minent danger. To this style of writing succeeded another, whose distinguishing characteristic was monotonous simplicity; lives and adventures of love-sick ladies, or, what were still more tiresome and uninteresting, historical tales and rural stories. Such, however, was the taste of the age; and if, perchance, an historical novel or romance did appear, it was as soon eclipsed under the influence of some more amatory and feminine effusion. The success of a few Gothic stories, as they were denominated, brought forward a whole host of others, written upon the same plan; and the metropolis was inundated with Lionels and de Montagues, and cross knights, and seneschals, and pilgrims and warders, and a thousand other ancient fragments, all huddled together without order or arrangement. This age of novel-writing fretted its hour and vanished, and we reached a new era in composition, for which, indeed, it would be difficult to find an appropriate term; the cacoethes scribendi raged like an epidemic, infecting all who inhaled its contagious influence. Some good works occasionally appeared, but those were like wandering stars which ran their erratic course in the sky, with those around, which could either follow the new tract, or quit the old one. The greatest darkness is before the dawning; in the midst of the literary gloom burst forth Waverley, and the astonishment awakened by that powerful production was kept in constant exercice by its no less celebrated successors. The latter of these were evidently founded on a broad historical basis, and while reading their pages, it seems as if the times they recorded had returned again, and we became actual spectators of the scenes they displayed. But, notwithstanding the admiration which these works excited, it was thought by many rather a daring, if not an improper, act, thus to bring forward the real actors of history, and to place them in the same scenes with fictitious personages; alleging against this system, that it would confuse such as were unacquainted with the true circumstances, by causing them to blend romance with history. This danger is now too old to excite alarm, any more than the apprehension that the works of Esop or Gay should cause the rising generation to believe that the inanimate subjects, without the aid of prosopopæia, can talk and reason, and hold "colloqui sublime," like an M.P. or a blue stocking. There is indeed not only no real danger attending these historical novels and romances, but, if properly conducted, they produce actual good,--for such has been the care bestowed upon the Scottish series, that in many instances their composition must have required little less reading and research than that of a true history, Hence is induced a taste for biography and antiquities, and the consequent investigation of our ancient chronicles; for many will be led to turn to such scenes in order to learn more of the characters which had already interested them. The antiquities of a country must be highly valuable to every one who would possess an intimate acquaintance with the ancient manners and customs of its inhabitants. The popular prejudices and superstitions enter no less forcibly than usefully into the general delineation. The terrors of man in that rude state of society in which science had not yet begun to trace efforts towards their causes in the established laws of nature, seem every where to have laid the foundation of a multiplicity of popular creeds, of which the object is to connect man with mysterious beings of greater power and intelligence than himself. The light of christianity and the progress of knowledge, which have done so much to rectify the judgment, as well as to purify the heart, have not yet altogether dispelled the illusions which had possessed the imagination during the infancy and helplessness of rational being.-These incidents, though of no great value in themselves, in conjunction with some general observation drawn from authentic historical sources, may not prove uninteresting to those who are curious to trace the history of national manners and popular superstitions of our own times; and, since it is as representations of Scottish manners, superstitions blended with historical incidents and characteristic traits, interspersed with scenery of the most romantic and picturesque hue, that the descriptions of the Waverley Novels are primarily intended-our materials have been directed into the same channels. Our intention is to revive him if possible in the memory of a grateful public, by designing the present volume as merely another stone to the cairn, the mountain cairn of his literary honours. Some writers suppose a prevailing sentiment to influence their heroes, and every action they perform, and even every word which they utter, seem to be dictated by the ruling passion, and by that only. It is not thus, however, that human characters, even when under the influence of the strongest emotions, are actually displayed on the great theatre of life; and it is not thus, accordingly, that our great master of description has pourtrayed the characters which he employs. it So much interest, in fact, has this excellency of our author's thrown around them, that, if we rightly interpret the feelings of the generality of readers, from those manifested in some of our most popular periodicals, it has long been seriously believed and ultimately confirmed, that many of the portraits in novels have been copied from individuals, who either had lived, or were living at the time of their conception. This, no doubt, is a proud triumph of the author's genius; and nothing surely could have been more flattering to him, however much may have amused him in another point of view, than to find himself so completely master of the imaginations of his reader, as to have invested with a living interest whatever scenes he has chosen to fix upon, and to elevate into a gay resemblance of actual life the vivid creations of his own fancy. A little reflection, however, will at once evince what is the true secret of all this interest; and while there is little doubt that the author has interwoven with his narratives whatever remarkable characters, or incidents, or scenes, his keen observation of life may have pointed out to him as proper for this purpose, it must always be believed that the living likeness of his characters, has, in the generality of instances at least, been derived, not from their invaluable accordance with any substantial originals, but from that elasticity of talent which has enabled the author to enter into the very soul, and to speak with the very tone and meaning of every individual actor, whom he has thought proper to introduce. The Edition of Sir Walter Scott's Novels and Romances, referred to in the notes, is that published by Baudry, Paris, complete in twenty-four Svo vols. |