ET. 27.] STATE OF HEALTH-MELANCHOLY PROGNOSTICS.

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postponed, and when no other encouraging project arose to fill its place, his mental energy began to flag; and he relapsed into a series of bodily ailments, which were much aggravated by the force of his imagination. Could he have reasoned coolly at the moment, he would have seen no real cause for despondency; for, as he himself has recorded, it was "with the shadow rather than the substance that he had to contend ;" and too many of his hours were embittered by the mere habit of anticipating evils which never arrived. In these fits of depression, which he laboured in vain to conceal, Mrs. Campbell was ever "kind and assiduous ;" and cheered at home, and encouraged by his familiar friends, he made strong and repeated efforts co conquer the melancholy, to which he "was so naturally prone." But the difficulty of arranging matters with one of his publishers, who threatened him with a law-suit, was a source of irritation, which every additional letter on the subject revived; and suffering, as he firmly believed, under protracted injuries for which there was neither hope of redress nor apparent limits, his correspondence became deeply coloured with gloomy presages of the future.

This state of morbid sensibility is but too well illustrated by the following letter, in which also he reluctantly confesses the necessity of having recourse to another edition. of his Poems by subscription:

TO JOHN RICHARDSON, ESQ.

MY DEAR JOHN,

SYDENHAM, August 29th, 1805.

Since I wrote you last, I have always checked my wish for hearing from you again, by reflecting how little amusement my correspondence can now afford you, when I have scarcely anything to communicate but anxieties of mind, or complaints about indisposition--and therefore

how little right I have to your punctual attention. But when I reflect on old days of happiness in your society, I fly to it as the only resource I can find. Three months have now elapsed since I have known what it was to lie down or rise to spend a night or day without a disordered state of body, that has made my existence burthensome and useless. My debility has increased to such a point, that I can take no exercise except riding. There was a time when I little expected a walk of a mile to knock me up; but now it is otherwise; confinement to the house is so noxious to my spirits, that I am forced to the only mode of exercise I can support, which is on horseback; and that, in the present bad weather, has induced other ailments, which are only preferable to entire imprisonment. Debility gaining ground at this rate, cannot last long. I speak without affectation to you, my dearest friend, who have known my most intimate thoughts, when I say that a sort of comfort comes over my mind, when I think that the consummation, one way or other, must soon arrive. . There is something in one's internal sensations that tells more of really progressive disorder in the constitution, than medical prognostics can describe-and those sensations I am certainly conscious of feeling. The irregular, but incessantly returning fits of weakness: the heavy and alarm-bell pulsations of the heart; loss of appetite, and a deep oppression through the whole frame, have lasted so long, that I cannot possibly have stamina to support them much longer. Could anything restore me to what I once was, life would have some value-much and dearly should I love it! But what prospect is existence to me, when my mind is so hampered in its efforts, that I hardly finish a sentence of a common letter, without an oppressive struggle. What prospect to see a wife and family that I love, depending on a morbid valetudinarian, whose nerves of industry

ET. 27.] IMPAIRED HEALTH-GLOOMY FOREBODINGS.

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are cut asunder by sickness! The perusal of a few pages half fevers me; and it would need the day entire and healthy, to fulfil the responsibility I have before me. Yet the dreadful and melancholy idea of leaving my unfortunate wife and infants on this wide world, binds me to existence. I shudder at what may happen if they are left as it is not impossible they may soon be. I will not deny that the very reflection on this possibility makes me worse than I should necessarily be, under the real complaints I suffer. But it produces one good effect—it has made me arrange matters so that, at all events, if I should not survive this illness, something will accrue to Matilda and the little ones-I have determined not to dispose of my copyright of the next volume that Doig claims; * and I think there is little probability of his making anything of it at law. . . I had gone some length in printing a small edition, of which I expected some profits; but I had counted on more than was reasonable, on stricter calculation. Without a firm support from the booksellers-a cordial and warm assistance-it is not safe risking even a shilling pamphlet. On sounding the London booksellers, I have reason to dread they would be entirely passive in selling this volume. I must also tell you in confidence, that I find dependence on them so humiliating-I find them so prone to insult all but the prosperous and independent that I have secretly determined to have in future as little as possible to do with them. I know the disagreeableness of again publishing by the support of my friends, as in the last quarto. I feel it, I assure you, a little mortifying; but still it is a million of times more agreeable than dependence on the trade; and I am determined to publish in the manner I have mentioned. I shall rather depend

* See this stated Vol. II. p. 18.

on my friends, than the gentlemen of the "Row ;" and this you may rely on, that I know now sufficiently the art of publishing, to get a most beautiful book for my subscribers, with sufficient profit to myself. I shall have four very beautiful engravings, and none but my most select poems. I only want three hundred names; and so much do I count on London for assistance, that I shall be well contented if a third part of what I disposed of in the last edition be got off in Edinburgh-perhaps even fifty would be the quota for Scotland. God bless you and THOS. CAMPBELL.

yours,

The month of September was consumed by renewed efforts, on the part of Campbell's friends and advisers, to adjust the long pending difference between him and his Edinburgh publisher. Having no desire to revive this ungrateful question, I gladly pass on to subjects of more general interest.

It has been seen in his letter of June 28th, that in the event of defeat in carrying out his scheme of the "Poets," Campbell had projected a collection of Irish melodies. The plan was communicated in the first instance to Walter Scott, and then to Mr. George Thomson, by whom it was favourably entertained; and through him the Songs were expected to find a sure introduction to popularity. In this enterprise, however, the Poet was again discouraged the ground was understood to be already bespoken-if not occupied—and, if report said truly, so efficiently occupied, as to render competition hazardous. Under this impression, he declined the larger work, and resolved to confine himself to a few popular ballads, in continuation of those which had already appeared with his name. But in this plan he was also defeated. In a letter to Mr. Richardson, the subject is thus briefly noticed :—“ . I troubled

ET. 27.]

IRISH MELODIES-MUSIC BY THOMSON.

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Grahame with a commission-to apologise to Thomson for declining his proposal of sending him a few songs, both from my present indifferent health, and from a view of publishing some songs myself. I am now a little better; but I have laid aside for the present my view of publishing any songs, and must trouble you also with a commission to Mr. Thomson, saying that I shall be happy to attempt some pieces that may suit his music-but that I cannot leave my present avocations,* without material damage to my pecuniary profits. I am sorry to be obliged to bargain with one so much my friend; but my exertions are limited by indifferent health-my expenses are heavy; and numerous as my responsibilities are, my time would be lost in attempting to do any thing, unless I got such terms as Scott has got from Whyte. If he can extend the commission to five or six songs, I can set seriously about the task-if he cannot, it would be a material damage to break my present avocations. You will say this, perhaps, in a more gainly way than I can write it. I shall be happy to have Mr. Thomson's answer when convenient. I am still extremely weak. God bless you, my affectionate friend ! Believe me yours, eternally,

THOS. CAMPBELL.

His feelings of disappointment, arising out of these "rejected schemes" of the British Poets-feelings which he could no longer suppress, found vent in an affecting letter to his more fortunate brother poet, whose friendship was a source of honest pride and consolation.

* These were the "Annals," Biographical Sketches, revision of his Poems, engagements with "The Star," and Specimens of Scottish Poetry.