Not long ago he
was in Germany again, I believe to purchase books; for in addition to
his classical scholarship, and his other languages, he is a reader of
German. The readers there, among whom he is popular, both for his poetry
and his love of freedom, crowded about him with affectionate zeal; and
they gave him, what he does not dislike, a good dinner. There is one
of our writers who has more fame than he; but not one who enjoys a
fame equally wide, and without drawback. Like many of the great men in
Germany, Schiller, Wieland, and others, he has not scrupled to become
editor of a magazine; and his name alone has given it among all circles
a recommendation of the greatest value, and such as makes it a grace to
write under him.
"I have since been unable to help wishing, perhaps not very wisely,
that Mr. Campbell would be a little less careful and fastidious in what
he did for the public; for, after all, an author may reasonably be
supposed to do best that which he is most inclined to do. It is our
business to be grateful for what a poet sets before us, rather than to
be wishing that his peaches were nectarines, or his Falernian Champagne.
Mr. Campbell, as an author, is all for refinement and classicality,
not, however, without a great deal of pathos and luxurious fancy.
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