Corpus of Modern Scottish Writing (CMSW) - www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/cmsw/ Document : 234 Title: Letter from Campbell to Murray, 28 Jan 1809 Author(s): Campbell, Thomas Sydenham Saturday 28 Jany 1809 My dear Sir I am inclined to believe that the more popular form of the elegant Extracts is the best adapted for our work — it is surely a fair competi= =tion in which we shall start, with that ill con= =structed but as I understand very saleable compil= =ation — With respect to the form of the work however I feel myself an incompetent adviser — I am confident enough in my power to make the merit of the book independent of its form. Its title I should call The selected Beauties of British Poetry with lives of the Poets & critical disertations by T. C. &c — together with an Essay on English Poetry — This title page however may be arranged at our leisure; — I begin with Chaucer and continue through the whole succession of English Poets to the last of our own day — Many lives & of course criticisms annexed to those lives will be included which are not found in any pre= =ceeding collection. Many anonymous Poems must also be inserted with merely a notice of the name to which they are attributed upon grounds too uncertain to admit of a Biography. Already I have done much in bringing together a number of excellent little poems which have been but partially noticed — known only to Amateurs & transcribed in their common place books, but most of them rarely and some of them never intro =duced into collections of Poetry — The bulk of them need not alarm you for the space they will occupy as it is the common quality of excellence not to be bulky. but though these little stars of poetical excellence may be individually small, I hope they will form a brilliant constellation. My Biographies I mean to be short, but I daresay you will remember that shortness is not always in= =compatible with being satisfactory — by short I don't mean scanty — Where the merit of the Poet is not much interesting, I will endeavour to make his biography more interesting — Extreme accuracy I trust I shall always attain — indeed with the prospect of such aid as you are so kind as to pro.= =mise me I need not fear falling into errors with the industry I propose to exert — At the same time I do not promise you a book of Antiquarian dissertation — I mean to exert the main part of my strength on the merits and writings of each Poet as an Author, not on discoveries of little anecdotes, and discoveries of his residence and conversation as a man unless such things are striking and can be obtained without sacrificing the great object of my efforts — viz to make a com =plete body of English Poetical Criticism The Poets are all to be reviewed in their cronological succession, but both in my preface & in my biographies I mean to class the minor poets in the different orders of their general merit & particular charac= teristics — To the great Poets such as Chaucer, Spencer Milton, Dryden Pope & Thomson I devote a separate & elaborate disquisition treating them as they deserve like great unities having nothing in common but their greatness — I mean to devote a year exclusively to this effort it is not my part to say any more than I have said (I hope it will not appear immodestly) on my own competency to the task — I shall only add that I have written a good deal on the subject matter of it & read & thought a great deal more — Independent of my duty as a fair dealer which I trust would always deter me from performing a task in a slovenly manner, where the capital of an employer is risqued & employed. I have every motive that can stimulate to industry & that can make me anxious without being intimidated about the public opinion — I seem to myself fit for the undertaking & able with your aid & my own ex= =ertion to lay out the collected stores of my late application in a work that may unite research with elegance & be acceptable to the most respect= =able as well as the popular herd of readers At the same time I know the serious responsi= =bility I owe to the public, & I am well aware aware that I must not indulge in any careless security about the fate of the work — Little as my name is if it were ten times more I should not think it fair to traffic merely for giving that name to make a book. I write you tonight though from fatigue I am not able to enter so completely as I could wish into the full delineation of my plan, but in my letter to Richardson you may see possibly some things which I have omitted here — Among the books which I forgot to mention the Biographia Brittanica & Croft's remarks on the English Poets are two of importance — Much of the Poetry as I remarked to Richardson may be printed while I [¿] proceeding with my labors — With great respect and regard believe me, Dear Murray your sincere friend T. Campbell 1809 Jany Campbell Thos.