r who thinks
habitually of the critics, either to tremble at their censures or set
them at defiance, can write well. It is the business of reviewers to
watch poets, not of poets to watch reviewers.--There is one admirable
simile in this poem, of the European child brought by the sooty Indian
in his hand, "like morning brought by night." The love-scenes in
Gertrude of Wyoming breathe a balmy voluptuousness of sentiment; but
they are generally broken off in the middle; they are like the scent of
a bank of violets, faint and rich, which the gale suddenly conveys in a
different direction. Mr. Campbell is careful of his own reputation, and
economical of the pleasures of his readers. He treats them as the fox in
the fable treated his guest the stork; or, to use his own expression,
his fine things are

"Like angels' visits, few, and far between." [10]

There is another fault in this poem, which is the mechanical structure
of the fable. The most striking events occur in the shape of antitheses.
The story is cut into the form of a parallelogram. There is the same
systematic alternation of good and evil, of violence and repose, that
there is of light and shade in a picture. The Indian, who is the chief
agent in the interest of the poem, vanishes and returns after long
intervals, like the periodical revolutions of the planets. He
unexpectedly appears just in the nick of time, after years of absence,
and without any known reason but the convenience of the author and the
astonishment of the reader; as if nature were a machine constructed on a
principle of complete contrast, to produce a theatrical effect. _Nec
Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus_. Mr. Campbell's savage never
appears but upon great occasions, and then his punctuality is
preternatural and alarming. He is the most wonderful instance on record
of poetical _reliability_. The most dreadful mischiefs happen at the
most mortifying moments; and when your expectations are wound up to the
highest pitch, you are sure to have them knocked on the head by a
premeditated and remorseless stroke of the poet's pen. This is done so
often for the convenience of the author, that in the end it ceases to be
for the satisfaction of the reader.

___
[10] There is the same idea in Blair's Grave.

"------Its visits,
Like those of angels, short, and far between."

Mr. Campbell in altering the expression has spoiled it. "Few," and