"In the reproof of chance Lies the true proof of and now, in this challenge of adverse fate, Scott's manhood and proud integrity w( most nobly approved. With his creditors, composition would have been easy; but t. usual course lie disdained. `• God grunting hint time and health," he said, he would owe no man a penny. And somewhat declined as he`now was from the first vigor and elasticity of his strength, lie set himself by the labor of his pea to liquidate this enor MOUS debt.
Breaking up establishment at Abbotsford, where the wife whom he loved lay dying, be hired a. lodging iu Edinburgh, and there for sonic years, with stern and unfaltering resolution, he toiled at his prodigious task. The stream of novels flowed as formerly•' :t History of .Aropolcom, in eight volumes, was undertaken and completed, with much other miscellaneous work; and within the space of two years, Scott had realized for his creditors the aniazii.g sum of nearly £40,000. A new and annotated edition of the novels was issued with immense success, and there seemed every prospect that, within a reasonable period, Scott might again front the world, as he had pledged himself to do, not owing to any man a penny. In this hope lie toiled on ;" but the limits of endurance had been reached, and the springs of the outworn brain broke in that stress of cruel and long-continued effort. In 1830 he was smitten down with paralysis, from which he never thoroughly rallied. It was hoped that the climate of Italy might benefit him; and by the government of the day a frigate was placed at his disposal in which to proceed thither. But in Italy he pitied for the home to which he returned only to die. At Abbotsford, on Sept. 21, 1832, lie died, with his children round him, and the murmur of the Tweed in his ears. Chi the 26th he was buried beside his wife in the old abbey of In estimate of Scott as an author, a few words must suffice. As regards his poetry, Blue is now little difference of opinion. Its merits, if somewhet superficial, are very genuine, and continue to secure for it some portion of the popular favor with which it was at first received. Deficient in certain of the higher and deeper qualities, and in those refinements of finish which we are of late accustomed to exact, it admirable in its frank aba;uloa, in its boldness and breadth of effect, its succession of clear pictures, its careless, rapid, easy narrative, unfailing life, spirit, vigorous and fiery movement.
As a lyrist, Scott specially excelled; and scattered hither and thither in his works are to be found little snatches of ballad and song scarcely surpassed in the language. The rank of Scott as a writer of prose fiction it is not so easy to fix with anything like pre zision. So imposing to the mind is his immense prestige as a novelist, that even at this date it is difficult to criticise him coolly; but it is not without risk of' awakening some aodermurutu• of dissent, that the absolute supremacy can now lie assigned Min which at Dile time, almost without question, used to be conceded as his due. Nor is the dissent without some just ground of reason. Scott. with the artistic instinct granted hint in largest measure, had little of the artistic conscience. Writing with the haste of the improrisatore, lie could exercise over his work, as it proceeded, no jealous rigor of pipervision; and on its appearance he was amply pleased with it if the public paid him handsomely. Hence lie is an exceedingly irregular Writer; many of his works are in structure most lax and careless, and some of the very greatest of them are disgraced by occasional infusions of obviously inferior matter. Yet, all reasonable deductions made, it may be doubted whether in mass and stature he is quite reached by any other novel ist who could be mentioned. To class hum or even speak of him along with Shake 4peare, is absurd; but it is scarcely absurd perhaps to say that; since Shakespeare, to no British man has such wealth in this kind been hamster]. If, as we believe, the final test of greatness in this field be the power to vitalize character. to enrich our experience by imaginative contact with beings ever after more intimately distinct and real for us than the men tvc daily shake ands with, very few writers can be held to surpass Scott. Further, he invented the historical novel, and iu doing so, created a distinct literature, brought life into our conceptions of the past, and revolutionized our methods of writing history itself by a vivid infusion into them of picturesque and imaginative elements. On Ins Scotch novels his fame most securely rests; the others, for the most part, being obviously inferior. Scott's was essentially a great. sagacious, practical intel ligence; on the speculative side he was entirely defective. See Lockhart's Life 'f Sir Mater Scott (1837); and the Life by Hutton (1878).