From Argyleshire, where his residence was not a protracted one, Campbell
removed to Edinburgh. There he soon became introduced to some of the
first men of the age, whose friendship and kindness could not fail
to stimulate a mind like that of Campbell. He became intimate with the
late Dugald Stewart; and almost every other leading professor of the
University of Edinburgh was his friend. While in Edinburgh, he brought
out his celebrated "Pleasures of Hope," at the age of twenty-one. It is
perhaps not too much to say of this work, that no poet of this country
ever produced, at so early an age, a more elaborate and finished
performance. For this work, which for twenty years produced the
publishers between two and three hundred pounds a year, the author
received at first but £10, which was afterwards increased by an
additional sum, and by the profits of a quarto edition of the work. By
a subsequent act of the legislature, extending the term of copyright,
it reverted again to the author; but with no proportional increase of
profit. Campbell's pecuniary circumstances are said to have been by no
means easy at this time and a pleasant anecdote is recorded of him, in
allusion to the hardships of an author's case, somewhat similar to his
own: he was desired to give a toast at a festive moment when the
character of Napoleon was at its utmost point of disesteem in England.
He gave "Bonaparte." The company started with astonishment. "Gentlemen,"
said he, "here is Bonaparte in his character of executioner of the
booksellers." Palm, the bookseller, had just been executed in Germany,
by the orders of the French.

After residing nearly three years in Edinburgh, Campbell quitted his
native country for the Continent. He sailed for Hamburgh, and there made
many acquaintances among the more enlightened circles, both of that