Yes, here he was at last most thoroughly "over done." He recovered from the fit, but he remained so racked with pain, and so utterly prostrated by debility, as to be totally incapacitated for any mental labour. The alternative was complete rest or immediate death. Luckily, benevolence, as well as poverty, never ceases out of the earth. Influential friends, with Sir John M'Neill at their head, took measures for raising a subscription, by which sixteen hundred pounds were realized for Kitto's benefit. This sum, with his pension of one hundred pounds a-year, granted him in 1850, placed him beyond the necessity of any further immediate exertions; and preparations were made for his going abroad, in quest of such relief as might be derivable from change of scene and climate. He went with his family to Cannstadt in Germany, to try the effect of the mineral waters there, which were recommended as likely to be suitable to his case. But for him there was no health in them. Indeed, misfortune walked beside him like a shadow, and darkened all his goings. Within a month after his arrival, the last pride of his eyes, a little boy hardly a twelvemonth old, was taken from him, to the land whence there is no returning. Some three weeks later, his eldest daughter, the brightest and most long beloved, went likewise, leaving her place a vacancy that could never more be filled. His strong heroic heart, so long shattered, was crushed by these bereavements. He never rallied under them; for though for a week or two his health showed some trifling improvement, there was soon a return of symptoms which foreshadowed the speedy end. He died at length on the 25th of November, 1854; and lies buried in the cemetery at Cannstadt, by the side of his two children. Peacefully spreads all around the glowing, pleasant landscape, with the river Neckar flowing through it, and fair vineyards in the distance; but the spot within it the most hallowed, and which will now be oftenest visited by thoughtful pilgrims, is that where he is lying, with eyes closed to the sunshine, taking his everlasting rest!

We have no space left to say much of Kitto's works, but, as it happens, there is not much requiring to be said. His position in literature is obvious to all who are acquainted with his writings. He is the best popular elucidator of the Bible that has written in the English language. Never before was the meaning of that venerable Book, considered as

a collection of Oriental writings, so amply and instructively unfolded. All obscure allusions, geographical references, characteristic phases of locality, custom, habitude, and usage-every thing that distinguishes the volume as an Eastern composition, is lucidly and entertainingly explained. Kitto's work is for the most part of the nature of compilation; but it is so excellent in its kind, and is so adorned with the graces of his pictorial style, as to be entitled to something of the merit of originality. In the use of his multitudinous materials he displays extraordinary skill and judgment. The masses of information which he brings together are not piled up irregularly, but are all artistically disposed, and serve, in the effect produced, a preconcerted object. The Pictorial Bible is not only a monument of industrious research, but also of judicious application: its accumulations of illustrative fact and circumstance serve the purpose of a real and comprehensive exposition, and are brought forward solely to reflect light upon what would otherwise be of doubtful or unintelligible signification. And the same is to be said of the rest of Kitto's Biblical performances. They are all intended to render plainer to general comprehension whatsoever is difficult or obscure in the text of Scripture; and the amount of elucidation offered is greater and more complete than is to be found in the writings of any other commentator. Kitto's services to the church and to society are thus of very high importance, and entitle him to a correspondingly high distinction in the ranks of accomplished authors.

But the man's life is grander than his writings. Here we have once more illustrated the great power of Persistency, and are shown how a man with just and honourable aspirations advances, through the midst of difficulties, towards accomplishment of the work for which Nature had appointed him. Without genius, and with little more than an ordinary endowment of talent, he achieved by means of industry and steady plodding, what few men of brilliant gifts, and with the fairest opportunities, could have effected with a like success. One cannot sufficiently admire the steadfastness, and even obstinacy, with which, in his beclouded youth, he clung to the notion that the pursuit of letters was his appropriate vocation; nor can we too much praise the patience and the earnestness with which, through all privations and distresses,

followed out his aim to its fulfilment. But for this

constancy of purpose, this assurance within himself that he had a call to the work which he was seeking to perform, he could hardly have overcome the besetments that encumbered the path of his ambition. A brave, arduous, much-enduring man, his life presents an admirable example to all literary aspirants; and indeed cannot be contemplated by any one, having to make his own way in the world, without encouragement and advantage. He realized the triumph of power over circumstances in a manner that may be fitly pronounced wonderful; and when at length his laborious days were ended, he left behind him works which, for usefulness and excellency, command, and will long command, the attention and profound approval of large numbers of mankind.

Χ

THOMAS CAMPBELL*

WITH the exception of one or two of the greatest poets of modern times, such as Scott and Byron, no one has acquired, or continued to enjoy, a more extensive popularity than Thomas Campbell. We do not rank him with the great poets of the day, but among poets of the second class he holds a very honourable place, and one that is likely to be permanent. He belongs to the school of Pope and Goldsmith; though in some of his shorter pieces, such as his odes, the style exhibits the characteristics of the freer poetical manner of the age in which he wrote. Generally speaking, his especial power lies in the skilful elaboration of graceful lines and images, in choice detachable sentences and phrases which admit readily of quotation; and accordingly, it has been his fortune to be more frequently quoted than any other poet whose writings are contained within so small a compass. In the senate, at the bar, in the pulpit, in literary lectures, and in the miscellaneous range of periodical writings, his polished and brilliant turns of thought and imagery have all been freely and repeatedly selected to give point to an argument, to complete an illustration, or to serve in some sort the purposes of rhetorical effect. On the whole, the celebrity attained by Campbell is certainly such as to render some biographical representation of his genius and character very generally acceptable; and although Mr. Cyrus Redding does not profess to have furnished a complete, or regular biography, such as he conceives will be ultimately required, his recollections of his friend may serve as valuable material for the future artist who shall take the work in hand; and meanwhile

"Literary Reminiscences and Memoirs of Thomas Campbell," by Cyrus Redding. 2 vols. London: Skeet.

contribute somewhat to gratify the public curiosity respecting the poet's pursuits and fortunes, his ways of working, his social and domestic habits, and the various incidents and circumstances that affected his inward life, or determined the shape of his outward history. From the information contained in these volumes, and from other sources open to us, we propose to render some account of the main particulars of Campbell's life, and to sketch, as well as we are able, some outline of his individual characteristics and activity.

All biographies begin with the same event; and accordingly, we must state that Thomas Campbell was born in the High Street of Glasgow, on the 27th of July, 1777; being the youngest of a family of eleven children. His father, Alexander Campbell, a Glasgow merchant, sprung from an Argyle family in the neighbourhood of Inverary, had at this time attained the advanced age of sixty-seven; though he may be described as a man still in the prime of life, as he lived many years afterwards, and did not die till he had reached the age of ninety-one. Mrs. Campbell was thirty years younger, and is mentioned as being a very prudent and kindly woman, of strong will and great decision of character. Thomas, however, does not appear to have remembered much about his family. "The love of the bygone in his life," says Mr. Redding, "had apparently no charm for him, although now and then a chance anecdote of his college days would come up, and be repeated with a melancholy pleasure." One does not get any glimpse of the kind of household in which he was brought up. It is said that he was the favourite child of his parents; being most beloved, doubtless, because he was the youngest. There is some likelihood that he was petted a good deal, and perhaps very nearly spoiled. A sister, nineteen years old, taught him to read; and when he first went to school, his father used to help him with his lessons. At the age of eight he was placed under the charge of Dr. Alison, a schoolmaster of some notability in his day, for an improved mode of classical instruction, and under whom it appears he did not at first apply himself very assiduously to learning. As he grew older he got on better; the good Dr. Alison having sagacity enough to perceive his pupil's talents, and accommodating his methods of teaching to humour his disposition. We pass over the verses which Thomas made in his eleventh year (which, contrary to Mr. Redding, we do