The Yazoo Democrat., 1854-03-01
LITERARY FAsTInIoUsNEss.

/ LITERARY FASIIDlOUSNESS
| He was exceedingly fastidious with reference
to his own productions. He was not satisfied
with effect, but sought to finish and polish, till
he sometimes impaired and enfeebled his poems.
MANY of his poems. as they are now printed, ere
very different from the original impressions
His re touches, however, were chiefly designed TO
render his verse more complete, or to improve
the.vegbal expression of thought. Errors Of
description o. in natural history, such as abound
in Gertrude of Wyoming, he never corrected
Except in the case of The Pleasures of Hope, be
consulted no one before publication. He said
that he never leaned On The taste OF Others. with
that miserable disregard CT his own Judgment"
which was implied in some Of the anecdotes in
regard to his habits of composition, which had
found their way into print. His prose manu-
cripts he seldom copied. His poems he fre
quentIy wrote out very fairly and legiby, on pa
per which be ruled fer the purpose. When he
had completed the manuscript ofhis smaller po-
ems, be would have few copies printed on slips,
to keep by him for alteration and revision
Gertrude of Wyoming, which, of his longer op-
ems, the poet preferred, he wrote in the ieisure
time of a tyvelvemonth. The Last Man was
composed in the space of three forenoons, and
! it was sent to press with very inconsderabie
changes from the original copy. Mr.. Redding
doubts if he ever wrote anything entirely TO his
own satisfaction, exept the Lines on Kemble.
HABITS OF COMPOSITIONS.
Generally, he composed with difficulty. He
could never accomplish the leading article for
newspaper; a task which requires the possession
of peculiar, not to say rare, talent. He could
not express his thoughts with sufficient rapdity,
under the idea Of editorial responsibility; and
hence it happened that Perry was compelled to
assign him to the Correspondence and the Poets
Corner in his early connection with tie Morn
ing Chronicle.
PAINTED BY AN AMERICAN ARTIST.
Besides the WELL known portrait OF Campbell
by Lawrence, several Others were taken at differ
ent periods. About the year 1888, he sat to
distinguished American artist, MIR. S. S. Osgood,
who succeeded in the execution of two very faith
| full likenesses, and TO whom we have been in
debted for an anecdote well worth preserving.-
When the artist first saw Campbell, it was at his
lodgings, near the head of st. James street. Pic
cadily, up three flights of stairs. The poet re-
ceived him in his library, in which there was but
/
filed book cases, and by the hearth was leop
ards's skin for a rug. " When painted my last
picture of that distinguished man." says the ar
| tist, now some fourteen years ago, he was
plainly exhibiting the lines of sorrow and age on
his fine countenance. The dreadful malady with
which his only son was visited, to one of Camp
bells acute susceptibilities, must have been the
most terrible affection that could befall him
tt gave shock to his whole nervous system.
from which he never recovered, and which ac-
counts in some measure for the charge sometimes
made against him of indulging to excess in the
Iuse of stimulants. A slight indulgence over
came him, in the diseased state of his nervous
system. At times found him one of the most
agreeable men I ever encountered; at other times
he was thoughtful, with an expression of deep
IF I.