sels, wizards, and true lovers. He never ventured to carry us into the cottage of the peasant, like Crabbe or Cowper; nor into the bosom of domes tic privacy, like Campbell; nor among creature of the imagination, like Southey or Darwin. Sucl personages, assuredly, are not in themselves s

there is a greater proportion of pleasing and teader passages, with much less antiquarian detail, and, upon the whole, a larger variety of characters, more artfully and judiciously contrasted. There is nothing so fine, perhaps, as the battle in Marmion, or so picturesque as some of the scattered sketches in the Lay of the Last Min-interesting or striking as those to which ou strel; but there is a richness and a spirit in the Lady of the Lake, which does not pervade either of these poems; a profusion of incident, and a shifting brilliancy of colouring, that reminds us of the witchery of Ariosto, and a constant elasticity and occasional energy, which seem to belong more peculiarly to the author himself.

poet devoted himself; but they are far less fami liar in poetry, and are therefore more likely t engage the attention of those to whom poetry i familiar. In the management of the passions again, he pursued the same popular and comparatively easy course. He raised all the most fa miliar and poetical emotions, by the most obviou aggravations, and in the most compendious and judicious way. He dazzled the reader with th splendour, and even warmed him with the tran sient heat of various affections; but he nowher fairly kindled him into enthusiasm, or melte him into tenderness. Writing for the world a large (unlike Byron), he wisely abstained from at tempting to raise any passion to a height to which worldly people could not be transported, an contented himself with giving his reader th chance of feeling as a brave, kind, and affection ate gentleman should often feel in the ordinary course of his existence, without trying to breath into him either that lofty enthusiasm which dis

At this period Mr Scott had outstripped all his poetical competitors in the race of popularity. The mighty star of Byron had not yet risen; and we doubt whether any British poet had ever had so many of his books sold, or so many of his verses read and admired by such a multitude of persons in so short a time as Walter Scott. Confident in the force and originality of his own genius, he was not afraid to avail himself of diction and of sentiment, wherever they appeared to be beautiful and impressive, using them, however, at all times, with the skill and spirit of an inventor; and, quite certain that he could not be mistaken for a plagiarist or imitator, he made free use of that great treasury of characters, images, and ex-dains the ordinary business and amusements o pressions, which had been accumulated by the life, or that quiet and deep sensibility, which an most celebrated of his predecessors; at the same fits for all its pursuits. With regard to diction time that the rapidity of his transitions, the no- and imagery, too, it is quite obvious that he aim velty of his combinations, and the spirit and va-ed not at writing in either a pure or very commor riety of his own thoughts and inventions, show plainly that he was a borrower from any thing but poverty, and took only what he could have given if he had been born in an earlier age. The great secret of his popularity at the time, and the leading characteristic of his poetry, consisted evidently in this, that he made use of more common topics, images, and expressions, than any original poet of later times; and, at the same time, displayed more genius and originality than any recent author who had hitherto worked in the same materials. By the latter peculiarity, he entitled himself to the admiration of every description of readers; by the former he came recom-rity. There is nothing in Scott's poetry of the mended in an especial manner to the inexperienced, at the hazard of some little offence to the more cultivated and fastidious.

style. He seems to have been anxious only to strike, and to be easily and universally under stood; and, for this purpose, to have called th most glittering and conspicuous expressions of the most popular authors, and to have interwover them in splendid confusion with his own nervou diction and irregular versification. Indifferem whether he coins or borrows, and drawing with equal freedom on his memory and his imagination, he went boldly forward, in full reliance on a never-failing abundance, and dazzled, with his richness and variety, even those who are most apt to be offended with his glare and irregula

severe and majestic style of Milton-or of the terse and fine composition of Pope-or of the elaborate elegance and melody of Campbell-or even of the flowing and redundant diction of Southey; but there is a medley of bright images and glowing words, set carelessly and loosely to

In the choice of his subjects, for example, he did not attempt to interest merely by fine observations or pathetic sentiment, but took the assistance of a story, and enlisted the reader's curio-gether—a diction tinged successively with the sity among his motives for attention. Then his careless richness of Shakspeare, the harshness and characters were all selected from the most com- antique simplicity of the old romances, the homemon dramatis personæ of poetry-kings, warriors, liness of vulgar ballads and anecdotes, and the knights, outlaws, nuns, minstrels, secluded dam-sentimental glitter of the most modern poetry-

buskin, and to the dubious and captious shouts of the pit and gallery.

That HALIDON HILL is a native, heroic, and chi

passing from the borders of the ludicrous to those of the sublime-alternately minute and energetic -metimes artificial, and frequently negligent, beaways full of spirit and vivacity-abounding valrous drama-clear, brief, and moving in its images that are striking, at first sight, to minds devery contexture—and never expressing a sent which it can cost the most ordinary reader ay exertion to comprehend.

story-full of pictures, living and breathing, and impressed with the stamp of romantic and peculiar times, and expressed in language rich and felicitous, must be felt by the most obtuse intellect; yet we are not sure that its success would be great on the stage, if for the stage it had ever been designed. The beauties by which it charms and enchains attention in the closet-those bright and innumerable glimpses of past times—those frequent allusions to ancient deeds and departed heroes-the action of speech rather than of body, would be lost in the vast London theatres, where a play is wanted, adapted to the eye rather than to the head or heart. The time of action equals, it is true, the wishes of the most limited critic; the place, too, the foot of Halidon, and its barren ascent, cannot be much more ample than the space from the further side of the stage to the upper regions of the gallery; and the heroes who are called forth to triumph and to die are native flesh and blood, who yet live in their descendants. It has all the claims which a dramatic poem can well have on a British audience; yet we always hoped it would escape the clutches of those who cut up quantities for the theatres.

Among the peculiarities of Scott, as a poet, we nght notice his singular talent for description, and especially for that of scenes abounding in motion or action of any kind. In this department, indeed, he may be considered almost without a rival, either among modern or ancient bards; and the character and process of his descriptions are as extraordinary as their effect is astonishing. He places before the eyes of his readers a more distinct and complete picture, perhaps, than any other artist ever presented by mere words; and yet he does not enumerate all the visible parts of the subject with any degree aminateness, nor confine himself by any means what is visible. The singular merit of his dearations, on the contrary, consists in this, that, m a few bold and abrupt strokes, he sketches I most spirited outline, and then instantly kindles tby the sudden light and colour of some moral tion. There are none of his fine descriptions, ordingly, which do not derive a great part of der dearuess and picturesque effect, as well as The transfer which the poet has avowedly made interest, from the quantity of character and of the incidents of the battle of Homildon to the neral expression which is thus blended with their Hill of Halidon, seems such a violation of authentak, and which, so far from interrupting the tic history, as the remarkable similarity of those ption of the external object, very power-two disastrous battles can never excuse. It is danstimulate the fancy of the reader to com-gerous to attempt this violent shifting of heroic Ae it; and give a grace and a spirit to the deeds. The field of Bannockburn would never male representation, of which we do not know tell of any other victory than the one which has here to look for a similar example. Walter rendered it renowned: History lifts up her voice has many other characteristic excellencies, against it; nor can the Hill of Homildon tell the we must not detain our readers any longer story of the Hill of Halidon, nor that of any other th this imperfect sketch of his poetical cha- battle but its own.

Tacter.

To the list of poetical works given above, we
han here to add two poems, at first published
ymously, but since acknowledged, viz. «The
dal of Triermain,» and «Harold the Dauntless;
and in 1822, a dramatic sketch called « Halidon
In his preface to the latter, the poet says,
that his dramatic sketch is in no particular de-
ged or calculated for the stage, and that any
1empt to produce it in action will be at the peril
*those who make the experiment. The truth
s that, like most of the higher poetical spirits of
he age, he has found out a far safer and surer
into equitable judgments and fame, than trust-
to the hazardous presentment of the charac-
she draws, by the heroes of the sock and

It will scarcely be expected that, in this rapid sketch, we should enter into a respective analysis of those works, so well known, and so universally admired, by the appellation of the « Waverley Novels. The painful circumstances which compelled their anthor to disclose himself are still fresh in the recollection and the sympathy of the public: the motives, or no motives, which induced him so long and so pertinaciously to abstain from avowing himself, it is not our province to criticise, nor do we wish to make a boast of having always believed what could scarcely be ever doubted, viz. that the Great Unknown and the author of Marmion were one and indivisible.»

The annexed is a list of the novels in question,

produced by this great author in the space of Heaven knows how, many of these busy-bodi дел

only twelve years.

It may, then, be fearlessly asserted that, since the time when Shakspeare wrote his thirty-eight plays in the brief space of his early manhood, there has been no such prodigy of literary fertility as the author of these novels. In a few brief years, he has founded a new school of invention, and embellished and endowed it with volumes of the most animated and original composition that have enriched British literature for a centu

have been beforehand with us, both in the and the species of our invention.

Although Sir Walter Scott is certainly in l danger from such detections than any other y have ever met with, even in him the traces imitation are obvious and abundant; and it impossible, therefore, to give him the same cr dit for absolute originality as those earlier write who, having no successful author to imitate, we obliged to copy directly from nature. In nami him along with Shakspeare, we mean still less say, that he is to be put on a level with hi as to the richness and sweetness of his fancy, that living vein of pure and lofty poetry whi flows with such abundance through every pa of his composition. On that level no other writ has ever stood, or will ever stand; though we c think that there are fancy and poetry enough i the Waverley Novels, if not to justify the com parison we have ventured to suggest, at least 1 save it from being altogether ridiculous. Th variety stands out in the face of each of then and the facility is attested, as in the case of Shal speare himself, both by the inimitable freedot and happy carelessness of the style in which the are executed, and by the matchless rapidity wit which they have been lavished on the public.

We must now, however, for the sake of keep ing our chronology in order, be permitted to sa a word or two on the most popular of thes works.

Heroes all

The earlier novelists wrote at periods when so ry-volumes that have cast into the shade all ciety was not perfectly formed, and we find tha contemporary prose, and, by their force of co- their picture of life was an embodying of thei louring and depth of feeling, by their variety, own conceptions of the beau idéal. vivacity, magical facility, and living presentment generosity, and ladies all chastity, exalted above of character, have rendered conceivable to this the vulgarities of society and nature, maintain, later age the miracles of the mighty dramatist. through eternal folios, their visionary virtues, Shakspeare is, undoubtedly, more purely origi- without the stain of any moral frailty, or the de nal, but it must be remembered that, in his gradation of any human necessities. But this time, there was much less to borrow-and that high-flown style went out of fashion as the great he too has drawn freely and largely from the mass of mankind became more informed of each sources that were open to him, at least for his fable other's feelings and concerns, and as nearer oband graver sentiment; for his wit and humour, servation taught them that the real course of huas well as his poetry, are always his own. In man life is a conflict of duty and desire, of virtue our times, all the higher walks of literature have and passion, of right and wrong: in the descripbeen so long and so often trodden, that it is tion of which it is difficult to say whether uniscarcely possible to keep out of the footsteps of form virtue, or unredeemed vice, would be in the some of our precursors; and the ancients, it is greater degree tedious and absurd. well known, have anticipated all our bright The novelists next endeavoured to exhibit a thoughts, and not only visibly beset all the ob-general view of society. The characters in Gil vious approaches to glory, but swarm in such Blas and Tom Jones are not individuals so much ambushed multitudes behind, that when we think as specimens of the human race; and these dewe have gone fairly beyond their plagiarisms, lightful works have been, are, and ever will be, and honestly worked out an original excellence of our own, up starts some deep-read antiquary, and makes out, much to his own satisfaction, that,

popular; because they present lively and accurate delineations of the workings of the human soul, and that every man who reads them is

liged to confess to himself, that, in similar circonstances with the personages of Le Sage and ng, he would probably have acted in the w which they are described to have done. From this species the transition to a third was d. The first class was theory-it was im*ted into a genuine description, and that again and the way to a more particular classificationcopying not of man in general, but of men of a peculiar nation, profession, or temper, or to go a step further-of individuals.

Celtic clans on the one hand,-and the dark, untractable, and domineering bigotry of the covenanters on the other. Both forms of society had indeed been prevalent in the other parts of the country, but had there been so long superseded by more peaceable habits, and milder manners, that their vestiges were almost effaced, and their very memory nearly forgotten.

The feudal principalities had been extinguished in the South for near three hundred years, and the dominion of the puritans from the time of the Restoration. When the glens of the central Highlands, therefore, were opened up to the gaze of the English, it seemed as if they were carried back to the days of the Heptarchy: when they saw the array of the West Country whigs, they might imagine themselves transported to the age of Cromwell. The effect, indeed, is almost as startling at the present moment; and one great source of the interest which the novel of Wa

Thas Alexander and Cyrus could never have ted in human society they are neither French, nor English, nor Italian, because it is aly allegorically that they are men. Tom Jones at have been a Frenchman, and Gil Blas an Issaman, because the essence of their characes in human nature, and the personal situation at the individual, are almost indifferent to the cess of the object which the author proposed to kaself; while, on the other hand, the charac-verley possesses is to be sought in the surprise of the most popular novels of later times are , or Scotch, or French, and not, in the abrat, men.-The general operations of nature circumscribed to her effects on an individual aracter, and the modern novels of this class, pared with the broad and noble style of the fer writers, may be considered as Dutch picts, delightful in their vivid and minute details #mmon life, wonderfully entertaining to close observer of peculiarities, and highly able to the accuracy, observation, and hunur of the painter, but exciting none of those exalted feelings, and giving none of those views of the human soul, which delight and the mind of the spectator of Raphael, Coror Murillo.

that is excited by discovering, that in our own country, and almost in our own age, manners and characters existed, and were conspicuous, which we had been accustomed to consider as belonging to remote antiquity, or extravagant romance.

The way in which they are here represented must at once have satisfied every reader, by an internal tact and conviction, that the delineation had been made from actual experience and observation;-experienced observation employed perhaps only on a few surviving relics and specimens of what was familiar a little earlier, but generalized from instances sufficiently numerous and complete, to warrant all that may have been added to the portrait.

The object of WAVERLEY was evidently to prea faithful and animated picture of the manry and state of society that prevailed in the thern part of the island in the earlier part of century; and the author judiciously fixed up-neral society; and the existing contentions of the era of the Rebellion in 1745, not only as arching his pages with the interest inseparably ached to the narration of such occurrences, but affording a fair opportunity for bringing out all the contrasted principles and habits which inquished the different classes of persons who The divided the country, and formed among emselves the basis of almost all that was pecuin the national character. That unfortunate tention brought conspicuously to light, and the last time, the fading image of feudal chidry in the mountains, and vulgar fanaticism in plains; and startled the more polished parts the land with the wild but brilliant picture of the elevated valour, incorruptible fidelity, patriarchal brotherhood, and savage habits, of the

The great traits of clannish dependence, pride, and fidelity, may still be detected in many districts of the Highlands, though they do not now adhere to the chieftains when they mingle in ge

burghers and antiburghers, and cameronians, though shrunk into comparative insignificance, and left indeed without protection to the ridicule of the profane, may still be referred to as complete verifications of all that is here stated about Gifted Gilfillan, or Ebenezer Cruickshanks. The traits of Scottish national character in the lower ranks can still less be regarded as antiquated or traditional; nor is there any thing in the whole compass of the work which gives us a stronger impression of the nice observation and graphical talents of Sir Walter, than the extraordinary fidelity and felicity with which all the inferior agents in the story are represented. No one who has not lived long among the lower orders of all descriptions, and made himself familiar

he is engaged with scenes and characters that a copied from existing originals, naturally lend more eager attention to the story in which th are unfolded, and regards with a keener inter what he no longer considers as a bewildering

structive exposition of human actions and ene gies, and of all the singular modifications whi our plastic nature receives from the circumstanc with which it is surrounded.

with their various tempers and dialects, can per-ly have ventured in a sketch that was pure ceive the full merit of those rapid and charac- ideal. The reader, too, who by these or st teristic sketches; but it requires only a general finer indications, speedily comes to perceive th knowledge of human nature, to feel that they must be faithful copies from known originals; and to be aware of the extraordinary facility and flexibility of hand which has touched, for instance, with such discriminating shades, the various gradations of the Celtic character, from theries of dreams and exaggerations, but as an i savage imperturbability of Dugald Mahony, who stalks grimly about with his battle-axe on his shoulder, without speaking a word to any body, to the lively unprincipled activity of Callum Beg, the coarse unreflecting hardihood and heroism of Although GUY MANNERING is a production Evan Maccombich, and the pride, gallantry, ele- below Waverley, it is still a work of consideral gance, and ambition of Fergus himself. In the merit. Its inferiority to Waverley is, howev lower class of the Lowland characters, again, the very decided, not only as to general effect, but vulgarity of Mrs Flockhart and of Lieutenant every individual topic of interest. The story Jinker is perfectly distinct and original, as well less probable, and is carried on with much m as the puritanism of Gilfillan and Cruickshanks, chinery and effort; the incidents are less nat the depravity of Mrs Mucklewrath, and the slow | ral; the characters are less distinctly painte solemnity of Alexander Saunderson. The Baron and less worth painting ; in short, the whole to of Bradwardine, and Baillie Macwheebie, are ca- of the book is pitched in an inferior key. ricatures no doubt, after the fashion of the caricatures in the novels of Smollett,-unique and extraordinary; but almost all the other personages in the history are fair representations of classes that are still existing, or may be remembered at least to have existed, by many whose recollections do not extend quite so far back as the year 1745.

The gratuitous introduction of supernatu agency in some parts of this novel is certainly be disapproved of. Even Shakspeare, who t been called the mighty magician, was nev guilty of this mistake. His magic was employ in fairy-land, as in the Tempest; and his gho and goblins in dark ages, as in Macbeth a Hamlet. When he introduces a witch in Hen

was true; when he exhibits the perturbed drea of a murderer, in Richard III., it was because representation was morally probable; but he n ver thought of making these fancies actual ager in an historical scene. There are no ghosts Henry VIII., and no witches in the Merry Wiv of Windsor (except the merry ladies); and whe in one of his comedies, he chuses to wander o of nature, he modestly calls his drama a drea and mixes up fairies, witches, mythology, an common life, as a brilliant extravaganza, whic affects no historical nor even possible truth, at which pretends to represent neither actual n possible nature. Not so Guy Mannering: brings down witchery and supernatural agent into our own times, not to be laughed at by th better informed, or credited by the vulgar; b as an active, effective, and real part of his m chinery. It treats the supernatural agency n as a superstition, but as a truth; and the result brought about, not by the imaginations of me deluded by a fiction, but by the actual operatio of a miracle, contrary to the opinion and belief o all the parties concerned.

The successful reception of Waverley was ow-VI., it is because, historically, his representati ing not only to the author's being a man of genius, but that he had also virtue enough to be true to nature throughout, and to content himself, even in the marvellous parts of his story, with copying from actual existences, rather than from the phantasms of his own imagination. The charm which this communicates to all works that deal in the representation of human actions and characters is more readily felt than understood, and operates with unfailing efficacy even upon those who have no acquaintance with the originals from which the picture has been borrowed. It requires no ordinary talent, indeed, to chuse such realities as may outshine the bright imaginations of the inventive, and so to combine them as to produce the most advantageous effect; but when this is once accomplished, the result is sure to be something more firm, impressive, and engaging, than can ever be produced by mere fiction. There is a consistency in nature and truth, the want of which may always be detected in the happiest combinations of fancy; and the consciousness of their support gives a confidence and assurance to the artist, which encourages him occasionally to risk a strength of colouring, and a boldness of touch, upon which he would scarce

The ANTIQUARY is not free from this blame there are two or three marvellous dreams an