The activity and application of Dr Campbell received an impulse in 1771, from his being appointed professor of divinity in Marischal college, in place of Dr Alexander Gerard, who had removed to the corresponding chair in King's. These two eminent men had been colleagues, and preached alternately in the same church. They were now pitted against each other in a higher walk, and there can be no doubt, that, as the same students attended both, a considerable degree of emulation was excited betwixt them. Gerard was perfectly sensible of the talents of his new rival. His friends had taken the freedom of
hinting to him that he had now some reason to look to his laurels; in answer to which he remarked carelessly, that Dr Campbell was indolent. An unfortunate misunderstanding had existed between these two excellent men for many years: it was now widened by the report of Gerard's trivial remark, which some busy person carried to Dr Campbell's ears, probably in an exaggerated shape. This circumstance is said, however, to have had the beneficial effect of stimulating Dr Campbell's exertions. The manner in which he discharged his duties was most exemplary; and the specimens which he has given in his
Preliminary Dissertations to the Translation of the Gospels, in his Lectures on Ecclesiastical History, and on Theology, afford abundant proofs of his high qualifications as a public lecturer. It will be at the same time observed, from the list of his works, immediately to be submitted, that the vacations of his professional labours were most sedulously employed for the advantage of the public and posterity.
Dr Campbell appears to us to have been one of the most splendidly gifted men that appeared during the course of the last century. His body was remarkably feeble; his stature greatly below that of ordinary men in this country. His health was extremely delicate, and required for the long period of three-score years and ten the utmost care and attention. Yet his powers of application were above those of most men, and, what is strange, were exemplified chiefly in his later and feebler years. He was a man of the utmost simplicity of manners and naïvete of character, and remarkably pleasant in conversation. The works which he has published prove, in the most indisputable manner, that he was possessed of true philosophical genius. His powers of abstraction appear to have been greater than those of most men of ancient or modern times. The study of languages was employed by him to the best advantage; and the accuracy of his disquisitions throws a light upon the nature of the human mind, while it discovers a habit of attention to the actings of his own mind, which has certainly not been surpassed by any of those who have cultivated the science of morals.
As a minister of religion, he was no less eminent than in any other situation which he ever filled. He was esteemed by his hearers as an excellent lecturer; but his lectures were perhaps a little superior to his ordinary sermons. As the head of his college, he appeared to the greatest advantage,—unassuming, mild, and disposed to show the greatest kindness and tenderness to those who were his inferiors, both in regard to rank or to literary reputation. As professor of divinity, his fame was unrivalled. Many of his pupils have expressed in the warmest language the pleasure they derived from his prelections. There was a peculiar unction in his manner which charmed every one. He encouraged those whom he conceived to be diffident, and equally discountenanced those who appeared to him to be forward or conceited. In church courts he never aimed at shining; but he was sometimes roused to great extemporaneous exertion in that field, and it was remarked that his replies were generally better than his introductory speeches. He was a zealous advocate for liberty of conscience, and lent all his influence to his friend principal Robertson respecting
