Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/267

Rh Latin poets who preceded them; though this may be denied by those classic readers, who are still in the habit of poring into the lucubrations of those authors, the greater part of whom have long ceased to be known to the general reader, while the works of Hamilton and Ramsay are still read and admired.

Mr Hamilton's poems were first published by Foulis, at Glasgow, in 1748, 12mo, and afterwards reprinted; but this volume was a pirated publication, and appeared not only without his name, but without his consent, and even without his knowledge; and as might have been expected, it abounded in errors. He was then abroad, end it was thought the appearance of that collection would have produced from him a more perfect edition : but though on his return he corrected many errors, and considerably enlarged some of the poems, he did not live to furnish a new and complete edition. It remained therefore for his friends, after his death, to publish from his original manuscripts the first genuine and correct collection of his works. It appeared in one volume small 8vo, at Edinburgh, in 1760, with ahead by Strange, who had been a fellow adventurer with him in the cause of prince Charles.

This volume did not at first attract any particular notice, and his poems were rapidly fading from public remembrance, when an attempt was made by the late professor Richardson of Glasgow, to direct the attention of the public to his merits. In a very able criticism from the pen of that gentleman which appeared in the Lounger, among other observations no less just, the following formed one of his principal remarks: "The poems of Hamilton display regular design, just sentiments, fanciful invention, pleasing sensibility, elegant diction, and smooth versification." Mr Richardson then enters into an analysis of Hamilton's principal poem of "Contemplation," or "the Triumph of Love." He descants chiefly on the quality of fanciful invention, as being the principal characteristic of poetical composition. He says "that Mr Hamilton's imagination is employed among beautiful and engaging, rather than among awful and magnificent images, and even when he presents us with dignified objects, he is more grave than lofty, more solemn than sublime." "It is not asserted," continues Mr Richard- son, in illustrating the 'pleasing sensibility' he ascribes to Hamilton, "that he displays those vehement tumults and ecstasies of passion that belong to the higher kind of lyric and dramatic composition. He is not shaken with excessive rage, nor melted with overwhelming sorrow; yet when he treats of grave or affecting subjects, he expresses a plaintive and engaging softness. He is never violent and abrupt, and is more tender than pathetic. Perhaps 'The Braes of Yarrow,' one of the finest ballads ever written, may put in a claim to superior distinction. But even with this exception, I should think our poet more remarkable for engaging tenderness than for deep and affecting pathos. In like manner, when he expresses the joyful sentiments, or describes scenes and objects of festivity, which he does very often, he displays good humour and easy cheerfulness, rather than the transports of mirth or the brilliancy of wit."

Mr Richardson, in illustration of these characteristics, quotes some passages which convey the most favourable impression of Mr Hamilton's poetical powers.

Mr M'Kenzie, the ingenious editor of the Lounger, enforced the judgment pronounced by Mr Richardson, in a note, in which he not only fully agrees with him, but even goes farther in Mr Hamilton's praise. Lord Woodhouselee was also among the first to acknowledge his excellence and vindicate his fame. He thus speaks of Mr Hamilton in his life of lord Kames, "Mr Hamilton's mind is pictured in his verses. They are the easy and careless effusions of an elegant fancy, and a chastened taste; and the sentiments they convey are the genuine feelings of a tender and susceptible heart, which perpetually owned the dominion of some favourite mistress: but whose passion generally evaporated in song, and