One of the earliest results of the association of Campbell with Murray was a proposal to start a new magazine, which Murray had long contemplated. This, it will be observed, was some years before the communications took place between Walter Scott and Murray with respect to the starting of the _Quarterly_.
The projected magazine, however, dropped out of sight, and Campbell reverted to his proposed "Lives of the British Poets, with Selections from their Writings." Toward the close of the year he addressed the following letter to Mr. Scott:
A very excellent and gentlemanlike man--albeit a bookseller--Murray, of Fleet Street, is willing to give for our joint "Lives of the Poets," on the plan we proposed to the trade a twelvemonth ago, a thousand pounds. For my part, I think the engagement very desirable, and have no uneasiness on the subject, except my fear that you may be too much engaged to have to do with it, as five hundred pounds may not be to you the temptation that it appears to a poor devil like myself. Murray is the only gentleman, except Constable, in the trade;--I may also, perhaps, except Hood. I have seldom seen a pleasanter man to deal with. .... Our names are what Murray principally wants--_yours_ in particular.... I will not wish, even in confidence, to say anything ill of the London booksellers _beyond their deserts_; but I assure you that, to compare this offer of Murray's with their usual offers, it is magnanimous indeed.... The fallen prices of literature-which is getting worse by the horrible complexion of the times-make me often rather gloomy at the life I am likely to lead.
Scott entered into Campbell's agreement with kindness and promptitude, and it was arranged, under certain stipulations, that the plan should have his zealous cooperation; but as the number and importance of his literary engagements increased, he declined to take an active part either in the magazine or the other undertaking. "I saw Campbell two days ago," writes Murray to Constable, "and he told me that Mr. Scott had declined, and modestly asked if it would do by _himself_ alone; but this I declined in a way that did not leave us the less friends."
At length, after many communications and much personal intercourse, Murray agreed with Campbell to bring out his work, without the commanding name of Walter Scott, and with the name of Thomas Campbell alone as Editor of the "Selections from the British Poets." The arrangement seems to have been made towards the end of 1808. In January 1809 Campbell writes of his intention "to devote a year exclusively to the work," but the labour it involved was perhaps greater than he had anticipated. It was his first important prose work; and prose requires continuous labour. It cannot, like a piece of poetry, be thrown off at a heat while the fit is on. Campbell stopped occasionally in the midst of his work to write poems, among others, his "Gertrude of Wyoming," which confirmed his poetical reputation. Murray sent a copy of the volume to Walter Scott, and requested a review for the _Quarterly_, which was then in its first year. What Campbell thought of the review will appear from the following letter: