Library of Select Novels. Nos. 29 & 30. Henry Masterton, or the Adventures of a Cavalier. New York. J. & J. Harper. 2 vols. 12mo. pp. 324. Memoirs of Felix Neff. Boston. Wm. Hyde & Co. 12mo. Method of using Chloride of Soda. By A. G. Labaraque. Translated from the French. By J. K. Porter. New Haven. H. Howe. 8vo. pp. 8. Novels & Tales. volumes. Vol. 1. Novels & Tales. volumes. Vol. 2. By Maria Edgeworth. A new Edition, in nine New York. J. & J. Harper. 12mo. pp. 216. By Maria Edgeworth. A new Edition, in nine New York. J. & J. Harper. 12mo. pp. 216. On Political Economy, in connexion with the Moral State and Prospects. By Thomas Chalmers, D. D. New York. Daniel Appleton. 12mo. pp. 205. Roman Nights; or the Tomb of the Scipios. Translated from the Italian. New York. Peabody & Co. 2 vols. 12mo. Persuasion. A Novel, by Miss Austen. Philadelphia. Carey & Lea. 2 vols. 12mo.. No. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. New Reports of Cases Argued & Determined in the Court of King's Bench. By G. Maule & W. 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Munroe & Francis. 18mo. pp. 414. The Anatomist's Manual. By J. P. Maygner. Translated By G. S. Bradford. New York. Collins & Hannay. 12 vols. 12mo. The British Drama, or a collection of Tragedies, Comedies, Operas and Farces, in the English Language. Philadelphia. J. Woodward. 2 vols. 8vo. The Cabinet of Biography. No. 11. Eminent British Statesmen. Vol. 1. Philadelphia. Carey & Lea. 12mo. pp. 280. The Cabinet History. No. 19. The History of Switzerland. Philadelphia. Carey & Lea. 12mo. pp. 288. The Cabinet History. No. 18. History of Spain and Portugal. Vol. 2. Philadelphia. Carey & Lea. 12mo. pp. 286. The Consistency of Revelation with Human Reason. By Philip N. Butterworth. New York. J. & J. Harper. 18mo. pp. 267. The Complete Works of Joanna Baillie. First American Edition, Philadelphia. Carey & Lea. 8vo. pp. 594. NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. No. LXXIX. APRIL, 1833. ART. I.-Sir Walter Scott. Some Account of the Life and Works of Sir Walter During the last year, very many of the great in intellect have gone down to those mansions where the mighty rest ;but who of that illustrious number was more fortunate in the variety of his honors, or the meekness with which he bore them, more eminent for the silver purity of his delightful fame, than Sir Walter Scott? It is in this light that he most deserves the homage, which the world has liberally paid; well may it kindle a vivid satisfaction in the heart of every friend of his race, to see God's highest gifts combined with virtue; to see the starry crown of earthly honor burning on his brow, who is clothed in the beautiful garments of a kind and gentle spirit. Such examples deserve to be remembered, and held up to the admiration of mankind; they redeem and vindicate our nature. Whatever the cause may be, it is too late to deny the fact, that men have hastened to bow down to the literary as well as warlike idols, who insult and spurn them. We have followed with insane admiration the march of conquerors, even when their path of blood and fire has gone over our own dwellings; we have hung with rapture on the lips of the poetical philosophers, who laugh at virtue as a dream, and VOL. XXXVI.-NO. 79. 37 blot out the realities of a better life; all that makes up the value of our being here, and the infinitely higher hope of a hereafter, have been flung, as a worthy offering, upon their unholy altars. It is true, the fault is ours; we have no right to complain of the inflictions which we invite and welcome; but in these cases, as in many others, something is needed to save us from ourselves; and there is no greater benefactor than he, who corrects and ennobles human sentiment, by casting a healing bough into the poisoned waters. Such was Sir Walter Scott. He did not retreat behind a frozen misanthropy, to cast a midnight shade of mystery around his name; he did not court the favor of man, by defiance of his God; he did not withdraw himself from the public view, that familiarity might not destroy the impression of his presence; his conversation in the world was that of one alive to every human sympathy, of a heart full of kindness and good will to men. There is no fit emblem of such a spirit in the unhealthy light, which rises from the gloomy marshes, only to guide the traveller into the fens from which it sprung; his course was rather the ascension of a star, shining out from its still watchtowers, and regarded by the voyager with religious veneration, as it directs him in his pathway through the sea. has taught us, that the way of fame is not less bright to human eyes, because it is illuminated with a holy light; we may now see, that the powers which Providence has given are not elevated, when they are applied to the purposes of injury and ruin; that he ill accomplishes the end of being, who leaves no trace behind him, but such as the lightning leaves in its fiery track and we may not unreasonably hope, that men will hereafter be more true to themselves, more faithful to the destinies and glory of their race, than to look with cold esteem on the noble coalition of intellect and virtue. It is for this, that we reverence the memory of Scott; it is this which brings him to our recollections, like a welcome and familiar friend. We remember him as we call to mind the venerable features of the honored guardians of our early years, who have gone down to death, and left no bitter thought behind them but the single one, that we shall see their face no more. He All this is characteristic of a noble nature; but there are other elements of his character as a literary man, which bind him even closer to our sympathies. These are the lesser virtues, commonly so little thought of, that there is no credit in observing, and no great reproach in disregarding them; requiring more resolution than the greater and more shining ones, because there is nothing in them which flatters vanity or pride; we allude to the kindness of feeling and liberality of judgment, which men of letters ought to be the first, and are commonly the last to show. It would be a curious subject of inquiry, why the pursuits, which seem most friendly to a spirit of amity and peace, should animate those who follow them to eternal battle; for so indeed it is. We have sometimes thought, that so far as tranquillity is concerned, the name republic of letters was but a questionable compliment to the political form, from which the title is derived. Books have been written upon the quarrels of authors, and the materials for such works are as copious as the laziest compiler could desire; they occupy about the same space in literary biography, that war does in the history of nations; but they would in vain be sought for in the life of Scott; though he was at times not without provocation, under which most of his brethren would have forgotten the precepts of the Christian law. He assures us, that he very early formed the resolution to guard himself against those infirmities of temper, which so easily beset and waylay authors by profession. Such a determination was nothing more than an expression of his natural feeling; it would never have been formed by one, in whom virtue would not have found her way without its aid. Every one remembers how Lord Byron undertook to visit the iniquities of an illiberal reviewer upon all his literary brethren; as if writers were under a moral obligation to labor only for the benefit of printers, he rebuked Scott in a very lofty tone as sordid and mercenary, because he had received a large compensation for one of his poems. It so happened, that the amount received for the very work which Lord Byron had in view, had been applied by Scott to the relief of a friend's necessities: nor was it long, before the noble poet found cause to copy the very example he condemned. Here was an instance of gross interference with the private affairs of another, which might have justified retort, when the materials for it were so close at hand; few would have hesitated in such a case to use them: but the feeling of Scott was of a higher strain; he passed the accusation by in silence, and when some years afterwards he had occasion to allude to it, only vindicated his own course, without a single word of sarcasm or reproach. More than this; no man hailed the rising star of Byron with more generous welcome than he, though conscious that before it his own was destined to grow pale; no man cherished his fame more kindly, looked with more tenderness and sorrow upon his faults while living, or sung a nobler requiem over his untimely grave. The severest reproach which one of his friends ever heard him utter against another, was his remark in regard to a living writer, that, great as his ability had been, he had never shown himself the friend of rising genius. He had a right to say so; for more kind encomium on others might be gathered from his writings, than from those of all his contemporaries put together; nor is it easy to recall a single word of harsh or illiberal censure, in the whole compass of his almost numberless productions. His praise was early given, and was therefore doubly kind; it cheered the young adventurer at the outset, instead of waiting until others had begun to raise the cry of victory; and we doubt not, that his single word of encouragement has breathed more animation into the heart of genius, as it pursued its slow and melancholy way, than the world's chorus of applause when its triumph had become complete. There is a moral disease, which very frequently besets superior genius; it is compounded of excited passions, of jealousy and fear; perhaps it may sometimes animate it to unusual effort; if so, it is still a burning fever, which sends a warm glow to the cheek and radiance to the eye, while it silently consumes the heart. We are startled by the manner in which it is revealed; if the mind occasionally rise under its influences upon a seraph's wing, it presently sinks again to the lowest level of the earth. Pope thought he could bless the executioner who would relieve him of his Homer; Collins perished by slow torture; the history of literature is full of these examples, which are courteously called the eccentricities of genius; while they are only those maladies, which self-indulgence leaves the mind as little power to control, as the physical ones, by which the delicate and fair are early struck with death. Genius may inhabit a world of its own; it may have its being in solitary communion with the heart; high inspirations and glorious visions may be there; but dark and fatal passions may dwell there too: the affections are kindling into madness; the overwrought soul becomes its own destroyer; and when the realities of life force themselves in, they are like the breath of pestilence to the heart. Such is the law of |