tered, they would earnestly condemn certain prevailing tendencies in preaching, as degrading to the clerical profession, and likely to vitiate both the taste and the piety of the churches. We care not to discuss the question who is most at fault in this matter, nor how and whence these tendencies originated. We are most concerned to know, how they may be arrested. The ambitious and affected cast of discussion in the pulpit which seems designed to startle and surprise, rather than to instruct, to invigorate and to warm, is no harmless nor trivial evil. Whether it be the ambition of style or the ambition of thought, whether the affectation be that of paradox or of oddity, of conceits or of piety, so far as it is designed to make the people stare and to constitute the preacher a marked man, it is hostile both to the dignity and the sacredness of the clerical profession and to the true growth and steadfastness of the churches.

The most effectual way to be rid of these evils is to displace them by that which is better. There is no way of doing this more effectually than by a resort to the Scriptures and the intelligent and glowing exposition of the stores of thought and feeling, of discussion and of appeal, which the Scriptures embody, and will give up under the hand of the workman. There is a manifest superiority in the manner in which truth is handled in the Bible, which will shame away all the trickery of a forced and fantastic eloquence. There is a severe simplicity of expres sion, which will correct an unhealthy taste. Above all, there is an earnest sternness and a fiery directness, that cannot tolerate nor even endure anything that is not business-like, manly and zealous. Let expository preaching be introduced into our churches, and it will form anew the style of preaching, and the popular taste, not by a sudden and marked revolution, but by a slow but certain transformation.

The charge of the late Dr. John M. Mason to his people, from his farewell sermon, is altogether pertinent to our purpose, and adds to our argument the authority of an eminent example and model of pulpit eloquence :-" Do not choose a man who always preaches upon isolated texts. I care not how powerful or eloquent he may be in handling them. The effect of his power and eloquence will be, to banish a taste for the word of God and to substitute the preacher in its place. You have been accustomed to hear that word preached to you in its connection. Never permit that practice to drop. Foreign churches call it lecturing; and when done with discretion, I can assure you, that, while it is of all exercises the most difficult for the preacher, it is, in the same proportion, the most profitable for you. It has this peculiar advantage, that in going through a book of Scrip

ture, it spreads out before you all sorts of character, and all forms of opinion; and gives the preacher an opportunity of striking every kind of evil and of error, without subjecting him to the invidious suspicion of aiming his discourses at individuals."

We are not insensible to the difficulties that the enterprise proposed would encounter. We know that labor and ingenuity must be severely tasked, that the preacher must give himself to the earnest search for truth and for illustrations, more perhaps than to the study of startling groupings of thought and of galvanic spasms of expression. We know that many prejudices must be encountered, that old and inveterate habits must be abandoned, and that patience and hope must whisper the promise of the satisfaction that is long deferred. But we believe that to him who will labor as he may, and will labor as patiently and as long as he must, the reward will come, in abundant and blessed satisfaction to himself and his hearers.

ART. VII.-LIFE AND WRITINGS OF
CAMPBELL.

Life and Letters of Thomas Campbell. Edited by WILLIAM BEATTIE, M.D., one of his Executors. In Two Volumes. New York: Harper and Brothers, Publishers, 82 Cliff-Street. 1850. The Complete Poetical Works of Thomas Campbell. With a Memoir of his Life, and an Essay on his Genius and Writings. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 200 Broadway. Philadelphia: Geo. S. Appleton, 148 Chestnut-Street. 1847.

We have had it in mind for some time past to give an account of the life and writings of Thomas Campbell; the publication of Dr. Beattie's work affords us a favorable opportunity for accomplishing this purpose.

Dr. Beattie's work is on the whole a good one. It is not written with any preeminent excellence of style, though well enough for his object. But the materials which he has collected, besides displaying the character of the poet in its true light and vindicating it from many aspersions, are in themselves peculiarly interesting. The letters of Campbell are the outpourings of thoughts and feelings which arose spontaneously and which were uttered just as they arose without the forethought of being published. The literary history of

several of his poems is given with sufficient particularity; and there are many anecdotes of the distinguished men of the age. The memoir prefixed to the edition of his poetical works is taken from Fraser's Magazine, but besides being erroneous in a few particulars, it was written by some one who had not entire sympathy with Campbell, and who, as a consequence, has failed to do him justice.

There were two enemies which pursued Campbell through life— Highland pride, and poverty. For the former, he was not altogether to blame; for it came down to him, we dare say, from old Sir Neil, contemporary with King Robert Bruce, through all the devious windings of the clan Campbell, undiluted and unimpaired. His poverty he might have resisted better, had it not been that with his Highland pride, nature had given him more than a Highland heart, which beat in sympathy not only for all the near and "far awa' "Campbells, but also for every human sufferer. We mention this at the outset, because his pride and poverty working against each other often involved him in difficulties, and in consequence there has been a certain style of sneer and pity in speaking about him which misrepresents his real character. Thus the writer in Fraser's Magazine exclaims, "Poor Tom Campbell! he exhausted all his sympathy on the Poles and spent all his invectives on Russia." If the writer lives and has read the present memoir, he will have seen that Campbell's sympathy, instead of being exhausted, continued to grow warmer and more expansive to the last days of life. And surely, the writer of the best lyrics in the English language, the life-long friend of Scott and Stewart and Alison and Jeffrey and others too many to be mentioned, the founder of the London University, and the constant friend and protector of the exiled patriots of every land, needs not the pity of any man.

Campbell traced his family, as we have already intimated, to a remote antiquity, even to the time of King Robert Bruce. The Campbells of Kirnan-the branch to which the poet's family belonged-had an estate in the vale of Glassary as early as the fourteenth century, and it continued in their possession for several generations, till the death of Archibald Campbell, when it passed into other hands. Archibald Campbell left three sons; Robert, who was a political writer in London, under the auspices of Walpole ; Archibald, who first went to Jamaica as a Presbyterian minister, but afterwards came to Virginia, where he continued to reside; and Alexander, the father of the poet. Alexander Campbell was a merchant. He commenced business at Falmouth, in Virginia, but afterwards returned to Scotland and settled in Glasgow, where he and a clansman, Daniel Campbell, entered into copartnership as Virginia traders. The firm continued in prosperous business for twenty years. But our Revolutionary War seriously interfered with

the trade of Glasgow, and this old and respectable firm fell in the general ruin. By this unexpected blow, Alexander Campbell, who had married the sister of his partner in business and who had now a family of ten children, was reduced from affluence to comparative poverty, but he easily accommodated himself to his altered circumstances and passed the remainder of his life, at least in comfort and respectability. Alexander Campbell was a man of strong powers of mind and of considerable reading-his favorite subjects being History, Theology, and Philosophy. He lived on terms of intimacy with the distinguished men who then adorned the University of Glasgow-especially with Adam Smith and Thomas Reid. The latter was much gratified with the approbation which Mr. Campbell bestowed upon his "Inquiry," at its first publication, "for now," said he, "there are at least two men in Glasgow who understand my work, and these are Alexander Campbell and myself." He was a man of unimpeachable integrity in business matters; in politics, the supporter of liberal principles; and in his religious views, a strict Presbyterian. He had been educated by the revered biographer of the "Scotch Worthies," Robert Wodrow, and was doubtless well instructed in the truths of the Bible. The Campbells of Kirnan had furnished the Kirk with a succession of elders and, in ancient times, of martyrs. Alexander Campbell did not desert the ways of his forefathers. Family worship was never omitted in the household, and it is interesting to know, that the prayers of the father continued fresh in the memory of the son in the last hours of life.

Mrs. Campbell was of a different turn of mind from her husband. She was of a more lively temperament. She was well read in the best English writers of the preceding age-fond of poetry-and a passionate admirer of Scotch ballads, which she sung with great effect. It is not unlikely that the family pride descended through her; she was always "Mrs. Campbell of Kirnan," to which she afterwards had the satisfaction of adding "mother of the author of the Pleasures of Hope."'" It has been handed down that she held the reins of family government with no slack hand, for which, however, she had the apology that the head of the household was somewhat lax in his notions or at least in his practice on that point. The poet was accustomed to tell a story of his early days which well illustrates the different dispositions of the parents. Mrs. Campbell had a cousin, an old bed-rid lady by the name of Simpson, about whose frail health she was very anxious. So Daniel and Thomas by turns were sent every morning about two miles from the city, to inquire "How Mrs. Simpson was? and how she had rested the night before?" Getting tired of these daily visits and finding the bulletins pretty much the same, the boys concluded to report progress

without actually going to inquire. This they carried on for some months, till at length they thought it time the old lady should get well, and accordingly they reported her as quite recovered. "But woe's me," said Campbell, on that very morning there comes to our father a letter as broad and as long as a brick, with cross bones and a grinning death's-head on its seal, announcing the death of Mrs. Simpson." The culprits were speechless, and so were Mr. and Mrs. Campbell. They looked at the letter, then at the boys, and then at themselves. At last," said the poet, "my mother's grief for the death of her respected cousin vented itself in cuffing our ears. But I was far less pained by her blows than by a few words from my father." He seems to have remembered both pretty well and we are sure got no more than he deserved. But it is proper to say that to Mrs. Campbell, who was much younger than her husband, is due the credit of bringing up their large family with respectability and placing the children as they grew up in stations of honor and usefulness.

Thomas Campbell was born July 27, 1777, and received his name in baptism from the celebrated Thomas Reid. The father and mother seem from an early period to have cherished ardent hopes concerning this, their youngest child-though not more ardent than were realized-and to have watched over him with parental fondness. His education was conducted under most favorable circumstances. At eight years of age he was entered a student of the Glasgow Grammar School, where he continued six years. Living in the bosom of his own family, protected by all the influences of home, and more than all, watched over with untiring love by an elder sister, Miss Isabella Campbell, his affections were developed along with his intellect, and they attained an intensity and purity which continued through life. At the same time every proper stimulant was employed to animate him in his studies. By this means he easily made himself the first scholar in the school. Among the modes of instruction adopted by his teacher, Mr. Daniel Alison, was one which we must not omit to mention, as it had a decided influence upon the style of his poetical writings. Mr. Alison required, as an evening lesson, a translation from some ancient classic, in prose or verse, at the option of the student. Young Campbell most generally made his in verse; and as these translations were required two or three times a week and were continued for several years, they must have become very numerous. Dr. Beattie has printed some of his earliest verses, but they do not possess superior merit.

Campbell was entered a student of the University of Glasgow, at the session in October, 1791. His college career was brilliant. He was the acknowledged head of the Latin, Greek, and Logic