When his blood shall be cold as the wintry wave,
And silent his harp as the gloom of the grave,
Then say that the Bard has turn'd old.

HAMILTON PAUL.

A man of fine intellect, a poet, and an elegant writer, Hamilton Paul
has claims to remembrance. On the 10th April 1773, he was born in a
small cottage on the banks of Girvan Water, in the parish of Dailly, and
county of Ayr. In the same dwelling, Hugh Ainslie, another Scottish
bard, was afterwards born. Receiving his elementary education at the
parish school, he became a student in the University of Glasgow. Thomas
Campbell, author of "The Pleasures of Hope," was a college contemporary;
and their mutual love of poetry drew them closely to each other; they
competed for academical rewards offered for the best compositions in
verse, till frequent adjudication as to the equality of their merits,
induced them to forbear contesting on the same subjects. At least on one
occasion the verses of Paul were preferred to those of the Bard of Hope.
The following lines, exhibiting a specimen of his poetical powers at
this period, are from a translation of Claudian's "Epithalamium on the
Marriage of Honorius and Maria," for which, in the Latin class, he
gained a prize along with his friend:--

"Maria, now the maid of heavenly charms,
Decreed to bliss the youthful monarch's arms;
Inflames Augustus with unwonted fires,
And in his breast awakens new desires.
In love a novice, while his bosom glows
With restless heat, the cause he scarcely knows;
The rural pastimes suited to his age,
His late delight, no more his care engage;
No more he wills to give his steed the reins
In eager chase, and urge him o'er the plains;
No more he joys to bend the twanging bow,
To hurl the javeline, or the dart to throw;
His alter'd thoughts to other objects rove,
To wounds inflicted by the god of love.
How oft, expressive of the inward smart,
Did groans convulsive issue from his heart!
How oft did blushes own the sacred flame,
How oft his hand unbidden wrote her name!
Now presents worthy of the plighted fair,
And nuptial robes his busy train prepare--
Robes wherewith Livia was herself attired,
And those bright dames that to the beds aspired
Of emperors. Yet the celestial maid
Requires no earthly ornamental aid
To give her faultless form a single grace,
Or add one charm to her bew