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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11258 ***
+
+THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.
+
+VOL. XIV, NO. 407.] DECEMBER 24, 1829. [PRICE 2d.
+
+
+
+                         CONTAINING
+                       ORIGINAL ESSAYS
+
+
+ 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 the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement,
+and Instruction, by Various
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11258 ***