THOMAS CAMPBELL.—­More identified with his age than any other poet, and yet forming a link between the old and the new, was Campbell.  Classical and correct in versification, and smothering nature with sonorous prosody, he still had the poetic fire, and an excellent power of poetic criticism.  He was the son of a merchant, and was born at Glasgow on the 27th of July, 1777.  He thus grew up with the French revolution, and with the great progress of the English nation in the wars incident to it.  He was carefully educated, and was six years at the University of Glasgow, where he received prizes for composition.  He went later to Germany, after being graduated, to study Greek literature with Heyne.  After some preliminary essays in verse, he published the Pleasures of Hope in 1799, before he was twenty-two years old.  It was one of the greatest successes of the age, and has always since been popular.  His subject was one of universal interest; his verse was high-sounding; and his illustrations modern—­such as the fall of Poland—­Finis Poloniae; and although there is some turgidity, and some want of unity, making the work a series of poems rather than a connected one, it was most remarkable for a youth of his age.  It was perhaps unfortunate for his future fame; for it led the world to expect other and better things, which were not forthcoming.  Travelling on the continent in the next year, 1800, he witnessed the battle of Hohenlinden from the monastery of St. Jacob, and wrote that splendid, ringing battle-piece, which has been so often recited and parodied.  From that time he wrote nothing in poetry worthy of note, except songs and battle odes, with one exception.  Among his battle-pieces which have never been equalled are Ye Mariners of England, The Battle of the Baltic, and Lochiel’s Warning.  His Exile of Erin has been greatly admired, and was suspected at the time of being treasonable; the author, however, being entirely innocent of such an intention, as he clearly showed.

Besides reviews and other miscellanies, Campbell wrote The Annals of Great Britain, from the Accession of George III. to the Peace of Amiens, which is a graceful but not valuable work.  In 1805 he received a pension of L200 per annum.

In 1809 he published his Gertrude of Wyoming—­the exception referred to—­a touching story, written with exquisite grace, but not true to the nature of the country or the Indian character.  Like Rasselas, it is a conventional English tale with foreign names and localities; but as an English poem it has great merit; and it turned public attention to the beautiful Valley of Wyoming, and the noble river which flows through it.