Camille, who afterward engaged in the service of the king of Scotland, in which service he

won the Lady of the west, The daughter of Macaillan Mor,"

and with her the lairdship of Lochawe. From that stock sprang the famous clan of the Campbells. The line of their chieftains may be traced downward through Sir Neil, a contemporary and compatriot of Robert Bruce, to Archibald, whose name stands as a pillar of history in the records of his clan. This Archibald died in 1360, leaving three sons;-Colin, who succeeded to the honours of the family,-Tavis, ancestor of Dunardrie,—and Iver, from whom sprang the Campbells of Kirnan, the family of Thomas Campbell. The fame of the poet, however, rests but slightly upon his ancestry, and he had the good sense not to pride himself upon a title so precarious. Only once is the subject introduced in his poems, and then with a highly commendable modesty. In his "Lines on Receiving a Seal with the Campbell Crest," after denominating that crest the same

he adds,—

"That erst the adventurous Norman wore,"

"Yet little might I prize the stone,

If it but typed the feudal tree,

From whence, a scatter'd leaf, I'm blown

On Fortune's mutability."

Before the birth of the poet, (Sept. 27, 1777,) the family estate at Kirnan had been alienated. His father was the youngest of three brothers, all of whom went from home to better their fortunes. Robert, the oldest, went to England, and was a political writer under Walpole's administration, but sunk into obscurity upon the decline of that minister, and afterward died in penury. Archibald. the second brother, came to America, and was settled as a Presbyterian minister in Westmoreland, Virginia, where he died in 1795, full of years, and greatly honoured. Alexander, the father of the poet, having been bred to the mercantile profession, followed his brother to Virginia, and was for several years occupied as a merchant at Falmouth, in that State. He then returned to his native country, and established himself in his profession, in the city of Glasgow, where he married when past middle life, and afterward reared a large family. His business, being mostly in American trade, was ruined by the war of the Revolution, so that he was greatly embarrassed during his subsequent life-time, and at last died in poverty. He was a man of singular integrity of character, and, true to the reli

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gious affinities of his countrymen, he was a Presbyterian. In after times, his gifted but more wayward son used to speak of his father's daily family devotions, and pronounce them the most correct and eloquent extempore prayers to which he had ever listened. Thomas was the youngest of eleven children that were born to his parents,—the son of his father's old age, and peculiarly an object of parental affection and earnest hope. His father's smiles were always most radiant when they beamed upon his boy,—his junior by almost seventy years,

"While, like a new existence to his heart,

That living flower uprose beneath his eye."

And even the native severity of his more youthful and energetic companion relaxed into fondness as she gazed upon the last of her progeny budding into adolescence before her. The feelings with which her indomitable spirit lingered around the object of her maternal affections and ambitious expectations are happily delineated in one of the most exquisite passages of the "Pleasures of Hope," -the mother's apostrophe to her sleeping infant:

Sleep, image of thy father, sleep, my boy:

No lingering hour of sorrow shall be thine,
No sighs that rend thy father's heart and mine;
Bright as his manly sire the son shall be,
In form and soul; but, ah! more blest than he :
Thy fame, thy worth, thy filial love at last,
Shall soothe his aching heart for all the past-
With many a smile my solitude repay,

And chase the world's ungenerous scorn away.”

Johnson's observation relative to Goldsmith, that "he was a plant that flowered late," will not apply to Campbell; for he was evidently and eminently a vernal flower. His poetical genius was especially precocious, for at ten years old he produced verses of very considerable merit. His school exercises, consisting of translations from the classics, were rendered in verse, as a matter of preference, and large portions of the Latin poets were committed to memory. But the Greek became at length his favourite pursuit, and to the end of his life he seemed more ambitious of the reputation of a first-rate Greek scholar than of that of the first of English poets.

At thirteen years old he entered the University of Glasgow, where his progress was one uninterrupted triumph. Though the youngest member of his class, he won nearly all the first prizes; and in classics and belles-lettres he had no competitor. Not satisfied with his college triumphs, nor sufficiently occupied with the labour

they cost him, he was accustomed to indulge his satirical muse in good-natured attacks upon his rivals, and to touch off their several peculiarities with rather a free hand.

ers.

At sixteen, an event occurred that made a deep impression upon his mind, and probably gave direction to his subsequent career. He visited Edinburgh for the first time, and, while there, witnessed the trial and condemnation of a number of notable political offendThe whole affair, with its attendant circumstances, was well adapted to impress the mind of a country youth possessed of a highly susceptible and active imagination. The stately eloquence of the advocate and counsel commanded his admiration; but the impassioned and highly eloquent address of one of the prisoners— who, passing by mere conventional forms, and appealing to a higher authority than legislatures can give, claimed for himself and his associates the inalienable rights of men-quite overwhelmed him. He returned home, and resumed his duties at the university, but he seemed a very different person from his former self. His wit and vivacity were replaced by a cold reserve and moping meditativeness. Politics for a season took the place of poetry, and "human rights' were more thought of by him than taste and philosophy. His application to his college duties, however, was rather increased than diminished, and the award of two prizes, at the ensuing examination, convinced his associates that if indeed he was mad, there was some "method in his madness."

During his fourth session at the university, the increasing exigencies of the family caused him to wish for some means by which to provide for his own subsistence. His father was bending over the grave, burdened with old age and accumulated misfortunes; and from the other members of the family our young student could expect but little assistance. He wished to gain a profession; but the relief promised in that direction was distant and problematical, while his case demanded a certain and speedy return. A situation was accordingly procured as tutor in the family of a widowed relative, Mrs. Campbell, of Sunipol, in Mull, one of the Hebrides. Here he devoted himself to his new duties, and divided his large intervals of leisure between his favourite classics and his out-door rambles. For these his situation was highly auspicious, for here he communed with nature in her sublimest aspects, and imbibed from the contemplation a deep and awful inspiration.

But it was a new and somewhat painful change of situation, for one so young and susceptible to be torn away from his cherished associations, and placed, almost in solitude, in his far-off island

retreat. The tedium of his summer's stay at Mull was, however, relieved by at least one "angel's visit," which, as it was the occasion of his first preserved poem, demands a passing notice. Miss Caroline F., daughter of a clergyman at Inverary, made a protracted visit to his patroness at Sunipol, and, of course, there grew up some intimacy between them; for nothing is more natural than

"Love in such a wilderness as this."

She was his junior by about a year, and her personal graces, both of form and manners, are described as sufficient to justify the admiration of the youthful poet, as uttered in his " Caroline." Of that poem, the first part was written during his stay at Mull, and the second was forwarded to the object of his earliest amorous aspirations the next summer. Of that affair we shall hear again by and by.

After a residence of five months at Sunipol, young Campbell returned to the university and resumed his studies, which, from this time, were of a more grave and serious cast than at any earlier period. He was especially interested with the lectures on Law and Jurisprudence, and his half-formed political notions were perfected from the models of the Pandects. So completely was he captivated by the ennobling beauties of the Justinian code, that with a full heart he gave himself to be a devotee at its shrine forever. For a while he was tutor in the family of Sir William Napier, at Downie, where he also continued his application to his favourite study and its kindred themes, anticipating, at the same time, the period when he should be able to pursue an easy independence in the law-offices of Edinburgh.

The anticipations of youth are like the blossoms of spring upon fruit-bearing trees, which are mostly destined to perish, yet are they lovely in their season, and of them come all the golden stores of autumn. So were young Campbell's expectations destined to perish, but not till he had dallied with the illusion, and, by anticipation, realized its pleasures. But disappointments, that in after life beget despondency and despair, are in youth only stimulants to greater efforts and to higher hopes. So in this case: there were no discouragements occasioned by disappointed hopes and thwarted purposes. He had also at this time an additional motive to noble aspirations,—one that often proves ennobling in itself, as well as a powerful incentive to self-respect and virtuous emulations. His susceptible heart had become the victim of a more pleasing, but not less controlling authority than even that of his muse, and his spirit revelled in an imaginary elysium, while he sang lays of love to the

Evening Star, that shone upon the "sweetly-scented road" of his own Caroline." But the stern decree of poverty forbade him to press his earnest suit, which probably would not have been wholly unsuccessful, till at length one more favoured by fortune possessed the charms that had won his heart, and so he was freed from the witching toils of love.

The next year opened with brightening prospects upon the ardent spirit of Campbell; for a place was actually obtained in the office of an attorney in Edinburgh as copyist, and the highway to the legal profession lay plain before him. But he soon found the realities of legal practice so utterly unlike the ideas he had entertained respecting it, that after a few months he abandoned it in disgust. He next attempted to do something toward helping himself by his literary labours, but with very partial success. He, however, made the acquaintance of some of the most distinguished scholars of the Scotch metropolis, as well as gained an increased knowledge of men and of the world, an acquisition that he greatly needed. A literary "job," undertaken for an Edinburgh bookseller, at length induced him to return to the country, where he spent most of the following winter. He also devoted himself anew to poetry, and his productions began to assume a remarkable vigour and a truly classical elegance. A portion of this winter was passed at the residence of Mr. Sterling, at Courdale, whose daughter played several Scottish airs very skilfully, to some of which Campbell composed appropriate songs. Among these was "The Wounded Hussar," a piece founded on an incident in one of the then recent battles on the Danube. This song immediately obtained a great and deserved popularity. It was sung in the streets of Glasgow, and soon found its way over the whole kingdom, and in its progress proved itself a successful rival to Burns' "Poor but Honest Soger," then all the rage throughout Scotland.

Upon his return to the capital the next spring, it began to be known that he had in hand a poem of considerable length, and in a state of forwardness approaching to completion. It was first recited among the young poet's youthful associates; but before many months had passed it had been read by most of the principal scholars in Edinburgh, and was especially admired and commended by Dr. Anderson, author of the "Lives of the British Poets."

It appears that the idea of such a poem was first conceived during his residence at Mull, though but little of it had been written before he came to Edinburgh, the year before the time now under consideration. During his stay in the country it had been prosecuted with new zeal, till it began to assume shape and proportions.