Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 08.djvu/397

 and having gained a valuable experience in Virginia, settled in business in Glasgow with a partner named Daniel Campbell, whose sister Margaret he married. Thus the poet's father and mother were both Campbells, and belonged to the same district of Argyll, though their families were not related. The firm of Alexander & Daniel Campbell did a prosperous Virginia trade, till heavy losses, consequent on the American war, brought the business to an end, and well-nigh ruined both families. The affairs of the firm being honourably settled, it was found that Alexander and Margaret Campbell had a little remaining from their handsome competency, and that this, together with a small annual income from the Merchants' Society and a provident institution, would enable them to make a living. Thomas Campbell was born after this disaster, and was naturally an object of special care to both parents. His father impressed him by his manly self-dependence and his sterling integrity, while his mother by her songs and legends gave him a taste for literature and a bias towards her beloved west highlands.

Campbell went to the Glasgow grammar school in his eighth year, and became both a good classical scholar and a promising poet, under the fostering care of his teacher, David Alison, who prophesied distinction for his pupil. On going to the university in October 1791, he studied very hard, and quickly excelled as a classical scholar, debater, and poetical translator from Greek. Genial and witty, he was liked and admired by professors and fellow-students. He won numerous prizes for his scholarship, as well as for poems (such as the ‘Origin of Evil’) cleverly turned after Pope. A visit to Edinburgh in 1794, when he attended the trial of Muir, Gerald, and others for high treason, deeply impressed him, and helped to form his characteristic decisive views on liberty. At this time, thinking of studying for the church, Campbell read Hebrew and gave some attention to theological subjects, one literary result of which was his hymn on ‘The Advent.’ His future, however, became clouded when, in his fourth year at college (1794–5), his father lost a lingering chancery suit, and Campbell, forced to earn money, went as a tutor to Sunipol in Mull. His fellow-student, Hamilton Paul, sent him a playful letter here, enclosing a few lines entitled ‘Pleasures of Solitude,’ and, after a jocose reference to Akenside and Rogers, bade Campbell cherish the ‘Pleasures of Hope’ ‘that they would soon meet in Alma Mater.’ This probably was the germ of the poem that was completed within a few years. Campbell returned to the university for the winter, finally leaving it in the spring of 1796. During this year he had attended the class of Professor Miller, whose lectures on Roman law had given him new and lasting impressions of social relations and progress. He was engaged as tutor at Downie, near Lochgilphead, till the beginning of 1797, when he returned to Glasgow. His twofold experience of the west highlands had given him his first love (consecrated in ‘Caroline’), and deep sympathies with highland character, scenery, and incident. Many of the strong buoyant lines and exquisite touches of descriptive reminiscence in the poems of after years (e.g. stanzas 5 and 6 of ‘Gertrude of Wyoming’) are in large measure due to the comparatively lonely and reflective time he spent in these tutorships. His ‘Parrot,’ ‘Love and Madness,’ ‘Glenara,’ and first sketch of ‘Lord Ullin's Daughter,’ belong to this time.

With the influence of Professor Miller strong upon him, Campbell now resolved to study law; with that intention he settled in Edinburgh and worked for a few weeks as a copying clerk. An introduction to Dr. Anderson, editor of ‘The British Poets,’ was the means of his becoming acquainted with the publishers Mundell & Co., for whom he began to do some miscellaneous literary work. This occupation, together with private teaching, enabled him to live, and helped to raise him above the mental depression which Leyden, with an offensiveness that produced a lasting estrangement between Campbell and himself, spoke of as projected suicide. A good deal of Campbell's leisure time during his early days in Edinburgh was spent with Mr. Stirling of Courdale, and it was Miss Stirling's singing that prompted him to write the ‘Wounded Hussar.’ Other minor poems of this time were the ‘Dirge of Wallace,’ ‘Epistle to Three Ladies,’ and ‘Lines on revisiting the River Cart.’

Meanwhile Campbell had been busy completing the ‘Pleasures of Hope,’ which, published by Mundell & Co., 27 April 1799, was instantly popular, owing both to its matter and its style. Its brilliant detached passages surprised readers into overlooking its structural defects. The poem was charged with direct and emphatic interest for thinking men; the attractive touches of description came straight from the writer's own experience, and preserved the resonant metrical neatness expected in the heroic couplet. The striking passage on Poland marks the beginning of an enthusiasm that remained through life, gaining for him many friends