I do not by this mean to say that I think every one of his censures just.

On the contrary, if I had an opportunity of personal conference with so candid and sensible a man, I think I could in some degree acquit myself of a part of the faults he has found.

But altogether I am pleased with his manner, and very proud of his approbation.

He reviews like a gentleman, a Christian, and a scholar.
Although the "Lives of the Poets" had been promised within a year from January 1809, four years passed, and the work was still far from completion.
In the meantime Campbell undertook to give a course of eleven Lectures on Poetry at the Royal Institution, for which he received a hundred guineas.

He enriched his Lectures with the Remarks and Selections collected for the "Specimens," for which the publisher had agreed to pay a handsome sum.