Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/834

756 author and the public, and &quot; the fathers of the Row &quot; became chary of offering him engagements. Some idea of the extent of his habitual indolence may be formed from the fact, that the publication of his Specimens of the British Poets did not take place until thirteen years after the work was undertaken ! In the meantime Campbell married ; and his prospects were of the darkest, when, in 1805, he received a Govern ment pension of 209. He was then in great distress, and even that aid, material as it was, failed to extricate him. It was probably fortunate for his fame that such was the case, for in 1809 he published his poem of Gertrude of Wyoming, to which were attached the most celebrated of his grand and powerful lyrics. Among Campbell s lengthier poems Gertrude of Wyoming must hold the second place. He designed it for a poem of action, but he has failed to give it that interest and vivacity which a poem of action requires. There is in it too decided a predominance of the sentimental vein, and an extreme degree of elaboration, which, in poetry as in painting, is hurtful to the general effect. There is great truth in the following criticism, which occurs in a letter from Jeffrey to the author : &quot; Your timidity or fastidiousness, or some other knavish quality, will not let you give your conceptions glowing, and bold, and powerful, as they present themselves ; but you must chasten, and refine, and soften them, forsooth, till half their nature and grandeur is chiselled away from them. Believe me, the world will never know how truly you are a great and original poet till you venture to cast before it some of the rough pearls of your fancy.&quot; In spite of these defects, Gertrude was considered at the time as a work in every way worthy of the poet s previous reputation ; and it will ever be admired by that numerous class of readers who are more fascinated by the beauties of expression than by high inventive power and vigorous execution. The soundness of the above criticism, proceeding from an eminent literary authority whose whole leanings were rather towards than against fastidiousness in composition, is demonstrated by the universal admiration accorded to Campbell s lyrical pieces. One or two of these, in particular Lochicl s Warning and Hohenlinden, are to be referred to an earlier period than the composition of Gertrude; but there are others of a later date which show how much power remained in the man when he chose to exert it freely. There are few lyrics in the English language to be placed in comparison with the Mariners of England or The Battle of the Baltic ; and his exquisite poem of O Connor s Child, which has not unaptly been termed the diamond of his casket of gems, is greatly superior in pathos and passion to his more elaborate compositions. All these, and others scarcely inferior to them, seem to have been struck off at a heat, and to have escaped that chiselling process to which Jeffrey so pointedly referred. Campbell was now settled at Sydenham in England, and his circumstances were materially improved. His home was a happy one ; the society in which he moved was of the most refined and intellectual character ; and he enjoyed the personal friendship of many of his distinguished con temporaries. Ample leisure was afforded him to carry into effect any of the cherished schemes of his literary ambi tion ; but his indolence and inherent want of resolution again interfered. His most noteworthy exertion for years appears to have been the preparation of a short course of lectures on poetry, which he delivered with great eclat at the Royal Institution in London and elsewhere. It appears that at one time it was proposed by his friends, and especially by Sir Walter Scott, that he should become a candidate for the occupancy of a literary chair in the University of Edinburgh ; but he shrank from the idea of undertaking so serious a labour as is involved in the preparation of a thorough academical course. In 1820 he accepted the editorship of the New Monthly Magazine, and acted in that capacity for a considerable period, until he resigned it to take charge of the Metropolitan. His con nection with periodical literature may have been advan tageous in a pecuniary point of view, but did not tend materially to enhance his reputation. His was not the pen of the ready writer ; and it must ever be regretted that he was induced to bestow so much attention upon merely ephemeral literature, to the sacrifice of the nobler aims which were expected from his acknowledged genius. In 1824 he published his Theodric, a poem which, in spite of some fine passages, was generally considered as a failure. With Theodric his poetical career may be said to have closed. At times he put forth short poems of various degrees of merit, but none of them were equal to the grand lyrics already treasured in the memory of his countrymen. It seemed as if a large portion of the old virtue had departed from him ; and his last published poem, the Pilgrim of Glencoe, showed hardly any marks of his former accomplish ment and power. In fact it appeared that the rich mine of poetry had been worked out. Without actually adopting that conclusion, we may observe that Campbell had latterly occupied him self most zealously with matters which were apart from his earlier pursuits. In the first place, he took an active share in the Institution of the London University, and it was mainly through his exertions that it was saved from becoming a mere sectarian college. Shortly afterwards, in 1 826, he was elected Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, an event which he considered as the crowning honour of his life, and which certainly was a mark of dis tinction of which any man might have been proud. He did not accept the office as a mere sinecure, but applied himself to discharge the actual duties (which, through the negligence of former rectors, had been allowed to fall into abeyance) with a zeal and energy which made entire con quest of the hearts of his youthful constituents. In 1831, the year in which the gallant struggle of the Poles for their independence was terminated by entire defeat, Campbell, who in his earliest poem had referred in such beautiful language to the shameful partition of Poland, more than revived his youthful enthusiasm for her cause. He had watched with an anxiety almost bordering on fanaticism the progress of the patriotic movement ; and the news of the capture of Warsaw by the Russians affected him as if it had been the deepest of personal calamities. &quot; His heart,&quot; says his biographer, &quot; was in the subject of Poland ; he could neither write nor speak upon any other with common patience ; and if a word was dropt in company that did not harmonize with his feelings, he was very apt to con sider it as a personal offence.&quot; In one of his own letters he says, &quot; I know that my zeal for Poland has put me half mad.&quot; And again, &quot; It is still all that I can do to support a tolerable cheerfulness before these kind hospit able people, for Poland preys on my heart night and day. It is sometimes a relief to me to weep in secret, and I do weep long and bitterly.&quot; Nor did he show his sympathy by words alone, but by resolute and continued action. He was the founder of the association in London of the Friends of Poland, which not only served to maintain the strong interest felt by the British people for the Polish cause, but was the means of providing assistance and giving employment to large numbers of the unfortunate exiles who were driven to seek refuge in this country. Never, till his dying day, did he relax his exertions in their behalf ; and many an unhappy wanderer, who, but for un expected aid, might have perished in the streets of a foreign city, had reason to bless the name of Thomas Campbell.