attention of young Campbell, who became his pupil, and studied with Scotland gave birth to Thomas Campbell. He eagerness the principles of sound philosophy; he was the son of a second marriage, and born at was favoured with the confidence of his teacher Glasgow in 1777. His father was born in 1710, and partook much of his society. To being thus and was consequently nearly 70 years of age early grounded in the fundamental truths of phiwhen the poet his son was ushered into the world. losophy and accustomed to analyse correctly, is to He was sent early to school in his native city, be attributed mainly the side in politics which and his instructor was Dr David Alison, an indi-Campbell early embraced, and that love of freevidual of great celebrity in the practice of education. He had a method of instruction in the classics purely his own, by which he taught with great facility, and at the same time rejected all harsh discipline, putting kindness in the place of terror, and alluring rather than compelling the pupil to his duty. Campbell began to write verses young. There are some attempts at poetry yet extant among his friends in Scotland, written when he was but nine years old. They naturally are childish, but still display that propensity for the muses by which at a remarkably early age he was so distinguished. For his place of education he had a great respect, as well as for the memory of his masters, of whom he always spoke in terms of great affection. He was twelve ; years old when he quitted school for the University of Glasgow. There he was considered an excellent Latin scholar, and gained high honour by a contest with a candidate twice as old as himself, by which he obtained a bursary. He constantly bore away the prizes, and every fresh success only seemed to stimulate him to more ambitious exertions. In Greek he was considered From Argyleshire, where his residence was not the foremost student of his age; and some of a protracted one, Campbell removed to Edin

Campbell quitted Glasgow to remove into Argyleshire, where the situation of tutor in a family of some note was offered and accepted by him. It was in Argyleshire, among the romantic mountains of the North, that the poetical spirit increased in energy, and the charms of verse took entire possession of his mind. Many people now alive remember him there wandering alone by the torrent, or over the rugged steeps of that wild country, reciting the strains of other poets aloud, or silently composing his own. Several of his pieces which he has rejected in his collected works, are handed about in Scotland in manuscript. The Dirge of Wallace» (given at page 64), which will not be found in the London Editions of his works, is one of these wild compositions; and it is difficult to say why he should have rejected it, for the poetry is truly noble. It has hitherto appeared only in fugitive publications and newspapers.

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It was set to an old Irish air of the most touching pathos, and will perish only with the language.

burgh. There he was very quickly noticed for his talents, and grew familiar with the celebrated men who at that period ornamented the Campbell travelled over a great part of GerScottish capital. The friendship and kindness many and Prussia, visiting the universities and of some of the first men of the age, could not acquiring a knowledge of German literature. fail to stimulate a mind like that of Campbell. From the walls of a convent he commanded a He became intimate with Dugald Stuart; and part of the field of Hohenlinden during that almost every leading professor of the Univer- sanguinary contest, and proceeded afterwards sity of Edinburgh was his friend. While in in the track of Moreau's army over the scene of Edinburgh, be brought out his celebrated Plea- combat. This impressive sight produced the sures of Hope" at the age of twenty-one. It is celebrated Battle of Hohenlinden ;» an ode not too much to say of this work, that no poet which is as original as it is spirited, and stands of this, or perhaps any other country, ever pro- by itself in British literature. The poet tells a duced, at so early an age, a more elaborate and story of the phlegm of a German postilion at finished performance. For this work, which for this time, who was driving him post by a place twenty years produced to the publishers between where a skirmish of cavalry had happened, and two and three hundred pounds a-year, the who alighted and disappeared, leaving the carauthor received at first but 10l., which was after-riage and the traveller alone in the cold (for wards increased by an additional sum, and the profits accruing from a 4to edition of his work. By a subsequent act of the legislature, extending the term of copyright, it reverted again to the author; but, as might be expected, with no proportional increase of profit. To criticise here a work, which has become a British classic, would be superfluous. Campbell's pecuniary circumstances were by no means liberal at this time, and a pleasant anecdote is recorded of him, in allusion to the hardships of an author's case similarly situated with himself; he was desired to give a toast at a festive moment when the character of Napoleon was at its utmost point of disesteem in England. He gave Bonaparte." The company started with astonishment. « Gentlemen,» said he, « here is Bonaparte in his character of executioner of the booksellers.» Palm the bookseller had just been executed in Germany by the orders of the French.

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the ground was covered with snow) for a considerable space of time. At length he came back, and it was found that he had been employing himself in cutting off the long tails of the slain horses, which he coolly placed on the vehicle and drove on his route. Campbell was also in Ratisbon when the French and Austrian treaty saved it from bombardment-a most anxious moment.

In Germany, Campbell made the friendship of the two Schlegels, of many of the most noted literary and political characters, and was fortunate enough to pass an entire day with the venerable Klopstock, who died just two years afterwards. The proficiency of Campbell in the German language was rendered very y considerable by this visit, and his own indefatigable perseverance in study. He eagerly read all the works he met with, some of them upon very abstruse topics, and suffered no obstacle to intervene between himself and his studies, wherever he might chance to be. Though of a cheerful and lively temper and disposition, and by no means averse from the pleasures which are so attractive in the morning of existence, they were rendered subservient to the higher views of the mind, and

After residing not quite three years in Edin- | burgh, Campbell quitted his native country for the continent. He sailed for Hamburgh, and there made many acquaintances among the more enlightened of the society both in that city and Altona. There were numerous Irish exiles in the neighbourhood of Hamburgh at that time, and some of them fell in the way of the poet, who after-were pursued for recreation only, nor suffered wards related many curious anecdotes of them. to distract his attention a moment from the great There were sincere and honest men among them, business of his life. who with the energy of the national character, and an enthusiasm for liberty, had plunged into the desperate cause of the rebellion two years before, and did not despair of liberty and equality in Ireland even then. Some of them were in private life most amiable persons, and their fate was every way entitled to sympathy. The poet, from that compassionate feeling which is an amiable characteristic of his nature, wrote the « Exile of Erin,» from the impression their situation and circumstances made upon his mind.

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The travels of Campbell in Germany occupied about thirteen months; when he returned to England, and for the first time visited London. He soon afterwards composed those two noble marine odes, « The Battle of the Baltic,» and « Ye Mariners of England,» which with his Hohenlinden,» stand unrivalled in the English tongue; and though, as Byron lamented, Campbell has written so little, they are enough alone to place him unforgotten in the shrine of the muses. In 1803 the poet married Miss Sinclair, a lady of

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