a 'bugbear' to Campbell. This I infer from an observation of
Mrs. Campbell's in reply to an expression of regret on my part
that her husband did not attempt something on a grand Scale.
'It is unfortunate for Campbell,' said she, 'that he lives in
the same age with Scott and Byron.' I asked why. 'Oh,' said
she, 'they write so much and so rapidly. Now Campbell writes
slowly, and it takes him some time to get under way; and just
as he has fairly begun, out comes one of their poems, that
sets the world agog and quite daunts him, so that he throws by
his pen in despair.'

"'I pointed out the essential difference in their kinds of
poetry, and the qualities which insured perpetuity to that of
her husband. 'You can't persuade Campbell of that,' said she.
'He is apt to undervalue his own works, and to consider his
own lights put out, whenever they come blazing out with their
great torches.'

"'I repeated the conversation to Scott sometime afterward,
and it drew forth a characteristic comment. 'Pooh!' said he,
good-humoredly, 'how can Campbell mistake the matter so
much. Poetry goes by quality, not by bulk. My poems are mere
cairngorms, wrought up, perhaps, with a cunning hand, and may
pass well in the market as long as cairngorms are the fashion;
but they are mere Scotch pebbles after all; now Tom Campbell's
are real diamonds, and diamonds of the first water.'"

"The foregoing is new to us, and full of a double interest. It is
followed, however, by a statement, that needs a word of explanation.
Mr. Irving says: