Masonic Poets Of Scotland—No. Ii.

cription , Scott reminds us more of Wordsworth than of any other poet of his time . And when we contrast his strains with those of many recent bards , instead of wandering among sickly exotics , or being conducted through the realms of

dreamland , we seem to hear the rapid rush of the mountain stream , or to feel the fresh breeze blowingover the undulating surface of the Highland heath . As the lochlet reflects the blueness of the sky , as the lark sings naturally in upper air , as the eagle soars toher aerie ; so the patriotic feeling was predominant in his breast—love to

"Caledonia , stern and wild , Meet nyrse for a poetic child ; Land of brown heath and shaggy wood , Land of tho mountain and the flood , Land of my sires , what mortal hand Shall e'er dissolve the sacred band

That knits me to thy rugged strand ?" Scott , as a fiction writer , may , without any disparagement of others who have appeared since his time—not forgetting Bulwer ' s brilliancy and eloquence , and the gems of sententious expression in his later works ; or Thackeray's keen and

caustic anatomisations of artificial beings and human selfishness , looking , as he too often does , with cynical irony , on the " seamy side" of human nature—the rouge and patches exhibited to the glaring day ; his men , made-up Pendennises ;

his heroes , thoughtless roues—yet the whole relieved by genuine humour , and , incidentally , by touching pathos ; not forgetting one who has written , not only well , but , for his own sake ( his

reputation ' s sake ) , far too largely—the manygifted Dickens , the immortaliser of Pickwick and Weller , of Cherrible Brothers , of Little Nell , whose story he must be a stoic who can read and not be deeply affected—of a host of other

characters , greater and smaller , that came forth in almost multitudinous exuberance ; without , we repeat , undervaluing others , we may claim for the author of " Waverley , " and with justice , a high and peculiar place among writers of

fictionbringing the dead past full before the eye ; illustrating , with antiquarian fidelity and research , the life and manners of his countrymen in bygone days ; recalling the times of chivalry—the stormy contests connected with the annals of the Stuart

race" The gallant cavaliers who fought in vain , For those who knew not to resign or reign . " In one respect , indeed , Scott did not represent the feelings or reflect the views of a large majority of his countrymen . We refer to his portraitures

of Covenantors and Roundheads , and his treatment of those animated by religious views generally . In considering this , we must take , at least ,, partly into account—though genius should not be allowed to pervert fiction—the impulsiveness and

fervour of the poetical temperament ; for webelieve that the veneration of the high and good was great in Scott , but that the influence of fame and worldly prosperity had smothered its warmth ,, till , as we are told in the record of his closing

timeat Abbotsford , consciousness returning for a season , he said to his son-in-law , " Read me something . " " From , what book ? " was the reply . " Can you ask me ? " Scott said ; " there is but one . " Then , as we are also told , the

sublimesentences of Scripture , and the words of ancient mediasval hymns , were heard murmured by him ,, the spirit feebly assenting its supremacy over the shattered and crumbling tenement of clay .

Of Scott as a writer of fiction , we may truly say that his fame can perish only when the English . ' language ceases to be spoken . How have hisvaried pages stirred the spirit of youth ! how pleasantly have they charmed hours of languor ! .

To what are we to attribute the attractiveness of these fictions , on which chiefly his fame rests ? The secret of success did not alone he in thefidelity with which Scotch scenes and mannerswere depicted ( this , by itself , might please

Scotchmen ) , for the Scottish dialect is but imperfectly intelligible to' Southrons , by many of whom it was at the time associated with ideas of rudeness and

vulgarity ; and it had , moreover , been outrageously caricatured through the expressions put into the mouths of personages such as " Sir Archy Macsarcasm" and "Pertinax Macsycophant . " Nor was the success owing to the skill with which the

plots were constructed—for some of the tales are abruptly hurried to a conclusion , are imperfect in development , and devoid of unity—occasional incidents being , moreover , glaringly improbable .. But these novels were the works of one who had

studied deeply the great book of Nature—who had gone abroad into the world , in search of what the world could certainly and abundantly furnish ,., but which a man of genius alone could find , and a man of the highest genius alone' could fittingly

dejricfc . Scott ' s characters are as human—as perfectly men and women as they lived and moved— - as are those of Shakespeare . Many of them are portraitures from real life ; but not mere correct copies or slavish imitations . Around them is cast