pose the sum of fifteen pounds! It is scarcely necessary to say that the sum was ridiculously inadequate; "but," he added, in mentioning the subject long afterwards, " for the fifteen pounds I had received an hundred and fifty calls more pressing than the press itself." The scheme of printing by subscription, which he had then in view, was abandoned from want of funds; and the poem, for which a London publisher only three years afterwards offered him an annuity of two hundred pounds for life, was sold to an Edinburgh publisher for the sum of sixty pounds.

In the distinguished literary circles of Edinburgh, the advent of the youthful Poet's precocious work had been looked forward to with gradually increasing interest, and its reception was such as could not fail abundantly to satisfy his highest ambition. He was just entering on his twenty-first year when "The Pleasures of Hope" was published, on the 27th of April 1799. In it he had touched with a master-hand the most popular topics of the day, and had struck his lyre in sympathy with the most generous aspirations of the heart. The French revolution, the partition of Poland, the abolition of Negro slavery, and others of the themes round which his thoughts moved with sympathy and enthusiasm to the last, were all presented there in the glowing language of verse. It was a striking contrast to the lifeless classical reproduction of old and worn-out ideas which form the common staple of the publishers of poems in the eighteenth century. Its sublime stanzas appealed to the noblest sympathies of our nature, and struck a chord which already vibrated in sympathy with all the most generous emotions of that remarkable

era.

The Poet of Hope, however, was no longer without friends. He now rejected all ideas of emigration, and resolved on visiting Germany, that he might enjoy the advantages of personal intercourse with those distinguished men whose works were then beginning to exercise so important an influence on the rising talent of the age.

In Hamburgh, Campbell found that his fame had preceded him, and he was welcomed by the British residents with every token of esteem and hospitality. The state of the Continent, however, compelled him considerably to abbreviate his intended tour. He carried with him an introduction to Klopstock; and by his means obtained access to other distinguished men. From

Hamburgh he went to Ratisbon, and there witnessed some of the terrors, as well as the grandeur, of actual war, during the struggle between the Austrians and French which preceded the armistice that gave the French possession of Ratisbon. He saw also the village of Hohenlinden, the scene shortly afterwards of the route of the Austrians, commemorated in his ballad. He subsequently resided for a considerable period at Altona, and still meditated his proposed excursion to Buda, halting on the way at Dresden, Prague, Munich, and Vienna, all unconscious of the dangers that surrounded him. Suddenly he learned that the English squadron had sailed for the coast of Denmark, on the 12th of March 1801; and now, fairly alive to the risks he ran, he hastily abandoned his travelling projects, and secured a berth in a small trading vessel bound for Leith. But the sudden proclamation of war, which thus upset all his plans, was not unproductive of good fruit, for to it we owe one of the noblest of all his lyrics, "The Battle of the Baltic." Campbell's absence from home had not been unproductive of poems adding to his fame. He had engaged to furnish contributions to the Morning Chronicle, and those of this period included three of his most touching and popular pieces, "The Soldier's dream," "The Mariners of England," and "The Exile of Erin"- the last written immediately after his arrival at Altona, where he met with the brave but unfortunate exiles, who, amid the hospitalities of a foreign land, still sighed for the scenes hallowed by many fondly treasured memories.

The Poet had not left the Continent a day too soon. The vessel in which he sailed for Leith only escaped from a Danish privateer by running for Yarmouth Roads; and from thence Campbell made his way to London, and reached the office of Perry, the editor of the Morning Chronicle, with only a few shillings in his pocket. His reception there, however, was all that he could desire; and he speedily found himself mingling on terms of equality with the greatest among the distinguished metropolitans, celebrated alike for rank or genius. Lord Holland was one of the first to take him by the hand, and he was soon on familiar terms with Mackintosh, Rogers, Sydney Smith, Kemble, and others. The pleasure, however, which this state of things was so well calculated to produce, was speedily effaced by the news that in the interval between the last communication

received on the Continent and his arrival in London, his aged father had expired at the patriarchal age of ninety-one.

Great as were the attractions of London, Campbell hastened immediately home to console and aid his widowed mother.

Cares of a serious nature awaited the poet. The annuity which his father had derived from the Merchant Company of Glasgow terminated at his death, and his mother and three sisters, one of them a confirmed invalid, were all looking to the youngest brother, a youth only entering his twenty-third year, and with no definite profession or source of income-for the means of providing for the future. The publishers of his "Pleasures of Hope" generously allowed him to publish an edition, by subscription, on his own account; and he again proceeded to London to carry this project into effect. Among the fruits of this second visit, not the least valuable, were his "Lochiel" and "Hohenlinden;" but, notwithstanding all the zeal of friends and the liberality of publishers, Campbell failed not to experience his full share of the precarious and meagre fruits of literary reward; and we find him, on his return to Edinburgh, busied on a continuation of Smollett, and other anonymous undertakings of the kind usually termed literary hack work, by which so many distinguished men have eked out the scanty rewards of literary labour. To him the fruits of his success were the more valuable, because they were generously expended in adding to the diminished comforts of the little home circle of those whose pride in his success was one of his highest rewards. The work, however, which Edinburgh afforded for the literary man was necessarily limited, and now, at the age of twenty-five, he took leave of the Scottish capital, and established himself finally in the great metropolis, to enjoy the distinguished society which it afforded, and fight out the battle of life on its wide arena. There the new edition of "The Pleasures of Hope" was brought out, a goodly quarto, embellished with engravings, and with the still better attraction of "Lochiel," "Hohenlinden," and others of his more recent poetical productions appended to it. The success of the volume was such as to furnish a most seasonable and liberal supply to the Poet's finances; and having meanwhile fallen in love with his cousin, Matilda Sinclair,—whose father had removed, with his whole family, to London,—with a fifty-pound bank note in his desk, and the sanguine hopes of a

young literary adventurer for his wordly prospects, he was married at St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, on the 10th of September 1803. After various projects for settlement in a cottage in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, Campbell at length found one to his mind, at Sydenham Common, about ten miles to the south of London. There he established himself in his own home, where he attracted many friends, and formed many cherished associations during the period of his early wedded life, which passed happily in that favourite abode.

The life of the Poet was thenceforward, through the earlier years of his married life, what may be emphatically termed, that of a fortunate literary man. His affection for his wife was ardent, and she amply returned his love. Few cheerfuller or fonder wedded pairs could have been singled out from among the happy homes of England. But its happiness was chequered by a full share of the trials and vexations which beset the precarious career of literary life. In writing to his friend, Mr. Richardson, he says: "Bensley, the printer, is upon me for his account. It gives me the nightmare to think upon it. I wish earnestly you could save me from him, for he sends me home in low spirits every time I meet him." The Poet, in truth, had the usual poetical incapacity for financial details; and occasioned himself many a heart-ache through life by his inability to manage his own pecuniary affairs; his usual efforts for the supply of an exhausted exchequer being only thought of for the first time on the discovery that the former supply was expended. So little idea had he of any systematic account of the expenditure, that on one occasion, when travelling, he suddenly found himself with only a few shillings in his purse, and wrote in the greatest trepidation to one of his friends for a supply. His servant, to whom he had meanwhile communicated his difficulties, recommended a search of his clothes, and brought forth from one of his coat pockets a roll of notes, which supplied the needful finances for some months' travelling!

The birth of a son added new joy to the happy couple, though destined to be the source of many pangs in later life. This, his first boy, was the only child of the Poet who survived to maturity. He had been the object in early years of the fondest hopes that affection could suggest; but before he reached maturity, reason had given way, and the later years of his father were

embittered by the necessity of consigning him to an asylum for the insane. Another son, named after his loved friend, the Rev. Archibald Alison, author of the "Essays on Taste," was the subject of many of the Poet's most pleasing letters, in which, in half sportful vein, he delighted to anticipate a bright future for his boy. Little Alison died at an early age, leaving a mournful blank in the Poet's household.

The residence at Sydenham was signalized soon after the Poet's settlement there, by the composition of his noble lyric, "The Battle of the Baltic." But the anxieties of his position greatly diminished his poetical works. The state of mind produced by pecuniary difficulties, he says, put all poetry, and even imaginative prose, out of the question. Any attempt at original composition became impossible; and after sleepless and anxious nights, I was obliged next day to work at such literary labour as I could undertake; that is, at prosaic tasks of compilation, abridg ment, or common-place thought, which required little more than the labour of penmanship." It will not be forgot that, during these anxious struggles, the Poet had undertaken, and faithfully fulfilled, the pious duty of supporting his widowed mother. His eldest brother, who had been in the habit of sending occasional remittances, had just then experienced reverses in business, which put an end to all hopes of assistance from America. But his success as an author was destined to reap for him more substantial rewards than barren laurels. On the 2d of October 1805, he writes a most desponding letter to his friend and brother poet, Walter Scott; but the relief was at hand, and before he sealed it, he was able to add the welcome postscript: "His Majesty has been pleased to confer a pension of £200 a-year upon me. God save the King!"

His health, which had given way under the severe pressure of cares and anxieties, speedily recovered with the happy change in his affairs, and the year 1805, which at its dawn had seemed clouded with threatening storms, closed in bright sunshine, with improved health, a fixed income, and literary prospects which promised to furnish abundant pleasing and profitable occupation. The happy fruits of it was the production of his "Gertrude of Wyoming," the finest of all his large poetical productions, which was published in 1809, and added substantially both to his fame and substance. It was accompanied by the "The Battle of the