(Vol. vi., p. 505.)
It is curious that two of the passages pointed out by MR. BREEN, as
containing borrowed ideas, are those quoted by Alison in his recent volume
(_Hist. Eur._, vol. i. pp. 429, 430.) to support his panegyric on Campbell,
of whose "felicitous images" he speaks with some enthusiasm.
The propensity of Campbell to adapt or imitate the thoughts and expressions
of others has often struck me. Let me then suggest the following (taken at
random) as further, and I believe hitherto unnoticed, illustrations of that
propensity:
1. "When front to front the banner'd hosts combine,
Halt ere they close, and form the dreadful line."
_Pleasures of Hope._
"When front to front the marching armies shine,
Halt ere they meet, and form the lengthening line."
Pope, _Battle of Frogs and Mice_.
2. "As sweep the shot stars down the troubled sky."
_Pleasures of Hope._
"And rolls low thunder thro' _the troubled sky_."
Pope, _Frogs and Mice_.
3. "With meteor-standard to the winds unfurl'd."
_Pleasures of Hope._
"The imperial _standard_ which full high advanc'd,
Shone _like a meteor_ streaming _to the wind_."
Milton, _Par. Lost_, i. 535.
4. "The dying man to Sweden turn'd his eye,
Thought of his home, and clos'd it with a sigh."
_Pleasures of Hope._
"Sternitur infelix alieno vulnere, coelumque
Aspicit, _et dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos_."
Virgil, _Æn._, x. 782.
5. "... Red meteors flash'd along the sky,
And conscious Nature shudder'd at the cry."
_Pleasures of Hope._
"... _Fulsere ignes, et conscius_ æther."
Virgil, _Æn._, iv. 167.
6. "In hollow winds he hears a spirit moan."
_Pleasures of Hope._
Shakespeare has the _hollow whistling_ of the southern _wind_.
7. "The strings of Nature crack'd with agony."
_Pleasures of Hope._
"His _grief_ grew puissant. and _the strings of life_
Began _to crack_."--Shakspeare, _King Lear_.
8. "The fierce extremes of good and ill to brook."
_Gertrude of Wyoming._
"... And feel by turns the bitter change
Of _fierce extremes, extremes_ by change more _fierce_."
Milton, _Par. Lost_, ii. 599.
9. "His tassell'd horn beside him laid."
_O'Connor's Child._
"... Ere th' odorous breath of morn
Awakes the slumbering leaves, or _tassell'd horn_
Shakes the high thicket."--Milton, _Arcades_.
10. "The scented wild-weeds and enamell'd moss."
_Theodric._
Campbell thinks it necessary to explain this latter epithet in a note: "The
moss of Switzerland, as well as that of the Tyrol, is remarkable for a
bright smoothness approaching to the appearance of enamel." And yet was no
one, or both, of the following passages floating in his brain when his pen
traced the line?
"O'er the _smooth enamell'd green_
Where no print of sleep hath been."
Milton, _Arcades_.
"Here blushing Flora paints _th' enamell'd ground_."
Pope, _Winsdor Forest_.