same time, the creation of such works of imagination indicated great acquaintance with the scenes and the people where his plot was laid. Southey's "Life of Nelson" has long been a popular work among young men.

THOMAS CAMPBELL (1777-1844) was a native of Glasgow, though of an Argyllshire family. His parents had become impoverished, but they contrived to give their son a good education, and sent him to the University of Glasgow. He gained a prize for a poem on "The Origin of Evil,” in the style of Pope. He was known among his fellow-students as a writer of poetry between his fourteenth and sixteenth years. His fine taste and pure diction even then gained admiration; and the professor of Greek praised his translation of parts of "The Clouds" of Aristophanes as the best ever sent in by his students. For a few years Campbell acted as tutor in private families, and was very kindly treated.

Meanwhile he was composing "The Pleasures of Hope," which, after some period of disappointment so trying to young authors, was published when he was only twenty-one. It made its mark at once, and brought him not only fame, but financial reward. He got £60 for the manuscript, and £50 on each succeeding edition of two thousand copies. It ran through four editions in a single year. He added over a hundred and fifty lines to the poem after the first edition; and when in 1803 he published a quarto edition, he is said to have gained £1,000. It was remarkable success for so young a man- "younger even in appearance than in years,” as Mrs. Fletcher records.

Dr. Gregory, the eminent physician of Edinburgh, happened to go into the publisher's shop, and took up the new volume. 66 Ah," said he, "what have we here-‘The Pleasures of Hope'!" He began to read, and was SO

much inferior to the author's ability, I think them on the whole a very extraordinary production. He is, I believe, the only poet these kingdoms have produced in a low rank of life since Shakespeare, I should rather say since Prior, who need not be indebted for any part of his praise to a charitable consideration of his origin and the disadvantages under which he has laboured." Others have borne a similar testimony with fuller knowledge. Professor Wilson stated in his essay on Burns that he "is by far the greatest poet that ever sprang from the bosom of the people, and lived and died in a humble condition. Indeed, no country in the world but Scotland could have produced such a man; and he will be for ever regarded as the glorious representative of the genius of his country. He was born a poet if ever man was, and to his native genius alone is owing the perpetuity of his fame." His country has fully appreciated him, and his works have continued to be popular. Wherever Scotchmen go, they carry admiration of their national bard with them; and thousands unfamiliar with the provincial dialect in which his poems and songs are written perceive and admire his genius.

"Had

"He died at thirty-seven," says Mrs. Oliphant. he died ten years earlier his reputation would scarcely have been less, and he would have escaped a great deal of misery; but it is not for us to reckon with Providence." It was a great achievement of youth, and has found appropriate honour in many a statue in his native country; and within a century after his death a marble bust of the prodigal son of the Church of Scotland has been placed in Westminster Abbey ! It was subscribed for in sums not more than a shilling each by all ranks, including the Prince of Wales as Duke of Rothesay, the Scottish members of the Houses of Lords and Commons, and many thousands of his country

men in all parts of the world. And what is more gratifying, as Principal Shairp has said, "wherever the English tongue is heard beneath the suns of India, amid Africa's deserts, on the western prairies of America, among the squatters of Australia-wherever men of British blood would give vent to their deepest, kindliest, most genial feelings, it is to the songs of Burns they spontaneously turn, and find in them at once a perfect utterance and a fresh tie of brotherhood. It is this which forms Burns's most enduring claim on the world's gratitude." To the scenes of his birth pilgrims constantly go to pay their tribute of respect to his genius, as they gaze on the "auld clay biggin" where he first saw the light, "Alloway's haunted kirk," the "banks and braes o' bonnie Doon," and the monument which his admirers erected on the spot rendered ever classic by his youthful Muse.

JOHN MAYNE (1761-1836), a contemporary of Burns, but who long outlived him, was a native of Dumfries, and prepared his "Siller Gun" at the age of fifteen, while an apprentice in the Dumfries Journal.

The "Marseillaise," which has so often accompanied revolutions in France, was the product of a youth. It was written by ROUGET DE LISLE (1760-1836). Lamartine thus describes the origin of the patriotic song :— "There was at this time a young officer of artillery in garrison at Strassburg. His name was Rouget de Lisle. He was born at Lons-leSaulnier, in the Jura, a country of reveries and energy, as mountainous regions always are. The young man loved war as a soldier, the Revolution as a thinker. By his verses and his music he lightened the tediousness of the garrison. Generally sought on account of his double talent as a musician and a poet, he became a familiar visitor of an Alsatian patriot, Dietrich, mayor of Strassburg. The wife

much inferior to the author's ability, I think them on the whole a very extraordinary production. He is, I believe, the only poet these kingdoms have produced in a low rank of life since Shakespeare, I should rather say since Prior, who need not be indebted for any part of his praise to a charitable consideration of his origin and the disadvantages under which he has laboured." Others have borne a similar testimony with fuller knowledge. Professor Wilson stated in his essay on Burns that he "is by far the greatest poet that ever sprang from the bosom of the people, and lived and died in a humble condition. Indeed, no country in the world but Scotland could have produced such a man; and he will be for ever regarded as the glorious representative of the genius of his country. He was born a poet if ever man was, and to his native genius alone is owing the perpetuity of his fame." His country has fully appreciated him, and his works have continued to be popular. Wherever Scotchmen go, they carry admiration of their national bard with them; and thousands unfamiliar with the provincial dialect in which his poems and songs are written perceive and admire his genius.

"Had

“He died at thirty-seven," says Mrs. Oliphant. he died ten years earlier his reputation would scarcely have been less, and he would have escaped a great deal of misery ; but it is not for us to reckon with Providence." It was a great achievement of youth, and has found appropriate honour in many a statue in his native country; and within a century after his death a marble bust of the prodigal son of the Church of Scotland has been placed in Westminster Abbey ! It was subscribed for in sums not more than a shilling each by all ranks, including the Prince of Wales as Duke of Rothesay, the Scottish members of the Houses of Lords and Commons, and many thousands of his country

men in all parts of the world. And what is more gratifying, as Principal Shairp has said, "wherever the English tongue is heard-beneath the suns of India, amid Africa's deserts, on the western prairies of America, among the squatters of Australia-wherever men of British blood would give vent to their deepest, kindliest, most genial feelings, it is to the songs of Burns they spontaneously turn, and find in them at once a perfect utterance and a fresh tie of brotherhood. It is this which forms Burns's most enduring claim on the world's gratitude." To the scenes of his birth pilgrims constantly go to pay their tribute of respect to his genius, as they gaze on the "auld clay biggin" where he first saw the light, "Alloway's haunted kirk," the “banks and braes o' bonnie Doon," and the monument which his admirers erected on the spot rendered ever classic by his youthful Muse.

JOHN MAYNE (1761-1836), a contemporary of Burns, but who long outlived him, was a native of Dumfries, and prepared his "Siller Gun" at the age of fifteen, while an apprentice in the Dumfries Journal.

The "Marseillaise," which has so often accompanied revolutions in France, was the product of a youth. It was written by ROUGET DE LISLE (1760-1836). Lamartine thus describes the origin of the patriotic song :- "There was at this time a young officer of artillery in garrison at Strassburg. His name was Rouget de Lisle. He was born at Lons-leSaulnier, in the Jura, a country of reveries and energy, as mountainous regions always are. The young man loved war as a soldier, the Revolution as a thinker. By his verses and his music he lightened the tediousness of the garrison. Generally sought on account of his double talent as a musician and a poet, he became a familiar visitor of an Alsatian patriot, Dietrich, mayor of Strassburg. The wife