332 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF CONTEM- 
PORARY CRITICISM.—wno. xtiv. 
Mr. Campbell, and the Edinburgh and 
Quarterly Reviews, and “ Revue 
_Encyclopédique.” 
HEN Mr, Campbell’s recent 
volume of poems fell into our 
hands, after the assumption of our 
present critical office, we congratulated 
ourselyes that it had been so ‘long pub- 
lished, that, according to the plan of 
- our work, it was not necessary for us to 
notice it: for we found that it was im- 
possible to speak of it as we could have 
wished,—and we deemed it invidious 
electiyely to notice the Editor of a rival 
publication (the usurper of our name), 
for the apparent purpose of finding fault. 
It has pleased, however, the star, or the 
Muse, or whatever influence it be that 
presides over the darker urn of criti- 
cism,* to supersede our purpose :—for 
this unfortunate volume happens to 
form the only point of contact whieh 
gives us the opportunity, which we are 
pledged not to neglect, of bringing the 
potent rivals of Whig and Tory criticism 
together in our pages, and comparing, 
on the same subject, the respective spi- 
rits of their philosophy. 
The Edinburgh Review, No.LXXXII., 
and the Quarterly, No. LXII. (published 
in January and March last), have, each 
of them, made “ Theodric, a Domestic 
Tale, with other Poems: by Tuomas 
‘Camrsect,” an object of critical ani- 
madversion; and we must see how the 
two Infallibles agree, or disagree, upon 
the subject. And as the Revue Ency- 
clopédique, for February, has noticed, 
also, the same article, perhaps it may 
not be amiss if we avail ourselves of the 
literary steam-packet, and make an ex- 
cursion into the regions of Gallic criti- 
cism—if it be only to see how the poets 
of this country are treated by foreign 
contemporaries. 
With respect to our home Reviewers, 
it will be; of course, expeeted that polli- 
tical prejudices, pro and con, will have 
some influence—for even literary criti- 
cism, among us, is but too generally 
one of the masquerades of faction. To 
which, perhaps, we may be permitted to 
add, that some tribute might be expected 
from national partiality. What. Scots- 
® **High o'er the realms of learning and of wit, 
Enthron’d like Jove, behold Opinion sit ; 
As symbols of her sway on either hand, 
The unfailing urns of praise and censure stand.” 
Hayley. 
Philosophy of Contemporary Criticism—No. XLIV. 
(May I, 
man may not hope to be well spoken of 
in a, Scottish Review? 
Something of this is apparent, at first 
view, from the difference, both of space 
and station, assigned, by the two con- 
ductors, to this little volume. With the 
Edinburgh, it is the leading-article of 
the Number ; and commentary and quo- 
tation are spread through between six- 
teen and seventeen pages. In the Quar- 
terly, it is thrust, promiscuously, into 
the middle of the miscellaneous mass, 
and the pages assigned to it are only 
seven. Nor is this the only indication 
of contrasted feeling, in this point of 
view. The Edinburgh critic applauds 
Mr. Campbell (not more highly, we 
should say, than justly), not only for 
his political consistency, but for the 
increasing intensity of his sympathy 
with human feelings, and his, if possible, 
still more resolute and entire St to 
the cause of liberty. 
“ Mr. Campbell,” it is observed, “ is 
not among the number of those poets 
whose hatred of oppression has been chilled 
by the lapse of years, or allayed by the sug- 
gestions of a base self-interest. He has 
held on his course, through good and 
through bad report, unseduced, unterrified, 
and is now found in his duty, testifying as 
fearlessly against the invaders of Spain, in 
the volume before us, as he did against the 
spoilers of Poland in the very first of his 
publications. It is a proud thing indeed 
for England, for poetry; and for mankind, 
that all the illustrious poets of the present 
day—Byron, Moore, Rogers, Campbell— 
are distinguished by their zeal for freedom, 
and their scorn for courtly adulation ; while 
those who have deserted that manly and 
holy cause have, from that hour, felt their 
inspiration withdrawn, their harp-strings 
broken, and the fire quenched in their cen- 
sors! Even the Laureate, since his un- 
happy Vision of Judgment, has ceased to 
sing, and fallen into undutiful as well as. 
ignoble silence, eyen on court festivals. 
As a specimen of the tone in which an un- 
bought Muse can sing of public themes, we 
subjoin a few stanzas of a noble ode to the 
memory of the Spanish Patriots who died 
in resisting the late atrocious invasion.” 
They quote, accordingly, from that 
poem (as a specimen, at once, of the 
sentimentit breathes, andits high poetical 
merit,) to the amount of about thirty 
lines. 
That the critics “a the Quarterly 
Jamies (and that: critic, especially, to 
whom the poetical department would 
not be unlikely to be assigned,) should 
accord in all the praise that is here 
bestowed upon political consistency, 
and unapostatizing devotion to the 
cause 
