THOMAS CAMPBELL.

a few finished models, than a mass of crude and incomplete formations, and that it is only by long labour in execution, and still longer labour in preparatory thought and arrangement, that perfection can be produced. There is not one of the fine "Odes" of Campbell that would be sacrificed for a volume: it may be even questioned which the world would most willingly permit to perish, "The Pleasures of Hope," or, "Ye Mariners of England." The whole of his works have been recently collected, and published in two volumes; and a new edition has been published splendidly illustrated by Turner, R. A.

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THOMAS CAMPBELL was born in Glasgow, in | little. But those who so express themselves for the year 1777. He was educated at the Univer- get that it is far more to their advantage to have sity of that city; into which he entered at twelve years of age, and where he rapidly obtained distinction. From Glasgow, he removed to the Scottish Metropolis, and cultivated acquaintance with the many celebrated men, who, at that period resided there, and who perceived a kindred spirit in the youthful Poet. Here he published the "Pleasures of Hope," a poem which at once achieved the fame that time has not diminished, and which must endure with the language in which it is written. Upwards of twenty years elapsed before Mr. Campbell again essayed a continued work; but during the interval, he produced those immortal odes, the "Battle of the As a prose writer, Mr. Campbell will speedily Baltic," "Ye Mariners of England," and "Ho-be forgotten; but, as long as a taste for English henlinden," the field of which, during the battle, poetry exists, the "Pleasures of Hope," Hohe is said to have overlooked from the walls of a henlinden," "Lochiel's Warning,' and many neighbouring convent. In 1820, he published other pieces, will never cease to have a numerous "Gertrude of Wyoming," a poem sufficient to proportion of readers. The elegance and euphony maintain the high reputation he had acquired, and of his versification have been justly and univerwhich, indeed, is by many preferred to the "Plea-sally admired; but this unvarying delicacy and sures of Hope." In 1824, appeared "Theodric," a domestic tale; and these, with the exception of his MINOR poems-the term can have reference only to their length-comprise the whole of his contributions to English Poetry. In the year 1820, Mr. Campbell undertook the editorship of the "New Monthly Magazine," which he relinquished in 1830; and in the conduct of which Mr. S. C. Hall had the honour to succeed him. Soon afterwards Mr. Campbell undertook a voyage to Algiers, the results of which he has recently communicated to the public. During three succes-ciated. His appeals are made to those sensations sive years, he was elected Lord Rector of the University in which he received his education, a distinction the more marked, inasmuch as his competitors were Sir Walter Scott, and Mr. Canning. To Mr. Campbell we are mainly indebted for the establishment of the London University: the plan for its formation originated with him, and was by him matured; although he left its completion in the hands of his more active or more influential contemporaries.

Mr. Campbell is rather below than above the middle stature. The expression of his countenance indicates the sensitiveness of his mind. His eye is large and of a deep blue; his manners are peculiarly bland and insinuating; in general society he is exceedingly cheerful, and his conversation abounds in pointed humour. His general appearance is, however, considered to lend force to the supposition, that he dislikes labour: and is rarely roused to more than momentary exertion. At College, he rose to high repute as a scholar; and he has since taken some steps to maintain the character he acquired; his lectures on Greek Poetry have been published. It has been a subject of regret, that Mr. Campbell has written so

polish would be sometimes well exchanged for that fine and exciting discord, which is considered to be no less a characteristic of the sublime and beautiful in poetry than in music.

Mr. Campbell seeks to engage and to please, rather than to rouse and astonish; and, in the former respect, he has the merit of succeeding, with a propriety of sentiment, and a chasteness of diction, that renders his writings attractive and agreeable to all classes of readers. His poetry is universally felt, and therefore, universally appre

which are common to mankind. While his poetry can bear the test of the severest criticism, it is intelligible to the simplest understanding. As little occurs to dissatisfy the mind as the ear. His conceptions are natural and true; and the language in which he clothes them is graceful and becoming. If he has laboured hard-as it is said he always does-to render his verse easy and harmonious, he never leads the reader to suspect that his care to produce harmony has weakened his original thought. He affords no evidence of fastidiousness in the choice of words; yet they always seem the fittest for his purpose, and are never forced into a service they are not calculated to perform. He combines the qualities so rarely met togetherstrength and smoothness-yet his vigour is never coarse, and his delicacy never effeminate. His subjects have been all skilfully chosen;-he has sought for themes only where a pure mind seeks them; and turned from the grosser passions, the meaner desires and the vulgar sentiments of man, as things unfitted for verse, and unworthy of illustration. The Poet has had his reward. His poems will perish only with the memories of mankind.

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When fate had reft his mutual heart-but she Was gone and Gertrude climb'd a widow'd father's knee.

XI.

A loved bequest, and I may half impart
To them that feel the strong paternal tie,
How like a new existence to his heart
That living flower uprose beneath his eye,
Dear as she was, from cherub infancy,

From hours when she would round his garden
play,

To time when as the ripening years went by,
Her lovely mind could culture well repay,

But long thy country's war-sign on the steep
Appeared through ghastly intervals of light,
And deathfully their thunders seemed to sweep,
Till utter darkness swallowed up the sight,
As if a shower of blood had quenched the fiery
fight.

XVII.

"It slept-it rose again-on high their tow'r
Sprung upwards like a torch to light the skies,
Then down again it rained an ember shower,
And louder lamentations heard we rise:
As when the evil Manitou* that dries
Th' Ohio woods, consumes them in his ire,

And more engaging grew, from pleasing day to In vain the desolated panther flies,

day.

XII.

I may not paint those thousand infant charms;
(Unconscious fascination, undesigned!)
The orison repeated in his arms,

For God to bless her sire and all mankind;
The book, the bosom on his knee reclined,
Or how sweet fairy-lore he heard her con,
(The playmate ere the teacher of her mind :)
All uncompanioned else her years had gone
Till now, in Gertrude's eyes, their ninth blue
summer shone.

XIII.

And summer was the tide, and sweet the hour,
When sire and daughter saw, with fleet descent,
An Indian from his bark approach their bower,
Of buskin'd limb, and swarthy lineament;
The red wild feathers on his brow were blent,

And bracelets bound the arm that helped to light
A boy, who seemed, as he beside him went,
Of Christian vesture, and complexion bright,
Led by his dusky guide, like morning brought by
night.

XIV.

Yet pensive seemed the boy for one so young,
The dimple from his polished cheek had fled;
When, leaning on his forest-bow unstrung,
Th' Oneyda warrior to the planter said,
And laid his hand upon the stripling's head,
"Peace be to thee! my words this belt approve;
The paths of peace my steps have hither led:
This little nursling, take him to thy love
And shield the bird unfledged, since gone the
parent dove.

XV.

Christian! I am the foeman of thy foe;
Our wampum league thy brethren did embrace:
Upon the Michigan, three moons ago,
We launched our pirogues for the bison chase;
And with the Hurons planted for a space,
With true and faithful hands, the olive-stalk;
But snakes are in the bosoms of their race,
And though they held with us a friendly talk,
The hollow peace-tree fell beneath their tomahawk!
XVI.

"It was encamping on the lake's far port,
A cry of Areouski* broke our sleep,
Where stormed an ambushed foe thy nation's

fort,

And rapid, rapid whoops came o'er the deep!

*The Indian God of War.