Western Worthies | Page 8

the scope of his mind has been narrowed by
the arduous and incessant labour devolved upon him by his official
position, he has yet been enabled to lead a life of more than ordinary
usefulness; and future generations will probably listen with wonder and
admiration, when they hear of the extraordinary amount of hard and
irksome labour which, when the eight or nine hours' movement was yet
in embryo, the Sheriff of a county embracing a third of the population
of Scotland was able to accomplish.
Born in Glasgow in 1805, Sheriff Bell is descended from an honourable
and honoured family. His father followed the practice of the law, and
educated Henry to the same career. It did not seem, however, as if the
son cared to have his father's mantle falling upon him. After receiving
the rudiments of his education at the High School of Glasgow, he
proceeded to Edinburgh, where he commenced to go through a regular
University curriculum. So far as the Scottish metropolis was concerned,
the first quarter of the present century was the Augustan age of
literature. Sir Walter Scott was in his meridian. De Quincey, under the
influence of the "Circean spells" of opium, was making Blackwood a
power in the land. Sir William Hamilton, the greatest British supporter

of à priori philosophy in this century, had just been appointed to the
Chair of Civil History. Through the columns of the Edinburgh Review,
Francis Jeffrey was "propounding heresies of all sorts against the ruling
fancies of the day, whether political, poetical, or social." John Wilson,
"Christopher North," that "monster of erudition," was acting as the
animating soul of his celebrated magazine. Amid such a galaxy of
brilliant constellations, Henry Bell graduated for a literary career, and
he was not esteemed the least of the parhelions that shone around the
fixed stars in that spacious intellectual firmament. By contact and
association with such men, he enjoyed exceptional facilities for
qualifying himself as an author; and having the "root of the matter" in
him, he published, in rapid succession, poems, sketches, and reviews
that were more than sufficient to justify the compliment which the
Ettrick Shepherd years afterwards pronounced upon them, when he said,
"Man, Henry, it was a great pity ye didna stick to literature; 'od, Sir, ye
micht hae done something at literature."
Finding, perhaps, that his tastes were literary rather than legal--that he
had a greater aptitude for belles lettres than jurisprudence--young Bell,
on the 15th November, 1828, undertook the Editorship of the
Edinburgh Literary Journal. He was then twenty-three years of age.
The Journal professed to be a "weekly register of criticism and belles
lettres." It contained fourteen pages of royal octavo, and its price was
sixpence. The motto of the Literary Journal--it was often the custom in
those days to select a motto for periodical publications--was the
following taken from Bruyere:--
"Talent, goût, esprit, bons sens, choses differentes, Non incompatibles;"
and this was supplemented by the well-known verse of Burns--
"Here's freedom to him that would read, Here's freedom to him that
would write! There's nane ever feared that the truth should be heard,
But they whom the truth would indite."
On looking over the index to the first volume of the Literary Journal,
we find that it contained original contributions in miscellaneous
literature from Thomas Aird, the author of the Odd Volume; R.

Carruthers (editor of the Inverness Courier), R. Chambers, Derwent
Conway, Dr. Gillespie, Mrs. S. C. Hall, James Hogg, John Malcolm, Dr.
Memes, Rev. Dr. Morehead, Alexander Negris, Alexander Sutherland,
William Tennant, and William Weir. Of those who contributed original
poetry, our readers will be familiar with the names of the authoress of
"Aloyse," Thomas Atkinson, Alexander Balfour, Sheriff Bell himself
(who, by the way, is the most voluminous writer of all, his poems, in
the list before us, including "The Bachelor's Complaint," "Song to
Leila," "Lines about Love, and such like nonsense," "Edinburgh
Revisited," and "To a Favourite Actress"), Thomas Bryson, Gertrude,
Captain Charles Gray, Mrs. E. Hamilton, Mrs. Hemans, W. M.
Hetherington, Alexander Maclagan, John Malcolm, Percy Bysshe
Shelley, Charles Doyne Sillery, Thomas Stoddart, William Tennant,
James Thomson, Alaric A. Watts, and Mrs. Grant of Laggan. A rare
combination of talent! An original contribution from almost any one on
this long list would be esteemed a priceless treasure by the publishers
of the present day. What would Mr. Strahan or Mr. Macmillan not give
to have the command of such a host?
A disposition to linger over the history and varied fortunes of this now
defunct censor, is naturally evolved from the contemplation of the
talent which it was able to command. A well-known author has said
that "whatever withdraws us from the power of the Senses; whatever
makes the past, the distant, or the future predominant over