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Title: The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 14, No. 407, December 24, 1829
Author: Various
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 14, No. 407, December 24, 1829" ***
THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.
VOL. XIV, NO. 407.] DECEMBER 24, 1829. [PRICE 2d.
CONTAINING
HISTORICAL NARRATIVES; BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS; SKETCHES OF
SOCIETY; TOPOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTIONS; NOVELS
AND TALES; ANECDOTES;
SELECT EXTRACTS
FROM
NEW AND EXPENSIVE WORKS;
_POETRY, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED;_
The Spirit of the Public Journals;
DISCOVERIES IN THE ARTS AND SCIENCES;
_USEFUL DOMESTIC HINTS;_
_&c. &c. &c._
========
VOL. XIV.
========
London,
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY J. LIMBIRD, 143, STRAND,
(_Near Somerset House_.)
____
1829
PREFACE
Wassailing, prefaces, and waits, are nearly at a stand-still; and in
these days of universality and everything, we almost resolved to leave
this page blank, and every reader to write his own preface, had we not
questioned whether the custom would be more honoured in the breach than
the observance.
My Public--that is, our readers--we have served you seven years, through
fourteen volumes; in each renewing our professions of gratitude, and
study for your gratification; and we hope we shall not presume on your
liberal disposition by calculating on your continued patronage. We have
endeavoured to keep our engagements with you--_to the letter_[1]--as
they say in weightier matters; and, as every man is bound to speak of
the fair as he has found his market in it, we ought to acknowledge the
superabundant and quick succession of literary novelties for the present
volume. There is little of our own; because we have uniformly taken Dr.
Johnson's advice in life--"to play for much, and stake little" This will
extenuate our assuming that "from castle to cottage we are regularly
taken in:" indeed, it would be worse than vanity to suppose that price
or humble pretensions should exclude us; it would be against the very
economy of life to imagine this; and we are still willing to abide by
such chances of success.
[1] This is not intended exclusively for the _new type_ of the
present volume.
Cheap Books, we hope, will never be an evil; for, as "the same care and
toil that raise a dish of peas at Christmas, would give bread to a whole
family during six months;" so the expense of a gay volume at this season
will furnish a moderate circle with amusive reading for a twelvemonth.
We do not draw this comparison invidiously, but merely to illustrate the
advantages of literary economy.
The number _Seven_--the favourite of Swift, (and how could it be
otherwise than odd?) has, perhaps, led us into this rambling monologue
on our merits; but we agree with Yorick in thinking gravity an errant
scoundrel.
A proportionate Index will guide our accustomed readers to any
particular article in the present volume; but for those of shorter
acquaintance, a slight reference to its principal points may be useful.
Besides, a few of its delights may have been choked by weeds and
crosses, and their recollection lost amidst the lights and shadows
of busy life.
The zeal of our Correspondents is first entitled to honourable mention;
and many of their contributions to these pages must have cost them much
time and research; for which we beg them to accept our best thanks.
Of the Selections, generally, we shall only observe, that our aim has
been to convey information and improvement in the most amusing form.
When we sit down to the pleasant task of cutting open--not cutting
_up_--a book, we say, "If this won't turn out something, another will;
no matter--'tis an essay upon human nature. (We) get (our) labour for
(our) pains--'tis enough--the pleasure of the experiment has kept (our)
senses, and the best part of (our) blood awake, and laid the gross to
sleep." In this way we find many good things, and banish the rest;
we attempt to "boke something new," and revive others. Thus we have
described the Siamese Twins in a single number; and in others we
have brought to light many almost forgotten antiquarian rarities.
Of Engravings, Paper, and Print, we need say but little: each speaks
_primâ facie,_ for itself. Improvement has been studied in all of
them; and in the Cuts, both interest and execution have been cardinal
points. Milan Cathedral; Old Tunbridge Wells and its Old Visitors;
Clifton; Gurney's Steam Carriage; and the Bologna Towers; are perhaps
the best specimens: and by way of varying architectural embellishments,
a few of the Wonders of Nature have been occasionally introduced.
Owen Feltham would call this "a cart-rope" Preface: therefore, with
promises of future exertion, we hope our next Seven Years may be as
successful as the past.
143, _Strand, Dec._ 24, 1829.
[Illustration: Thomas Campbell, Esq.]
* * * * *
MEMOIR OF THOMAS CAMPBELL, ESQ.
Of the subject of this memoir, it has been remarked, "that he has not,
that we know of, written one line, which, dying, he could wish to blot."
These few words will better illustrate the fitness of Mr. Campbell's
portrait for our volume, than a laudatory memoir of many pages. He has
not inaptly been styled the Tyrtaeus of modern English poetry, and one
of the most chaste and tender as well as original of poets. He owes less
than any other British poet to his predecessors and contemporaries.
He has lived to see his lines quoted like those of earlier poets in the
literature of his day, lisped by children, and sung at public festivals.
The war-odes of Campbell have scarcely anything 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 Cymon, has been said to have "conquered both
on land and sea," from his Naval Odes and "Hohenlinden" embracing both
scenes of warfare.
Scotland gave birth to Thomas Campbell. He is the son of a second
marriage, and was born at Glasgow, in 1777. His father was born in 1710,
and was consequently nearly seventy years of age when the poet, his son,
was ushered into the world. He was sent early to school, in his native
place, and his instructor was Dr. David Alison, a man 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, substituting kindness
for terror, and alluring rather than compelling the pupil to his duty.
Campbell began to write verse when young; and some of his earliest
attempts at poetry are yet extant among his friends in Scotland. 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 the foremost student of his age; and some
of his translations are said to be superior to any before offered for
competition in the University. While there he made poetical paraphrases
of the most celebrated Greek poets; of Aeschylus, 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 excellent man. His lectures attracted the
attention of young Campbell, who became his pupil, and studied with
eagerness the principles of sound philosophy; the poet was favoured
with the confidence of his teacher, and partook much of his society.
Campbell quitted Glasgow to remove into Argyleshire, where a situation
in a family of some note was offered and accepted by him. It was in
Argyleshire,[2] among the romantic mountains of the north, that his
poetical spirit increased, and the charms of verse took entire
possession of his mind. Many persons now alive remember him wandering
there alone by the torrent, or over the rugged heights 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 manuscript in Scotland. We quote
one of these wild compositions which has hitherto appeared only in
periodical publications.
[2] For a view of this retreat, see the MIRROR No. 337.
* * * * *
DIRGE OF WALLACE.
They lighted a taper at the dead of night,
And chanted their holiest hymn;
But her brow and her bosom were damp with affright
Her eye was all sleepless and dim!
And the lady of Elderslie wept for her lord,
When a death-watch beat in her lonely room,
When her curtain had shook of its own accord;
And the raven had flapp'd at her window-board,
To tell of her warrior's doom!
Now sing you the death-song, and loudly pray
For the soul of my knight so dear;
And call me a widow this wretched day,
Since the warning of God is here!
For night-mare rides on my strangled sleep:
The lord of my bosom is doomed to die:
His valorous heart they have wounded deep;
And the blood-red tears shall his country weep,
For Wallace of Elderslie!
Yet knew not his country that ominous hour,
Ere the loud matin bell was rung,
That a trumpet of death on an English tower
Had the dirge of her champion sung!
When his dungeon light look'd dim and red
On the high-born blood of a martyr slain,
No anthem was sung at his holy death-bed;
No weeping was there when his bosom bled--
And his heart was rent in twain!
Oh, it was not thus when his oaken spear
Was true to that knight forlorn;
And the hosts of a thousand were scatter'd like deer,
At the blast of the hunter's horn;
When he strode on the wreck of each well-fought field
With the yellow-hair'd chiefs of his native land;
For his lance was not shiver'd on helmet or shield--
And the sword that seem'd fit for Archangel to wield,
Was light in his terrible hand!
Yet bleeding and bound, though her Wallace wight
For his long-lov'd country die,
The bugle ne'er sung to a braver knight
Than Wallace of Elderslie!
But the day of his glory shall never depart,
His head unentomb'd shall with glory be balm'd,
From its blood-streaming altar his spirit shall start;
Though the raven has fed on his mouldering heart,
A nobler was never embalm'd!
From Argyleshire, where his residence was not a protracted one, Campbell
removed to Edinburgh. There he soon became introduced to some of the
first men of the age, whose friendship and kindness could not fail
to stimulate a mind like that of Campbell. He became intimate with the
late Dugald Stewart; and almost every other leading professor of the
University of Edinburgh was his friend. While in Edinburgh, he brought
out his celebrated "Pleasures of Hope," at the age of twenty-one. It is
perhaps not too much to say of this work, that no poet of this country
ever produced, at so early an age, a more elaborate and finished
performance. For this work, which for twenty years produced the
publishers between two and three hundred pounds a year, the author
received at first but £10, which was afterwards increased by an
additional sum, and by the profits of a quarto edition of the work. By
a subsequent act of the legislature, extending the term of copyright,
it reverted again to the author; but with no proportional increase of
profit. Campbell's pecuniary circumstances are said to have been by no
means easy at this time and a pleasant anecdote is recorded of him, in
allusion to the hardships of an author's case, somewhat similar to his
own: 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.
After residing nearly three years in Edinburgh, Campbell quitted his
native country for the Continent. He sailed for Hamburgh, and there made
many acquaintances among the more enlightened circles, both of that
city and Altona. At that time there were numerous Irish exiles in the
neighbourhood of Hamburgh, and some of them fell in the way of the
poet, who afterwards related many curious anecdotes of them. There
were sincere and honest men among them, who, with the energy of their
national character, and enthusiasm for liberty, had plunged into the
desperate cause of the rebellion two years before, and did not, even
then, despair of freedom and equality in Ireland. Some of them were
in private life most amiable persons, and their fate was altogether
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. It was set to an old Irish air, of the most touching pathos,
and will perish only with the language.
Campbell travelled over a great part of Germany and Prussia--visiting
the Universities, and storing his mind with German literature. From
the walls of a convent he commanded a view of part of the field of
Hohenlinden during that sanguinary contest, and proceeded afterwards in
the track of Moreau's army over the scene of combat. This impressive
sight produced the _Battle of Hohenlinden_--an ode which is as
original as it is spirited, and stands by itself in British literature.
The poet tells a story of the phlegm of a German postilion at this time,
who was driving him post by a place where a skirmish of cavalry had
happened, and who alighted and disappeared, leaving the carriage and the
traveller alone in the cold (for 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.
In Germany Campbell made the friendship of the two Schlegels, of many of
the first 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 considerable by this tour, and his own indefatigable
perseverance in study. His travels in Germany occupied him 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, these odes alone are
enough to place him unforgotten in the shrine of the Muses.
In 1803 the poet married Miss Sinclair, a lady of Scottish descent, and
considerable personal beauty, but of whom he was deprived by death in
1828. He resided at Sydenham, and the entire neighbourhood of that
pleasant village reckoned itself in the circle of his friends; nor did
he quit his suburban retreat until, in 1821, literary pursuits demanded
his residence in the metropolis. It was at Sydenham, in a house nearly
facing the reservoir, that the poet produced his greatest work,
_Gertrude of Wyoming_, written in the Spenserian stanza. About the
same time Campbell was appointed Professor of Poetry in the Royal
Institution, where he delivered lectures which have since been
published. He also undertook the editorship of _Selections from the
British Poets_, intended as specimens of each, and accompanied with
critical remarks.[3]
[3] This work is in seven handsome library volumes; a new edition
was announced two or three years since, but has not yet
appeared.
Soon after the publication of his "Specimens," he revisited Germany, and
passed some time in Vienna, where he acquired a considerable knowledge
of the Austrian court and its manners. He remained long at Bonn, where
his friend, W.A. Schlegel, resides. Campbell returned to England in
1820, to undertake the editorship of the _New Monthly Magazine_,
and coupled with his name, it has risen to a very extensive circulation.
In 1824, Campbell published his "Theodric, a Domestic Tale," the least
popular of his works.
By his marriage Campbell had two sons. One of them died before attaining
his twentieth year; the other, while in the University of Bonn, where
he was placed for his education, exhibited symptoms of an erring mind,
which, on his return to England soon afterwards, ripened into mental
derangement of the milder species. After several years passed in this
way, during which the mental disease considerably relaxed, so that young
Campbell became wholly inoffensive, and his father received him into his
house. The effect of this upon a mind of the most exquisite sensibility
like the poet's, may be readily imagined: it was, at times, a source of
the keenest suffering.
We must now allude to an event in Campbell's life, which will ensure him
the gratitude of ages to come: we mean as the originator of the London
University. Four years before it was made public, the idea occurred
to him, from his habit of visiting the Universities of Germany, and
studying their regulations. He communicated it at first to two or three
friends, until his ideas upon the subject became matured, when they
were made public, and a meeting upon the business convened in London,
which Mr. Campbell addressed, and where the establishment of such an
institution met the most zealous support. Once in operation, several
public men of high talent, headed by Mr. Brougham, lost not a moment
in forwarding the great and useful object in view. The undertaking was
divided into shares, which were rapidly taken; but Mr. Campbell left the
active arrangements to others, and contented himself with attending the
committees. With unexampled rapidity the London University has been
completed, or nearly so, and Campbell has had the satisfaction of seeing
his projected instrument of education almost in full operation in less
than three years after he made the scheme public. Although one of the
most important,[4] this is not the only public-spirited event of this
description, in Mr. Campbell's life; for he was instrumental in the
establishment of the Western Literary Institution, in Leicester Square;
and at the present time he is, we believe, in conjunction with other
eminent literary men, organizing a club to be entitled the Literary
Union, whose lists already contain upwards of 300 men of talent,
including Sir Walter Scott and all the principal periodical writers
of the day.
[4] Still, Mr. Campbell's name does not occur in the List of Council
or Professors of the University, in the British Almanac for the
present year.
Campbell, as has already been observed, was educated at Glasgow, and
received the honour of election as Lord Rector, three successive years,
notwithstanding the opposition of the professors, and the excellent
individuals who were placed against him; among whom were the late
minister Canning, and Sir Walter Scott. The students of Glasgow College
considered that the celebrity of the poet, his liberal principles, his
being a fellow-townsman, and his attention to their interests, entitled
him to the preference.
In person, Mr. Campbell is below the middle stature, well made,
but slender. His features indicate great sensibility; his eyes are
particularly striking, and of a deep blue colour; his nose aquiline;
his expression generally saturnine. His step is light, but firm; and
he appears to possess much more energy of constitution than men of
fifty-two who have been studious in their habits, exhibit in general.
His time for study is mostly during the stillness of night, when he
can be wholly abstracted from external objects. He is remarkable for
absence of mind; is charitable and kind in his disposition, but of quick
temper. His amusements are few; the friend and conversation only; and
in the "flow of soul" there are few men possessing more companionable
qualities. His heart is perhaps one of the best that beats in a human
bosom: "it is," observes a biographer, "that which should belong to
the poet of _Gertrude,_ his favourite personification."
To exhibit the poet in the social circle, as well as to introduce a very
piquant portrait, drawn by a friend, we subjoin a leaf or two from Leigh
Hunt's _Lord Byron and some of his Contemporaries_[5]--displaying
all the graphic ease for which Mr. Hunt is almost without a rival:--
[5] We are aware of part of the subsequent extract having appeared
in vol. xi. of THE MIRROR, but the additional interest which it
bears in juxtaposition with this Memoir, induces us to repeat
it here.
I forget how I became acquainted with Mr. Hill, proprietor of the
_Monthly Mirror;_ but at his house at Sydenham I used to meet his
editor, Mr. Dubois, Mr. Campbell, who was his neighbour, and the two
Smiths, authors of _The Rejected Addresses._ Once or twice I saw
also Mr. Theodore Hook, and Mr. Matthews, the comedian. Our host (and
I thought him no older the other day than he was then) was a jovial
bachelor, plump and rosy as an abbot: and no abbot could have presided
over a more festive Sunday. The wine flowed merrily and long; the
discourse kept pace with it; and next morning, in returning to town,
we felt ourselves very thirsty. A pump by the road side, with a plash
round it, was a bewitching sight.
"They who know Mr. Campbell only as the author of _Gertrude of
Wyoming_ and the _Pleasures of Hope,_ would not suspect him to
be a merry companion, overflowing with humour and anecdote, and any
thing but fastidious. These Scotch poets have always something in
reserve: it is the only point in which the major part of them resemble
their countrymen. The mistaken character which the lady formed of
Thomson from his _Seasons_ is well known. He let part of the secret
out in his _Castle of Indolence;_ and the more he let out, the more
honour he did to the simplicity and cordiality of the poet's nature,
though not always to the elegance of it. Allan Ramsay knew his friends
Gay and Somerville as well in their writings, as he did when he came to
be personally acquainted with them; but Allan, who had bustled up from
a barber's shop into a bookseller's, was 'a cunning shaver;' and nobody
would have guessed the author of the _Gentle Shepherd_ to be
penurious. Let none suppose that any insinuation to that effect is
intended against Mr. Campbell: he is one of the few men whom I could at
any time walk half-a-dozen miles through the snow to spend an afternoon
with; and I could no more do this with a penurious man than I could
with a sulky one. I know but of one fault he has, besides an extreme
cautiousness in his writings; and that one is national, a matter of
words, and amply overpaid by a stream of conversation, lively, piquant,
and liberal--not the less interesting for occasionally betraying an
intimacy with pain, and for a high and somewhat strained tone of voice,
like a man speaking with suspended breath, and in the habit of subduing
his feelings. No man, I should guess, feels more kindly towards his
fellow-creatures, or takes less credit for it. When he indulges in doubt
and sarcasm, and speaks contemptuously of things in general, he does it,
partly, no doubt, out of actual dissatisfaction, but more perhaps than
he suspects, out of a fear of being thought weak and sensitive--which is
a blind that the best men very commonly practise. Mr. Campbell professes
to be hopeless and sarcastic, and takes pains all the while to set up an
university.
"When I first saw this eminent person, he gave me the idea of a French
Virgil: not that he is like a Frenchman, much less the French translator
of Virgil. I found him as handsome as the Abbé Delille is said to have
been ugly. But he seemed to me to embody a Frenchman's ideal notion of
the Latin poet; something a little more cut and dry than I had looked
for; compact and elegant, critical and acute, with a consciousness of
authorship upon him; a taste over-anxious not to commit itself, and
refining and diminishing nature as in a drawing-room mirror. This fancy
was strengthened in the course of conversation, by his expatiating on
the greatness of Racine. I think he had a volume of the French Tragedian
in his hand. His skull was sharply cut and fine; with plenty, according
to the phrenologists, both of the reflective and amative organs; and his
poetry will bear them out. For a lettered solitude and a bridal properly
got up, both according to law and luxury, commend us to the lovely
_Gertrude of Wyoming_. His face and person were rather on a small
scale; his features regular; his eye lively and penetrating; and when he
spoke, dimples played about his mouth, which nevertheless had something
restrained and close in it. Some gentle puritan seemed to have crossed
the breed, and to have left a stamp on his face, such as we often see
in the female Scotch face rather than the male. But he appeared not
at all grateful for this; and when his critiques and his Virgilianism
were over, very unlike a puritan he talked! He seemed to spite his
restrictions; and out of the natural largeness of his sympathy with
things high and low, to break at once out of Delille's Virgil into
Cotton's, like a boy let loose from school. When I have the pleasure
of hearing him now, I forget his Virgilianisms, and think only of the
delightful companion, the unaffected philanthropist, and the creator
of a beauty worth all the heroines in Racine.
"Mr. Campbell has tasted pretty sharply of the good and ill of the
present state of society, and for a book-man has beheld strange sights.
He witnessed a battle in Germany from the top of a convent (on which
battle he has written a noble ode); and he saw the French cavalry enter
a town, wiping their bloody swords on the horses' manes. Not long ago he
was in Germany again, I believe to purchase books; for in addition to
his classical scholarship, and his other languages, he is a reader of
German. The readers there, among whom he is popular, both for his poetry
and his love of freedom, crowded about him with affectionate zeal; and
they gave him, what he does not dislike, a good dinner. There is one
of our writers who has more fame than he; but not one who enjoys a
fame equally wide, and without drawback. Like many of the great men in
Germany, Schiller, Wieland, and others, he has not scrupled to become
editor of a magazine; and his name alone has given it among all circles
a recommendation of the greatest value, and such as makes it a grace to
write under him.
"I have since been unable to help wishing, perhaps not very wisely,
that Mr. Campbell would be a little less careful and fastidious in what
he did for the public; for, after all, an author may reasonably be
supposed to do best that which he is most inclined to do. It is our
business to be grateful for what a poet sets before us, rather than to
be wishing that his peaches were nectarines, or his Falernian Champagne.
Mr. Campbell, as an author, is all for refinement and classicality,
not, however, without a great deal of pathos and luxurious fancy."
Mr. Campbell's literary labours are perhaps too well known and
estimated to require from us any thing more than a rapid enumeration of
the most popular, as supplementary to this brief memoir. In his studies
he exhibits great fondness for recondite subjects; and will frequently
spend days in minute investigations into languages, which, in the
result, are of little moment. But his ever-delightful theme is Greece,
her arts, and literature. There he is at home: it was his earliest, and
will, probably, be his latest study. There is no branch of poetry or
history which has reached us from the "mother of arts" with which he
is not familiar. He has severely criticised Mitford for his singular
praise of the Lacedaemonians at the expense of the Athenians, and his
preference of their barbarous laws to the legislation of the latter
people. His lectures on Greek Poetry have appeared, in parts, in the
_New Monthly Magazine_. He has also published _Annals of Great
Britain, from the Accession of George III. to the Peace of Amiens_;
and is the author of several articles on Poetry and Belles Lettres
in the _Edinburgh Encyclopoedia_.
Among his poetical works, the minor pieces display considerably more
energy than those of greater length. The _Pleasures of Hope_ is
entitled to rank as a British classic; and his _Gertrude_ is
perhaps one of the most chaste and delicate poems in the language. His
fugitive pieces are more extensively known. Some of them rouse us like
the notes of a war trumpet, and have become exceedingly popular; which
every one who has heard the deep rolling voice of Braham or Phillips in
_Hohenlinden_, will attest. Neither can we forget the beautiful
_Valedictory Stanzas_ to John Kemble, at the farewell dinner to
that illustrious actor. Another piece, _the Last Man_, is indeed
fine--and worthy of Byron. Of Campbell's attachment to his native
country we have already spoken, but as a finely-wrought specimen of
this amiable passion we subjoin a brief poem:
LINES WRITTEN ON VISITING A SCENE IN ARGYLESHIRE.
At the silence of twilight's contemplative hour,
I have mused in a sorrowful mood,
On the wind-shaken weeds that embosom the bower,
Where the home of my forefathers stood.
All ruin'd and wild is their roofless abode,
And lonely the dark raven's sheltering tree:
And travell'd by few is the grass-cover'd road,
Where the hunter of deer and the warrior trode
To his hills that encircle the sea.
Yet wandering I found on my ruinous walk,
By the dial-stone aged and green,
One rose of the wilderness left on its stalk,
To mark where a garden had been.
Like a brotherless hermit, the last of its race,
All wild in the silence of nature, it drew,
From each wandering sun-beam, a lonely embrace
For the night-weed and thorn overshadow'd the place,
Where the flower of my forefathers grew.
Sweet bud of the wilderness! emblem of all
That remains in this desolate heart!
The fabric of bliss to its centre may fall,
But patience shall never depart!
Though the wilds of enchantment, all vernal and bright,
In the days of delusion by fancy combined
With the vanishing phantoms of love and delight,
Abandon my soul, like a dream of the night,
And leave but a desert behind.
Be hush'd, my dark spirit! For wisdom condemns
When the faint and the feeble deplore;
Be strong as the rock of the ocean that stems
A thousand wild waves on the shore!
Through the perils of chance, and the scowl of disdain,
May thy front be unalter'd, thy courage elate!
Yea! even the name I have worshipp'd in vain
Shall awake not the sigh of remembrance again:
To bear is to conquer our fate.
Of a similar description are his "Lines on revisiting a Scottish
River."[6]
[6] See MIRROR, No. 257.
Mr. Campbell contributes but little to the pages of the New Monthly
Magazine: still, what he writes is excellent, and as we uniformly
transfer his pieces to the _Mirror_, we need not recapitulate them.
The fame of Campbell, however, rests on his early productions, which,
though not numerous, are so correct, and have been so fastidiously
revised, that while they remain as standards of purity in the English
tongue, they sufficiently explain why their author's compositions are
so limited in number, "since he who wrote so correctly could not be
expected to write much." His Poetical pieces have lately been collected,
and published in two elegant library volumes, with a portrait esteemed
as an extremely good likeness.
A contemporary critic, speaking of the superiority of Campbell's minor
effusions, when compared with his larger efforts, observes, "His genius,
like the beautiful rays of light that illumine our atmosphere, genial
and delightful as they are when expanded, are yet without power in
producing any active or immediate effect. In their natural expansions
they sparkle to be sure, and sweetly shine; but it is only when
condensed, and brought to bear upon a limited space or solitary object,
that they acquire the power to melt, to burn, or to communicate their
fire to the object they are in contact with." Another writer says, "In
common with every lover of poetry, we regret that his works are so few;
though, when a man has written enough to achieve immortality, he cannot
be said to have trifled away his life. Mr. Campbell's poetry will find
its way wherever the English language shall be spoken, and will be
admired wherever it is known."
* * * * *
INDEX TO VOL. XIV.
* * * * *
Abad and Ada, a Tale, 404.
Abydos, Siege of, 58.
Aeolipile, The, 102.
Agreeableness, 155.
Alexander the Great, 22.
American Aloe, 296.
American Poetess, Memoir of, 340.
Amulet, The, 331.
ANECDOTE GALLERY, The, 123--158--191--254--427.
Anniversary, by A.A. Watts, 423.
Annuals for 1830, 221--275--322 to 336, 369 to 384.
Antwerp Cathedral, Visit to, 286.
Apsley House, 33--50.
Argonaut, or Nautilus, 40.
Arnott's Elements of Physics, 430.
Autobiography of a Landaulet, 300--350.
Bachelor's Revenge, 245.
Bagley Wood Gipsies, 19.
Battle of Bannockburn, 442.
Bees, 439.
Bees' Nests, 217.
Best's Personal Memorials, 427.
Bewick, the Engraver, 39--173--426.
Birds, Colours of the Eggs of, 438.
Bishops' Sleeves, 205.
Bittern, American, 297.
Black Lady of Altenötting, 251.
Blarney Castle described, 273.
Boileau to his Gardener, 51.
Bologna, Leaning Towers of, 369.
Brimham Rocks, Lines on, 196.
British Sea Songs, 297.
British Artists, Lives of, 52.
British Institution, The, 277--358.
Brussels in 1829, 303.
Burleigh House, Northampton, 290.
Burmese Boat Races, 269.
Butterflies, Changes of, 381.
Byron, Lord, and Sir W. Scott, 109.
Calculating Child at Palermo, 290.
Camelopard, or Giraffe, 264.
Campbell, T., Lines by, 154.
Canterbury Cathedral, 20.
Card, The, 339.
Castle in the Air, 331.
Cats and Kittens, 243--307--360.
Chameleons, antipathy to black, 439.
Charles II., Escape of, 100.
Chestnut-tree, Large, 408.
Christmas Day last, 433.
City, a new one, 104.
City feast, 164.
Clifton described, 177--309.
Coast Blockade Men, 84.
Cobbett's Corn, 77--87.
Cochineal Insect, 217--408.
Coffee-room Character, 219.
Colosseum, The, 431.
Comic Annual, The, 374.
Constantinople, 130--245.
CONTEMPORARY TRAVELLER, 134--149, 260--278.
Co-operative Societies, and Home Colonies, 425.
COSMOPOLITE, The, 20--36--69--214.
Cosmoramas and Dioramas, 430.
Confession, The, a Sketch, 335.
Cruise of H.M.S. Torch, 366.
Cuckoo, The, 39.
Curtius, a Dramatic Sketch, 357.
Dan Dann'ly, Sir, 189.
Davy, Sir H., Lines on, 69--116.
Derwentwater, 152.
Devereux, Sir William, 15.
Dial, curious one at Whitehall, described, 345.
Diet of various nations, 20--36.
Drama, Notes on the, 201.
Dress, Note on, 223.
Driving Deer in Cheshire, 101.
Drury Lane, ancient, 291.
Duke's Theatre, Dorset Gardens, 209.
Durham House, Strand, 82.
Dugong, The, 439.
Eagles, mode of destroying, 381.
"Eating Mutton cold," 19.
Eddystone Lighthouse, 123.
Edie Ochiltree, 294.
Egyptian Justice, 309.
Eliza von Mansfield, a Ballad, 428.
Emigrants, Lines to, 154.
Emigration to New South Wales, 362.
Emmanuel, the, 377.
Epitaph in Butleigh Church, 12.
Equanimity (from Horace), 259.
Ettrick Shepherd and Sir W. Scott, 74.
Etymological Curiosities, 357.
Exercise, Air, and Sleep, Notes on, 211.
Fair Fanariote, a Tale, 9.
Fashionable Novels, 302.
Favourite, Recollections of a, 236.
Fearful Prospect, 429.
FINE ARTS, 277--358--403.
Flying Dragon, the, 217.
Forget-me-not, the, 379.
Franklin's Grave, 7.
Friends of the Dead, 35.
Friendship's Offering, 325.
Fruits, English, described, 197.
Gardens, Gleanings on, 419.
Gas Lights, 248.
GATHERER, the, in each No.
Gem, the, 321.
Genoese Customs, 178.
Geographical Discoveries, 313.
Germans and Germany, 311.
Glammis Castle, Scotland, 225.
Goose, eating the, 221.
Gothic Architecture, Notes on, 403.
Graysteil, a Ballad, 68.
Grecian Flies, or Spongers, 420.
Greece, Lines on, 99.
Greeks, the Modern, 376.
Grosvenor Gallery, Park Lane, 242.
Guineas and Sovereigns, 304.
Gurney's Steam Carriage, 194.
Guy Mannering, 89.
Hackney Coaches, 6.
Hampton Court Palace, 97--116.
Heads, English, 263.
Head Wager, 89.
Healths, pledging, 197.
Hearthstone, the, a Tale, 118.
Heathen Mythology, Lines on, 30.
Hebrew Poets, 107.
Hood's Comic Annual, 374.
Hood's Epping Hunt, 232.
Hopkinsonian Joke, 31.
I'd be an Alderman, 408.
I'd be a Parody, 97--116.
Idiot, the, an Anecdote, 263.
Illustrious Follies, 124.
Incident at Fondi, 213.
Incledon, Recollections of, 236.
Indian Sultana in Paris, 7.
Indigo, Cultivation of, 56.
Ingratitude, Lines on, 51.
Insects, History of, 347.
Insect, Lines to an, 149.
Iris, the, 384.
Irish Independence, 136.
Iron Plate, new, 13.
Isabel, a Story, 358.
Ivy, Varieties of, 120.
Jack Jones, the Recruit, 412.
Jenkins, Henry, 242.
Jersey, recent Tour in, 260--278.
Jews, History of the, 105.
Juvenile Forget-me-not, 269, 383.
Juvenile Keepsake, 412.
Juvenile Poetess, Memoir of, 343.
Keepsake, the, 372.
Kemble, John, and Miss Owenson, 93.
King's Evil, Touching for, 437.
Landon, Miss, Poetry by, 267.
Landscape Annual, the, 370.
La Perouse, Note on, 207.
Laing, Major, Death of, 219.
Lardner's Cyclopedia, 442.
Lay from Home, 115.
Libertine's Confession, 59.
Liberty, on, 214.
Life, Duration of, 174.
Limoeiro, at Lisbon, described, 337.
Lines in an Album, 100.
---- by Miss Mitford, 124.
---- to ------------, 308.
Lion-eating and Hanging, 8.
Lion's Roar, the, 290.
Literary Problem, 178.
-------- Souvenir, 334--371.
Living, good and bad, 89.
Lost Lamb, 447.
Localities, chapter on, 146--226.
Locke, Lord King's Life of, 12.
Lone Graves, the, 18.
London, Lines on, 154.
------ View of, 249.
Lord Mayor's Day, Lines on, 350.
Love, a Ballad, 12--68.
Lucifer, a Tale, 325.
Lucretia Davidson, Memoir of, 340.
Mahomet and his Mistress, 339.
Major's Love Adventure, 285.
MANNERS and CUSTOMS, 38--101--178--197--231--311--375.
Mantis, or Walking Leaf, 306.
Margate described, 141.
Maria Gray, a Ballad, 173.
Masaniello, character of, 153.
Mercer's Hull and Old Cheapside, 17.
Milan Cathedral described, 2.
Minstrel Ballad, 100.
Minstrels and Music Licenses, 418.
Mocha Coffee, 47.
Mole, the, 281--297--360.
Moncrieff's Poems, 23.
Monkish Verses translated, 163.
Mont Blanc, ascent of, 71.
Months, Saxon Names for, 232.
Morgan, Lady, 382.
Mozart, Youth of, 254--265.
Murat, death of, 83.
NATURALIST, The, 4--39--86--120--174--217--281--297--306--381--438.
Nautilus, Lines on, 180.
New York, 249.
New Year's Gift, 293.
Ney, Marshal, Memoir of, 420.
Night in a Sedan Chair, 183.
NOTES OF A READER, 6--46--61--71--93--120--152--186--220--247--297
--347--360--423.
NOVELIST, The, 9--58--89--118--213--244--358--404.
Oaks, Superstition against felling, 375.
Observatory at Greenwich, 401.
Old Man's Story, The, 283.
OLD POETS, 4--140--271--407.
Once Ancient, 85.
Opium-eating in Turkey, 270.
Out of Season, a Lament, 291.
Oyster catching Mice, &c., 87.
Palestine described, 107.
Paley, Recollections of, 158.
Paraphrase on Heber, 181.
Pendrills, Family of, 35.
Periodical Literature, 440.
Peru, Adventure in, 230.
Phillips', Sir R., Personal Tour, 377.
Physiognomy of Houses, 100.
Plantagenets, Last of the, 46.
Planters, Royal, 73.
Pool's Hole, Derbyshire, 19.
Poor, Laws for the, 299.
Pope's Temple at Hagley, 49.
Popular Philosophy, 430.
Proverbs, Old, illustrated, 133.
Provincial Reputation, 409.
Psalmody, Improved, 114--370.
Punch, How to Make, 8.
Pursuit of Knowledge, 108--138.
Quadrupeds and Birds feeding Shell-fish, 4.
Red Indians, Journey in search of, 134--149.
Regent's Park, 12.
RETROSPECTIVE GLEANINGS, 11--76--163--246--308--437.
River, Lines to a, 254.
Rosamond, Fair, Portrait of, 86.
Royal Exchange, The original, 257.
Ruined Well, Stanzas, 372.
Rustic Amusements, 3.
St. Dunstan's, Fleet-street, 145--243.
St. Peter's Church, Pimlico, 113.
St. Sepulchre's Bell, 259.
Saline Lake in India, 13.
Sea-side Mayor, 231.
Sea Pens, Cuts of, 281.
Seasons, Sonnets on, 210.
Season in Town, 30.
Select Biography, 340.
Shakspeare's Brooch, 201--372.
Sheffield, Picture of, 377--413.
Sighmon Dumps, 169--420.
SELECTOR, The, 13--22--40--52--105--136--156--197--232--267--283--442.
Shumla described, 186.
Siamese Twins, Account of, 353.
Singing Psalms, 375.
Sion House, Isleworth, 161.
Sisters of Charity, 69.
SKETCH BOOK, The, 24--74--100-169.
Skimington Riding, 183--231--235--375.
Skying a Copper, by Hood, 280.
Sleep, Curious facts on, 229.
Soda Water, Dr. Paris, on, 69.
Southern African Letter, 315.
Southey, Dr., 61--426.
Sparrow, Address of, 148--403.
Spiders, 439.
SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY, 12--56-108--185--206--282--313.
SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS, 12--29--45--59--77--87--109--124--141
--155--173--189--219--237--251--263--300--315--366--382--408--428--440.
Spirit of the Storm, 235.
Splendid Annual, The, 24.
Spring Tides, 418.
Staubbach, Falls of the, 369.
Starfish, Branched, 307.
Stone, Ancient, at Carmarthen, 20.
Stone, Crosses and Pillars, 247.
Storm raising, 38.
Sussex Cottages, 6.
Southwell Church, 168.
Stratford, Lord, Letter of, 246.
Superstition, Cure for, 383.
Taylor Bird, Nest of, 120.
Temple New Buildings, 417.
Theatres, Ancient and modern, 202.
Thief, The general, 372.
Time, Lines on, 214.
Tomb, Enigma on, 214--292.
Topographer, The, 309.
Touching for the Evil, 308.
Toyman is abroad, 45--60.
Tunbridge Wells in 1748, 65.
Turkey, Note on, 222.
Twin Sisters, 402.
Tyre, Ancient, 15--115.
Unicorn, The, 142.
Veil, Origin of the, 103--181.
Verona described, 321.
Vidocq, Memoirs of, 13--40--156--164.
Vine, Lines on, 214.
Virgil's Tomb, Description of, 432.
Voltaire at Ferney, 81--191.
Watchman's Lament, 88.
Waterloo, Battle of, 268.
Watling Street, Ancient, 34.
Whitehall, Curious Dial at, 345.
Whitehall, Paintings at the Banquetting House, 436.
Winchester, Sonnet on, 258.
Wreck on a Coral Reef, 373.
Young Lady's Book, 445.
Zaragoza, Fall of, 436.
Zoological Gardens, 264.
Zoological Keepsake, 447.
Zoological Society, 13--57.
Zoological Work, New, 86.
* * * * *
LIST OF ENGRAVINGS.
VOL. XIV.
* * * * *
_PORTRAIT OF THOMAS CAMPBELL, ESQ._
ENGRAVED ON STEEL.
Milan Cathedral.
Mercers' Hall, Cheapside.
Apsley House.
Argonaut, or Paper Nautilus.
Pope's Temple, at Hagley.
Tunbridge Wells in 1748.
Voltaire's Chateau, at Ferney.
Hampton Court.
Plan for a New City.
St. Peter's Church, Pimlico.
Nest of the Taylor Bird.
Constantinople.
St. Dunstan's, Fleet-street.
Sion House.
Southwell Church.
Clifton.
Guruoy's Steam Carriage.
Shakspeare's Brooch.
Duke's Theatre, Dorset Gardens.
Flying Dragon.
Glammis Castle.
Grosvenor Gallery, Park-lane.
Royal Exchange (the Original).
Blarney Castle, Cork.
Sea Pens.
Burleigh, Northamptonshire.
Mantis, or Walking Leaf.
Branched Star-fish.
Verona.
The Limoeiro, at Lisbon.
Curious Dial.
Siamese Twins.
Fall of the Staubbach.
Leaning Towers at Bologna.
Meeting a Settler.
Breaking-up no Holiday.
Royal Observatory, Greenwich.
Cochineal Insect and Plant.
New Buildings, Inner Temple.
Virgil's Tomb.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 14, No. 407, December 24, 1829" ***
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