ordinary caprices. At one time solitary and unsocial, at another listless and petulant, often trifling among the frivolous, and not unfrequently the dullest among the dull. All these circumstances tend to diminish our respect and admiration of their mental excellence, and show clearly, that authors, like actors, to be impartially critized, should never be known behind the scenes.

Such are a few of the causes that operate in Europe to defraud an author of the candid judgment of his countrymen, but their influence does not extend to this side of the Atlantic. We are placed, in some degree, in the situation of posterity. The vast ocean that rolls between us, like a space of time, removes us beyond the sphere of personal favour, personal prejudice, or personal familiarity. An European work, therefore, appears before us depending simply on its intrinsic merits. We have no private friendship nor party purpose to serve by magnifying the author's merits, and in sober sadness the humble state of our national literature places us far below any feeling of national rivalship.

But while our local situation thus enables us to exercise the enviable impartiality of posterity, it is evident we must share likewise in one of its disadvantages. We are in as complete ignorance respecting the biography of most living authors of celebrity, as though they had existed ages before our time, and indeed are better informed concerning the character and lives of authors who have long since passed away, than of those who are actually adding to the stores of European literature. Few think of writing the anecdotes of a distinguished character while living. His intimates, who of course are most capable, are prevented by their very intimacy, little thinking that those domestic habits and peculiarities, which an every day's acquaintance has made so trite and familiar to themselves, can be objects of curiosity to all the world besides. Thus then we who are too distant to

gather those particulars concerning foreign authors, that are circulated from mouth to mouth in their native countries, must content ourselves to remain in almost utter ignorance; unless perchance some friendly magazine now and then gives us a meagre and apocryphal account of them, which rather provokes than satisfies our curiosity. A proof of these assertions will be furnished in the following sketch, which, unsatisfactory as it is, contains all the information we can collect, concerning a British poet of rare and exquisite endowments. Thomas Campbell was born at Glasgow on the 27th September, 1777. He was the youngest son of Mr. Alexander Campbell, a merchant of that city, highly spoken of for his amiable manners and unblemished integrity; who united the scholar and the man of business, and amidst the engrossing cares and sordid pursuits of business, cherished an enthusiastic love of literature.

It may not be uninteresting to the American reader to know that Mr. Campbell, the poet, had near connexions in this country. His father passed several years of his youth at Falmouth, in Virginia, but returned to Europe before the revolutionary war. His uncle, who had accompanied his father across the Atlantic, remained in Virginia, where his family uniformly maintained a highly respectable station in society. One of his sons was district attorney under the administration of Washington, and was celebrated for his demeanor. He died in 1795. Robert Campbell, a brother of the poet, settled in Virginia, where he married a daughter of the celebrated Patrick Henry. He died about 1807.

The genius of Mr. Campbell showed itself almost in his infancy. At the age of seven he displayed a vivacity of imagination and a vigour of mind surprising in such early youth. He now commenced the study of Latin under the care of the Rev. David Alison, a teacher of distinguished reputation. A strong inclination for poetry was already discernible in

him, and it was not more than two years after this that, as we are told, he began to try his wings." None of the first flutterings of his muse, however, have been preserved, but they had their effect in rendering him an object of favour and attention, aided no doubt by his personal beauty, his generous sensibility, and the gentleness and modesty of his deportment. At twelve he entered the university of Glasgow, and in the following year gained a bursary on Bishop Leighton's foundation, for a translation of one of the comedies of Aristophanes, which he executed in verse. This triumph was the more honourable from being gained after a hard contest over a rival candidate of nearly twice his age, who was considered one of the best scholars in the university. His second prize-exercise was the translation of a tragedy of Æschylus, likewise in verse, which he gained without opposition, as none of the students would enter the lists with him. He continued seven years in the university, during which time his talents and application were testified by yearly academical prizes. He was particularly successful in his translations from the Greek, in which language he took great delight; and on receiving his last prize for one of these performances, the Greek professor publicly pronounced it the best that had ever been produced in the university.

He made equal proficiency in other branches of study, especially in Moral Philosophy; he attended likewise the academical course of Law and Physic, but pursued none of these studies with a view to a profession. On the contrary, the literary passion, we are told, was already so strong with him, that he could not endure the idea of devoting himself to any of the dull and sordid pursuits of busy life. His father, influenced by his own love of literature, indulged those wayward fancies in his son, building fond hopes on his early display of talent. At one time, it is true, a part of the family expressed a wish that he should be fitted for the Church, but

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this was overruled by the rest, and he was left without further opposition to the impulses of his genius, and the seductions of the muse.

After leaving the university he passed some time among the mountains of Argyleshire, at the seat of Colonel Napier, a descendant of Napier Baron Merchester, the celebrated inventor of logarithims. It is suggested that he may have imbibed from this gentleman his taste and knowledge of the military arts, traces of which are to be seen throughout his poems. From Argyleshire he went to Edinburgh, where the reputation he had acquired at the university gained him a favourable reception into the literary and scientific circles of that intellectual city. Among others he was particularly noticed by professors Stewart and Playfair. To the ardour and elevation of mind awakened by such associates may we ascribe, in a great measure, the philosophical spirit and moral sublimity displayed in his first production, The Pleasures of Hope," written during his residence in Edinburgh, when he was but twenty years of age.

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Inexperienced in authorship, and doubtful of success, he disposed of the copy-right of his poem for an inconsiderable sum. It was received by the public with acclamation, and ran through two editions in the course of a few months, when his bookseller permitted him to publish a splendid edition for himself, by which means he was enabled in some measure, to participate in the golden harvest of his talent. His great reward, however, was the bright and enduring reputation which he instantly acquired, as one of the legitimate line of British poets.

The passion for German literature which prevailed at this time in Great Britain, awakened a desire in Mr. Campbell to study it at the fountain head. This, added to a curiosity to visit foreign parts, induced him to embark for Germany in the year 1800. He had originally fixed upon the college of

Jena for his first place of residence, but on arriving at Hamburgh he found, by the public prints, that a victory had been gained by the French near Ulm, and that Munich and the heart of Bavaria were the theatre of an interesting war. “One moment's sensation," he observes in a letter to a relation in this country, “the single hope of seeing human nature exhibited in its most dreadful attitude, overturned my past decisions. 1 got down to the seat of war some weeks before the summer armistice of 1800, and indulged in what you will call the criminal curiosity of witnessing blood and desolation. Never shall time efface from my memory the recollection of that hour of astonishment and suspended breath, when I stood with the good monks of St. Jacob, to overlook a charge of Klenaw's cavalry upon the French under Grennier encamped below us. We saw the fire given and returned, and heard distinctly the sound of the French pas de charge, collecting the lines to attack in close column. After three hours' awaiting the issue of a severe action, a park of artillery was opened just beneath the walls of the monastery, and several wagoners that were stationed to convey the wounded in spring wagons, were killed in our sight. My love of novelty now gave way to personal fears. I took a carriage in company with an Austrian surgeon back to Landshut," &c. This awful spectacle he has described with all the poet's fire, in his Battle of Hohenlinden; a poem which perhaps contains more grandeur and martial sublimity, than is to be found any where else in the same compass of English poetry.

From Landshut Mr. Campbell proceeded to Ratisbon, where he was at the time it was taken possession of by the French and expected as an Englishman to be made prisoner, but he observes" Moreau's army was under such excellent discipline, and the behaviour both of officers and men so civil, that I soon mixed among them without hesitation, and formed many agreeable acquaintances at the messes of their brigade sta