ET. 15.] COLLEGE DAYS-ESSAY ON IMITATION. 83 Me The Mechanical Arts. First of all, Art, the general term, denotes the exertions of man, either mental or corporeal, according to rule, and the effect of this operation we call a specimen. Arts are divided into Mechanical and Liberal, or Fine Arts; these are distinguished by their object and operations. chanical Arts are those which necessity has forced men to invent—whose object is usefulness, to facilitate the improvement or acquisition of the necessaries of life. No definite number can be set to Mechanical Arts; their number increases according to the improvement of different societies; in an unimproved society, the general term of Artist implies all those who supply other men with the necessaries of life. In a more improved society the employment will be divided into many branches. Artist requires but ordinary degrees of sagacity-sagacity I mean sufficient to observe the rules of his art by which, along with habit, he can produce a proper specimen. The object of the Fine Arts is not use, but pleasure or recreation; and here the difference of the objects of the Mechanical and Fine Arts at once suggest the difference of their dates. Men would be far earlier led to provide for the necessaries, than the superfluities and pleasures of life; so that useful arts would engage men's pursuits far earlier than pursuits of pastime. Nay, farther, Mechanical Arts must have been cultivated in some degree of perfection, before even materials could have been furnished to the Fine Arts. The delicate tools of the painter require skill on the part of the workman who makes them. Before eloquence and poetry could have been cultivated, the language of the country must have been refined. Of the Fine Arts there are four which are called imitativePainting, Sculpture, Music, and Poetry. The painter imitates nature by means of color and light. The sculptor imitates nature by making resemblances, or models, of the human form in hard materials. The musician imitates the human voice by producing sounds out of strings, wind, &c. And the poet imitates nature by means of language, or conveying ideas purely mental. These ideas, taken collectively, present a picture to the mind similar to the original object in nature. Some, however, have scrupled to admit poetry into the number of the imitative arts, because the inpression which a description makes on the sense of hearing, in poetry, has no direct likeness to the objects intended to be prescribed. All this dispute depends upon the application we affix to the word "Imitation;" if we take it in its more confined application, poetry will be by no means admitted as an imitative art; if in its more extended application, it will. If we confine imitation to a likeness in the impression upon the senses, poetry, in that case, cannot be said to resemble the other arts; but if we only look to the ultimate ideas which the impression upon the senses makes, poetry will be found to call up ideas in the mind, the aggregate of which will resemble the original. Upon consideration, too, we find poetry* deserves the name of imitative in a degree preferable to the others. Though the painter has it in his power to convey ideas in a clearer manner, through the medium of external senses, yet, upon the whole, poetry can delineate the distinctest scene. When the painter brings together a group of objects, he is nailed down to unity of place and action. His figures of life must have all one attitude and expression, from which they cannot change; and-if we be allowed the expression-one moment alone of the scene, however interesting, can be viewed. What pencil could, in a thousand scenes, give the mind a livelier representation of the beauties of sum *Marginal note to this sentence:- You are wrong mer, or the horrors of winter, than the Poet Thomson has done? The tale may perhaps be told upon canvass, but the moral is left undrawn. The objects which excite admiration can be viewed in a painting; but the effusions of the soul, upon such an occasion, are too refined and spiritual to be described by matter. The advantages of the poet are innumerable; his imitation can be very powerfully enforced upon the mind by the aid of metaphors, similes, comparisons, and, in short, by all the ornaments of language. Nature is the model of all resemblances, and the source of all imitation. But though no deviation may be made from it, yet it can be embellished. Nature is scattered in her beauties, and her beautiful scenes are mixed with imperfections. The embellishment of Nature, then, consists in collecting these scattered beauties, and removing these defects. In this exercise, the skill and tase of the artist are discovered; no rules can possibly be laid down for a case that is so various. But though the artist possesses skill sufficient to collect beauties, yet a great deal is requisite for the arrangement of them. One of the greatest beauties in nature would perhaps form no more than a monster. The artist must, therefore, be cautious of his arrangement of beauty; it must be quite consistent, and such as might exist in nature. Proportions must be observed; that proportion I mean, which we view in the works of nature. How odd would it be for an artist to represent a fine terrace walk in the midst of the wildest scene his imagination could form? or, from disregard of proportion, to give a woman, otherwise completely pleasing in her form, a pair of eyes, which, though beautiful in themselves, would be proportionable to a face six times bigger? Monsters of poetry are also well described by Horace in his Art of Poetry; and with sufficient cautions against such faults. The nature of those emotions, which are excited by imitation, is of two kinds: first, emotions arising from the intrinsic beauty of the objects imitated; secondly, those emotions arising from a perception of design in the imitation of objects. The last of these is the stronger; the difficulties which we see the artist has overcome, gives us pleasure superior to the beauty of the objects themselves. This admiration, accordingly, increases in proportion to the degree of labor perceptible. According to the last law of these emotions, a very surprising fact will occur. If performances are so exactly like nature, that no difference can be perceived, we shall find no pleasure in them unless the intrinsic beauty first mentioned excites agreeable emotions: : some difference or want of resemblance must be left to show us the design which would be otherwise imperceptible. Were it not for this, the original would be as pleasing as the resemblance, which is by no means the case. The intention of this reflex sense of Imitation, is wisely intended for our means of improvement. Were the habits of infancy delayed till reason could acquire them, the prime of man's life might be spent uopn learning to speak, walk, &c.— THOMAS CAMPBELL, æt. 15. February 14th, 1793. *Marginal note:-If arranged in a certain manner. ET. 15.] COLLEGE DAYS-THIRD SESSION. 85 CHAPTER IV. COLLEGE DAYS-THIRD SESSION. In addition to the Debating club already named, there was another-the intellectual palæstra of the Logic class, at which Campbell was already a "popular orator;" and where the choice spirits of his own standing were mostly enrolled as supporters, or competitors. Of this society, young as he was, he had the credit of being the founder. It was called the " Discursive;" and was much frequented by students of the Law and Logic classes. "About this time," says a fellow-student,* " 'Campbell was attending the lectures on Logic and Belles Lettres. This class was ably conducted by the amiable and excellent Professor Jardine, whose judicious method of teaching, and parental interest in his pupils, rendered him a peculiarly successful instructor. He had the art of opening the minds and stimulating the ambition of his students; while, by their personal attachment to himself, he animated and endeared their labors. Campbell had then begun to distinguish himself among his fellow-students, both by the vigor of his intellect, and the brilliancy of his poetical effusions. I well remember some of his jeux-d'esprit, which, however, were more witty and talented than marked by good taste. Although, even then, exhibiting much power of versification and richness of poetical imagery, they did not, so far as I can recollect, indicate anything of that high moral feeling, or patriotic fervor, that distinguish his published productions. I speak, of course, only of those playful efforts of his Muse which, being popular among his fellow-students, happened to reach me. Among his more intimate acquaintances, a higher and purer strain of his genius may even then have been familiar. Having *The late HENRY DUNCAN, of Ruthwell, D.D., founder of the Parish "Savings Banks," formerly Moderator of the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland. He was admired for his erudition; courted for his society; revered and beloved as an upright man, a fast friend-a zealous, liberal, and enlightened pastor. been yourself an Edinburgh student, you are well aware of the literary societies and debating clubs which prevail in our northern universities; and which, I believe, form a peculiar feature in our academical employments. They are, as you know, voluntary associations among the students themselves, with which the Professors in no respect interfere-except, perhaps, occasionally in the case of individual students, in whom they may chance to have a peculiar interest. The object of these associations is literary discussion, on given topics; and their effect is to call forth and stimulate the talents of the young men, and excite among them a salutary emulation. It lays the foundation of a facility in debate-useful afterwards in our civil and ecclesiastical courts, but which, it is alleged, not unfrequently engenders an unamiable habit of disputation. These societies are generally connected with particular classes; and our friend Campbell was a leading member of the society belonging to the Logic class, of which indeed, if I mistake not, he was one of the founders." -In confirmation of the preceding notes, I quote the following particulars in Campbell's own words :- "There was, moreover,' he observes, speaking of this session, "a debating society, called the Discursive,' composed almost entirely of boys as young as myself; and I was infatuated enough to become a leader in this spouting club. It is true that we had promising spirits among us; and in particular could boast of Gregory Watt, son of the immortal Watt, a youth unparalleled in his early talent for eloquence. With melodious elocution, great acuteness in argument, and rich, unfailing fluency of diction, he seemed born to become a great orator; and, I have no doubt, would have shone in Parliament had he not been carried off by consumption in his five-and-twentieth year. He was literally the most beautiful youth I ever saw. * When he was only twenty-two, an eminent English artist-Howard, I think-made his head the model of a picture of Adam. But though we had this splendid stripling, and other members that were not untalented, we had no head among us old and judicious enough to make the society a proper palæstra for our mental powers; and it degenerated into a place of personal quizzing and eccentricity." Returning to the manuscript notes of Dr. Duncan-" I had *The compliment here paid to his early and talented young friend, has been paid-only in other words-to Campbell himself, by one who knew him at this period, and speaks of him "as no less remarkable for personal beauty, than for intellectual acquirements." Mr. Thomson says that their mutual friend, Gregory Watt, died in his 27th year. ÆT. 15.] COLLEGE DAYS-THIRD SESSION. 87 now," said he, "entered Glasgow College for the first time, having previously studied both in St. Andrew's and in Edinburgh; and, besides the Divinity Hall, had the inestimable privilege of attending the instructions of the celebrated Professor Miller, under whom I studied the Principles of Government. This brought me into contact with the students of Law, and I became a member of their society, which was distinguished by the name of Juridical.' I mention these circumstances with the view of stating that the Logic-class society-the 'Discursive' was induced, chiefly I believe by the restless ambition of our aspiring friend Campbell, to challenge the 'Juridical' society to the exhibition of our mutual powers in a public debate. Now, the students of the Law class to which we belonged, were the seniors of those who attended the Logic class by one or two years; and we, regarding this challenge as presumptuous and insulting, indignantly rejected it. This, on the other hand, mortified the pride and excited the anger of our opponents; and in a few days the whole college was ringing with a satirical effusion written by Tom Campbell, in which every member of the 'Juridical'-myself included-was held up to ridicule in no very measured terms." The "satirical effusions" to which Dr. Duncan alludes, consisted of a series of pasquinades, in which the peculiarities of his opponents, physical or intellectual, were touched off by young Campbell with a rather free hand, but with a truth that could not be mistaken. Some of these swift-footed Iambics have fallen into my hands. They are certainly remarkable, as the unpremeditated efforts of his satirical Muse; but if I may venture to give an opinion, I should say they possess more force than delicacy. There is in his boyish satire weight of metal enough, and that, too, of the better quality; but the shaft is at times illpointed, and in its operation more apt-if I may so express itto crush than to cut, when used as a weapon of offence. The wit is of an equivocal species; the humor of that dry, arch kind, in which, even to the latest period of his life, the poet excelled; but I have discovered little or nothing in that particular vein, which would lead me to conclude that his forte lay in satire. All that he appears to have aimed at on such occasions, was to raise a laugh against his opponents; and in this aim he never failed. But of those who had rendered themselves obnoxious to his poetical shafts during his whole curriculum, several felt sore and complained bitterly. "The wound was great because it was so small;" and one of them tells me, more than |