December 29. MY DEAR SIR, In the familiar occasion of opening the new year on Saturday next, we expect a few friends whom you will not be displeased to meet, and among these a female stranger, who seems to me the very figure of a sylph walked out from the canvass of a capital master. Will you condescend, on that day, at four o'clock, to partake with us the philosophical fare of a boiled turkey with sylph-sauce?-Faithfully yours, W. GODWIN. Among the verses of this and the preceding year are a few short pieces-epitaphs-not found in any edition of his poems. The first was suggested by a deplorable calamity in a private family, where Campbell was intimate; and the second by the death of a clerical friend, whom he regarded as a model of a Christian pastor. The sentiment they breathe is so consonant with all the Poet's better feelings, that the reader may not be displeased to see them in their original, though unfinished state: * I. In deep submission to the will above, Yet with no common cause for human tears; This stone to the lost Partner of his love, One fatal moment, one o'erwhelming doom, Tore, threefold, from his heart the ties of carth: His Mary, Margaret, in their early bloom, And HER * who gave them life, and taught them worth. "We looked to her (Mrs. Shute) as truly elevated, in the scale of beings, for the perfect charity of her heart. The universal feeling of lamentation for her, accords with the benign and simple-minded beauty of her character."-Extract of a letter from. Campbell. ET. 36.] EPITAPHS-THE GRAVESTONE. Farewell, ye broken pillars of my fate! My life's companion, and my two first-born; To conjugal, paternal, love forlorn Oh, may each passer-by the lesson learn, Which can alone the bleeding heart sustain, * T. C. 279 II. He pointed out to others, and he trod Their friend, their pastor, mourn for him; but most The sacred precepts of thy life fulfill, Could we thy mother and thy widowed wife- A third piece, "The Gravestone," hastily written on a slip of waste paper, is too remarkable to be overlooked :--- III. Man! shouldst thou fill the proudest throne, And have mightiest deeds enacted, Thither, like steel to th' magnet-stone, Thou goest compelled-attracted! * These lines are engraved on a monument erected at Monkton Combe, Somerset, to the memory of Mrs. Shute, of Sydenham, and her two daughters, who were drowned at Chepstow, on Sunday, September 20. It is remarkable, that they had attended the Church on that day, and heard a sermon from Philippians, chap. i. verse 21, "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."-Note by T. C. Inscription for the monument of the Rev. Edward D. The grave-stone-th' amulet of trouble Makes love a phantom seem— Calls glory but a bubble, And life itself a dream. The grave's a sealed letter, That secrets shall reveal Of a next world-worse or better- But the seal shall not be broken The correspondence of this year opens with a lively and characteristic letter to Mr. Alison :— "SYDENHAM, January 14, 1815. "Cold and weary with the tooth-ache, my dearest Alison, I return from our village chapel to inclose my accustomed certificate to you. "Eheu fugaces, Posthume!" If you have not yet preached a sermon on the shortness of time, you may instance the rapid returns of the Poet Campbell's certificates for his pension, to prove the fleetness of its wings. . . But, alas! my dearest Alison, had I been doomed to hear you dissert on that subject, it would have been a comfort to me. But I have been doomed to hear a proser-with an east wind tormenting my rheumatic jaw, and nipping my toes-preach for two hours on the shortness of time; while I need hardly say that his sermon proved anything but his text! . . With sincerest affection, yours ever, T. C." * Thus far we have followed the Poet through various alternations of light and shade-here, bright with fame, and soothed by the consolations of friendship; and there, ET. 36.] LETTER TO MR. ALISON-IMPROVED FORTUNE. 281 struggling with unmerited difficulties. We are now to change the scene, and observe him under the influence of prosperity. Of the many discouragements he had met with in his career, some have been noticed, but more omitted, in these pages; for to have mentioned them as often as they occur in his letters and memoranda, would have been needlessly depressing and monotonous. He bore them with fortitude; but what rendered him less fit to cope with the many trials of life, was a delicate morbid sensibility, which aggravated every difficulty; and, to troubles, in themselves but slight and transitory, imparted a sense of acute mental suffering, that often induced serious bodily illness. The most important event in his literary life was the grant of a pension, which had enabled him, since 1806, not only to continue, but to increase, the annuity to his mother and sisters. In the discharge of this pious duty, however, he had often to pay at the rate of twenty per cent. for cash; and if the merit of a good deed be weighed by the personal difficulties encountered in its performance, his conduct was highly meritorious. He never excused himself by saying that he had given hostages to the public; that he had heavy responsibilities and difficulties. at home; but cheerfully taxed himself with extra labour to discharge these voluntary obligations. He was poor in the good things of the world, and could not give plenteously; but of the little he had, he "did his diligence to give gladly of that little ;" and where he gave, "he expected nothing in return." So much self-denying generosity excited among the few friends who were privy to it, feelings of sympathy and admiration; and in another quarter, where it was least expected, it happily awakened an interest which was now to operate with permanent advantage to the Poet and his family. Thus, even in a worldly sense, the good work received its recompense : "What he had sown he reaped fourfold;""and gathered for himself a good reward in the day of necessity." These facts will appear in the sequel; but at the date of the previous letter, nothing had yet transpired to enliven his prospects, or relieve his present difficulties, unless perhaps, the hope, which originated with Mr. Roscoe, of trying a course of lectures in the provinces. The event alluded to, and that which brought to Campbell the earnest of future independence, was the death of his Highland cousin, MacArthur Stewart, of Ascog, which occurred on the 28th of March, in whose will he was left one of the special legatecs. The legacy was nominally five hundred pounds to himself, in life-rent, and to his children in fee; but as it was provided in the will that the special legatees should share any unappropriated residue that the testator might leave, the original legacy was thus increased to nearly five thousand.* Although the legatee was designated in the will by his title of "the Author of the Pleasures of Hope," the testator did not even acknowledge that distinction as the ground of his bounty manifested in the will; for it is mentioned by a member of Mr. Stewart's family, that the "old man, when giving instructions for his settlement, observed that little Tommy, the Poet, ought to have a legacy, because he had been so kind as to give his mother sixty pounds yearly out of his pension."+ * After paying legacy duty and all other expences, the sum amounted to 4,4987. 10s., which is now [1847] in possession of the Poet's son, bringing him an interest of 4 per cent. For the facts here and afterwards to be mentioned on this subject, I am indebted to communications from Lord Cuninghame, and Cormack, Esq., law-agent for the Ascog estates. The legacy to the Poet is conceived in the following terms: " To Thomas Campbell, of London, author of The Pleasures of Hope,' in life-rent, and to his children who may survive him, equally amongst them and their heirs, in |