seemed to think an infant beautiful! But to me there seems to be
a beauty in the earliest dawn of infancy which is not inferior
to the attractions of childhood, especially when they sleep.
Their looks excite a more tender train of emotions. It is like
the tremulous anxiety which we feel for a candle new lighted,
which we dread going out."
The sensibility, too, which he uniformly exhibited towards those
who had shown him kindness, especially his older and earlier
friends, is exceedingly pleasing. In writing to or speaking of
the Rev. Archibald Alison and Dugald Stewart, his tone is one of
heartfelt, and almost filial, affection and reverence; and amongst
all the benevolent actions performed by those great and good men,
there were few to which they could revert with more pleasure than
to their seasonable patronage of the young and sanguine poet. With
his literary contemporaries, also, he lived upon good terms,--a
circumstance rather remarkable, for Campbell, notwithstanding his
good-nature, was sufficiently touchy, and keenly alive to satire or
hostile criticism. Excepting an early quarrel with John Leyden, on
the score of some reported misrepresentation, a temporary feud with
Moore, which was speedily reconciled, and a short and unacrimonious
disruption from Bowles, we are not aware that he ever differed with
any of his gifted brethren. He was upon the best terms with Scott;
and Dr Beattie has given us several valuable specimens of their
mutual correspondence. With Rogers he was intimate to the last: and
even the sarcastic and dangerous Byron always mentioned him with
expressions of regard. Let us add, moreover, that, whenever he had
the power, he was ready, even in instances where his own interest
might have counselled otherwise, to lend a helping hand to others
who were struggling for literary reputation. This generous impulse
was sometimes carried so far as to injure him in his editorial
capacity; for, although fastidious to a degree as to the quality of
his own writings, it was always with a sore heart that he shut the
door in the face of a needy contributor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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