Ere I was up did seem to bid me weep.
If these do so, can I have feeling less,
That am more apt to take and to express?
No—let my own tunes be the mandrake's groan,
If now they tend to mirth when all have none."
Both these passages may have been quoted by some of Campbell's predecessors. This might justify him in not repeating them, but not in writing the criticism to which I have ventured to object. His work holds a high rank in English literature—it is taken as a text-book by the generality of readers; for which reasons I think that every dictum it lays down ought to be examined with more than usual care and attention.
Compare with different parts of the "Lament:"
"And Ardennes waves above them her green leaves,
Dewy with nature's tear drops, as they pass,
Grieving, if aught inanimate e'er grieves,