friends and members of "The Household Troops," was the annexed spirited lyric ON THE GLASGOW VOLUNTEERS. Hark-hark! the fife's shrill notes arise! Where Clutha's native squadrons come! The wish of freedom to debar, Or scourge a despot's injured land! Of free-born valour ever fired The soul of Northern breast inspir'd. To mark afar her glittering ranks, In mock array pourtrayed alarm, And braced the nerve of Roman arm. T. C. These examples of his classic and versatile genius were written during the autumn, after he had "broken away from the law." We shall now follow him to his wonted classes in the University, where he entered for the third session in November, and prepared to earn fresh honours. As a concluding specimen of Campbell's prose exercises, several of which were composed during the previous session, I cannot withhold the following Essay, which was one of "the various compositions" for which he gained a prize :— IMITATION. Imitation is that one of the reflex senses by which we make a resemblance, or copy, of any original of nature; and its perfection consists in the nearness that a resemblance bears to the original. Imitation cannot be said to proceed from our reason; long before the intervention of reason can have any influence on our actions, this sense is exercised with very advantageous consequences. In considering Imitation, we shall first explain the nature of those qualities in objects which call forth its exercise; secondly, its operation in those Fine Arts which are called Imitative; thirdly, the nature of the emotions which its operation in the imitative arts excites. Beauty, grandeur, regularity, symmetry, are the qualities in objects which call forth its exercise, and this exercise is principally displayed in the Fine 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. Mechanical 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. The Mechanical 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 colour 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 impression which a description makes on the sense of hearing, in poetry, has no direct likeness to the objects intended to be described. 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 the 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 at thousand scenes, give the mind a livelier representation of the beauties of summer, 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 taste 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 * Marginal note to this sentence:- You are wrong. 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 labour 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 upon learning to speak, walk, &c.THOMAS CAMPBELL, æt. 15. February 14th, 1793. * Marginal note:-If arranged in a certain manner. 80 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. Campbell "About this time," says a fellow-student,* 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 labours. Campbell had then begun to distinguish himself among his fellow students, both by the vigour 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 * 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. |