and which, while shattering for a season his bodily constitution, served to reveal new resources in his marvellous mind. He was seized at a dinner party, and had to retire screaming in agony. He rallied, however, and during his convalescence commenced his dramatic sketch of the "Doom of Devorgoil," one of that set of third-rate poetic productions with which he continued to the close to amuse his leisure, and to tantalise rather than gratify the public. Some smaller things also dropped from his pen, such as a Farewell Address, recited by John Kemble on leaving the Edinburgh stage, and some anecdotes of the Scotch gipsies, inserted in Constable's Magazine, containing the crude germ of "Guy Mannering." William Laidlaw, his faithful ally, came to live near him at Kaeside, and be his amanuensis. In May, Constable and John Ballantyne visited him at his own request at Abbotsford, and after a joyous dinner "Rob Roy" was projected. Ere commencing it, he paid a visit to Lochlomond and Glasgow, to study the scenery, and gather the disjecta membra of Bailie Nicol Jarvie. His friend Captain Ferguson, relieved by the peace from campaigning, took a house at Huntly Burn, in his vicinity, which, along with much adjacent land, Scott had newly purchased. He seemed determined to add field to field, reckless of the prophetic "woe" attached to those who do, which was nevertheless fast approaching. His abode now became a resort for distinguished strangers from every part of the world, and this summer it was visited by such welcome guests as Washington Irving, Lady Byron, and Sir David Wilkie. The house of Abbotsford was meanwhile increasing in size and splendour, and assuming its castellated form. In the end of the year he completed "Rob Roy," which was written amidst many obstructions, springing from his severe attacks of cramp and the enfeebling effects of medicine. In no novel has he been less happy in the construction of the plot, and in the adjustment to each other of the very different materials—the two parts, the English and the Scotch, being held loosely together rather than harmonised-but in no novel has he surpassed the individual portraitures of character, or more beautifully described the scenery of his country. Bailie Nicol Jarvie is

the general favourite; but we think quite as much in his way of Andrew Fairservice, the ideal of a Scottish serving-man of the last century, impudent, greedy, conceited, and yet attached to his master, and overflowing with mother wit. Nothing can be better, too, than the "Dougal cratur," or than Rob Roy, especially among his own rocks, "his foot on his native heath, and his name MacGregor.' Diana Vernon is the first heroine in the series who possesses much character, and ranks in interest with the Rebeccas, Lucy Ashtons, Margaret Ramsays, and Fenellas which followed. His common run of heroines, such as Isabella Wardour, Rowena, Alice Bridgenorth, like his Waverleys, Frank Osbaldistones, and Nigels, are very insipid. The most unpleasing characters are Rashleigh and Helen MacGregor, but both are used to much, although melodramatic purpose.

"Rob Roy" became very popular, and Scott was stimulated to begin instantly another and higher effort of his genius. This was the "Heart of Mid-Lothian," which appeared in June 1818. Its reception in Edinburgh, partly from the choice of the locale, was enthusiastic beyond precedent; and within these few weeks, an eminent English author has declared, "that had Scott written nothing else, it had stamped him as the most illustrious author of the age." Its power lay in the pathetic interest of the story, in the simplicity of Jeanie Deans a simplicity which soars up, by a quick, yet natural gradation, into sublime heroism, and returns as easily into simplicity again; in the romantic interest attaching to the subordinate characters, especially to Madge Wildfire, whom Coleridge pronounces the most original of Scott's creations (we beg leave to add, with the exception of Elspeth Mucklebackit); in the admirably drawn portrait of David Deans, who looks like a per-contrâ to Burley or Mucklewrath; and in the purely historical part of the narrative, the description of the fate of Porteous, which shows what an historian of Scotland Sir Walter might have been, had he sought the smiles of Clio at an earlier period of his life. Lockhart marks the completion of this novel as the climax of Scott's career. He was realising apparently about £10,000 a-year by his writings, b

his house was expanding into a castle, a fine family were growing up around him, his popularity as a man and as a writer was unbounded, he was still sheltered by the shield of the anonymous from some of the pains and penalties of fame; and the prospect of a baronetcy, insignificant as it might seem to others, appeared to him a glittering prize, the very head and front of his success. Yet there were dark spots on his sun. His constitution had received a dreadful shock, and he felt, along with this, the conviction that nothing but incessant toil could keep his popularity and his fortune up to the prosperous pitch they had attained. He was annoyed, too, although he bore this better than any other human being could have done, by the intrusion of endless visitants on the precincts of Abbotsford, and by an incessant shower of MSS. and letters from every quarter under heaven. What might have been the case under the penny postage, we can only conjecture; as it was, he was pressed beyond measure and strength, although he seldom complained, and attended to every request. His future son-in-law, Lockhart, at this time made. his acquaintance, and has very graphically described his habits of unwearied labour; his manners so manly, yet bland, in private life; his symposia with his publishers on occasion of a new tale; and his daily life at Abbotsford, where, while the companion of princes, men of letters, and the nobility of the land, he was also the father of the poor, the administrator of justice, the "rememberer of the forgotten," and a common good to the whole country-side.

All the close of 1818, and the beginning of 1819, he continued to be assaulted by cramp, and was reduced to a skeleton; his hair became white as snow, his cheek faded, and the "Minstrel" seemed about to become "the last." He laboured on, however, at intervals, dictating to William Laidlaw and John Ballantyne the "Bride of Lammermoor," "The Legend of Montrose," and the most of "Ivanhoe." The first two of these appeared in June 1819, and were received with the intenser interest that the book was thought the final lifting up of the magic-glass, which had so charmed the cye of the world. Scott one day thought himself dying,

summoned his family around him, bade them a pathetic and Christian farewell, acknowledging his sinfulness, but expressing confidence in Christ; turned then his face to the wall, but fell into a deep sleep, and from that hour began slowly to recover. His disease, which had resisted opiates, heated salt, &c., at last yielded to small doses of calomel. It is doubtful, however, if he ever became so strong as he had been. He was forty-six when first assaulted by the malady, but ere three years had elapsed, his constitution was, at least, a decade older. On the 24th December he lost his aged mother. In the same month appeared the brilliant romance of "Ivanhoe," which was welcomed with a tumult of applause, particularly in England. The effect has only since been equalled by "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and had it been the day of cheap publications, the sale would have been as large.

"Men met each other with erected look;
The steps were higher that they took "

when Ivanhoe rode, with his visor down, into the literary lists, Rebecca by his side, and the Black Knight hovering on the skirts of the tournament. Coleridge says somewhere that there is an exaggeration approaching to caricature in the "Third Series of the Tales of my Landlord," as well as in "Ivanhoe," not to be found in any of Scott's other novels before or since. This remark, made before Lockhart's Life appeared, and apparently without any knowledge of the circumstances in which these novels were written, shows the critic's wonderful acuteness. The cause of this exaggeration lay partly in the disease, and principally in the influence of the enormous quantity of laudanum which Scott, contrary to his taste and habits, was compelled to swallow to abate the pain. Caleb Balderstone, in some of his exhibitions, is precisely such an extravaganza as you might expect from a brain under a twofold morbific influence. Yet, what must have been the strength of the mind which could, in such an unfavourable state, so assert its native vigour! Nay, probably a morbid mood was the appropriate chiaroscuro through which to show us the deep and solemn tragedy of Lucy Ashton-a tragedy which has been ranked

with those stern adumbrations of Fate contained in the Grecian plays, and where, as with the name of God in the Book of Esther, the name of Nemesis is nowhere, but her spirit is everywhere. In the "Legend of Montrose," that hero is dwindled beside three other characters, all admirable and all eccentric,-Dugald Dalgetty, a mixture, in equal proportions, of trooper, pedant, and picaroon; Ranald MacEagh, the gray-haired Son of the Mist, with his inimitable dying-speech to his grandchild; and Allan Macaulay, parcel hero, parcel homicide, parcel maniac, and parcel poet. On "Ivanhoe" Lockhart is disposed rather to look as a triumph of art than of genius, and prefers his earlier tales. It should be remembered, however, that much of the best matter in " Waverley," "Guy Mannering," and "The Antiquary" is borrowed from real incidents and characters, while in "Ivanhoe" he is compelled to make his materials; and if invention be admitted to be a main constituent of genius, he has nowhere displayed more of it than in this romance. "Ivanhoe introduces us into a world as distinctly new almost as the world of "The Tempest," -full of characters for which there exists no real historical type,-knights breathing a more than mortal spirit of chivalry, -Saxons with a plus quam Saxonic boldness and independence,-banditti, who may be called "minions of the moon," not only in their clandestine calling, but in the poetic light which colours them, and, above all, a Jewess who, amidst the depth of her nation's degeneracy, exhibits more than the grandeur of Deborah, and more than the tenderness of Rachel, and sings a song of Zion almost equal to those old strains. which marched with the ark, or trembled out an awful music of adoration at the foot of Sinai, while the Ancient One was thundering on its summit. And nowhere does Scott display more of the master's power than in his management of those strange materials, his adjustment of each to each and to all, the happy cross-lights of contrast which he throws in ever and anon, and the perfect " oneness" of the "dream" which they unite to compose.

His eldest son, Walter, had ere this joined the 18th Regiment of Hussars. In the beginning of 1820, Scott wrote some