always distinguished by their discipline and respectability, and the Some years after his retirement from the whale-fishing the religious impressions which he had first received from his father and had always entertained, impelled him to desire a more formal and authorised position as a teacher of religion. He entered the University of Cambridge as a student of Queen's College, took his degree of B.D. in 1834, and Holy Orders in due course, taking the superior degree of D.D. in process of time. The Mariner's Church at Liverpool having been then just established, he accepted the chaplaincy. Private circumstances occasioned his removal to Exeter, but he afterwards be came Vicar of Bradford, a very large parish in Yorkshire. After some years however he resigned this office, and retired to Torquay in Devonshire. As a clergyman, Dr. Scoresby is stated to have "combined what may perhaps be considered extreme evangelical views with the most abounding charity and liberality to those who differed from him. His 'Discourses to Seamen' evince the earnestness with which he laboured for the good of the service in which he had passed his earlier years." He took also enlightened and enlarged views of public education, which while vicar of Bradford he laboured zealously to realise. But of all the very various subjects to which Dr. Scoresby directed his attention, practical magnetism and its relation to navigation appear to have been most actively pursued by him through his life. The increasing quantity of iron introduced into the equipment and construction of ships, and the recent construction of the entire hull of that metal, were watched by him with unceasing care; and all the resources of his cultivated mind were at length applied to the most important of all subjects of this class-the inquence of the iron of ships upon their compasses, and the requisite correction of the indications of the latter. He had published various papers on magnetism in the 'Philosophical Transactions,' the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh,' | the Reports of the British Association,' the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,' and the two journals which succeeded it. The substance of these, or of many of them, he now made public, in an improved form, in his 'Magnetical Investigations.' Part i. 'Comprising investigations on the principles affecting the capacity and retentiveness of steel for the magnetic condition; with the development of processes for determining the quality and degree of hardness of steel.' London, 1839; 92 pages, 2 plates. Part ii. Comprising investigations concerning the laws or principles affecting the power of magnetic steel plates or bars in combination, as well as singly, under various conditions as to mass, hardness, quality, form, etc., as also concerning the comparative powers of cast-iron.' London, 1843; 280 pages, 2 plates. Vol. ii., part iii., 'Investigations, with illustrative experiments, on the nature and phenomena of magnetic induction, and the mutual influences of magnetical bodies.' London, 1852; 463 pages. To the section of Mathematics and Physics of the meeting of the British Association at Glasgow in 1855, he communicated a summary of his matured views, and of the evidence in their favour which had occurred since their original promulgation, entitled 'Elucidations, by Facts and Experiments, of the Magnetism of Iron ships and its changes. In this be recalled attention to his plan of a compass aloft, as affording a simple and effective mode of ascertaining the direction of a ship's course, stating that it had not only been extensively adopted by some of our first firms interested in the building and property of iron ships, but had received the particular sanction and commendation of Mr. Airy, the astronomer-royal, and of Lieut. M. F. Maury, the American hydrographer; "that is, as being recommended by both these gentlemen for adoption for determining safe compass guidance, or the correction of adjusted compasses whenever they might be found to be in error." In the further prosecution of his researches on this subject, and with a view to determine various questions in magnetic science Dr. Scoresby undertook, Jan. 1856, a voyage to Australia in the Royal Charter. He was received at Melbourne with great distinction, almost with enthusiasm, and was granted the honorary degree of M.A. by the new university of that city. He returned in August, 1856, but with his constitution much enteebled by the arduous labours to which he had subjected himself during the voyage; and after a lingering illness he died at Torquay, on the 21st of March 1857, aged sixty-seven, and leaving a widow. Three principal scientific works of Dr. Scoresby have been described above. The following enumeration will render the account of his separate publications nearly complete. 'Memorial of an Affectionate and Dutiful Son, Frederic R. H. S., who fell asleep in Jesus, December 31, 1834, aged 16 years.'-'Discourses to Seamen: consisting of Fifteen Sermons, preached in the Mariners' Church, Liverpool, treating for the most part generally on subjects of Christian Practice and Doctrine.'-Jehovah glorified in his Works: a Sermon preached in St. James' Episcopal Chapel, Edinburgh, August 4, 1850, on occasion of the Meeting of the British Association.'-'Memorials of the Sea :' 1, 'Sabbaths in the Arctic Regions;' 2, The Mary Russel. Of both these two editions have appeared. 3, My Father: being Records of the Adventurous Life of the late William Scoresby, Esq., of Whitby,' 12mo, Lond., 1851, pp. viii. and 232. "The Franklin Expedition;' stating his views on its probable course and fate, and on the measures of search for it. 'Zoistic Magnetism.' The contents of this work on a peculiar subject are thus stated by the author himself: " Original Researches in Mesmeric Phenomena, with the view of eliciting the scientific principles of this mysterious agency, and in which experiments are described, eliciting strong electric or magno-electric conditions, with the intercepting of the mesmeric influence by electrics, and the neutralising of the effects of substances having an ungenial influence on the subject, by the same process as was found to neutralise the electricity of sealing-wax, &c., as acting on the electroscope." It is understood that a work is in the press which Dr. Scoresby had prepared for publication prior to his decease, fully detailing the results of his most recent investigations in nautical magnetism. As he contemplated, while commemorating his father, a continuation of the series of Memorials of the Sea, in which the story of his own life should be told, it is not improbable that this also may find a place in the coming work. SCOT, REGINALD. This learned and extraordinary man was born early in the sixteenth century, in which he was the most distinguished opposer of the then almost universal belief-' witchcraft.' He was the son of an English gentleman of family, and educated at Oxford. (Wood, 'Athen. Oxon.,' vol. i.) He took no degree there; but returning to Smeeth in Kent, devoted himself to study, and more particu larly to the perusal of old and obscure authors; occupying his hours of relaxation in gardening. The fruits of this learned leisure were, A perfect platform of a Hopgarden,' and 'The Discoverie of Witchcraft,' 1584. In both of these we see the mixture of sagacity and absurdity, extensive learning and puerile paradoxes, and ostentatious quoting of Greek and Latin authors, so common to writers of that period, when the writing a book, being an event in a man's life, he seized upon that opportunity to thrust in all he knew. The following is the title of the latter work:-'Discoverie of Witchcraft, proving the common opinion of witches contracting with devils, spirits, familiars, and their power to kill, torture, and consume the bodies of men, women, and children, or other creatures, by diseases or otherwise, their flying in the air, &c., to be but imaginary, erroneous conceptions, and novelties. Wherein also the practices of witchmongers, conjurors, enchanters, soothsayers, also the delusions of astrology, alchemy, leger demaine, and many other things are opened that have long lain hidden, though very necessary to be known for the undeceiving of judges, justices, and juries, and for the preservation of poor people;' and its boldness and humanity would alone entitle it to consideration. A striking passage in the preface is to this effect: this work is composed, that, "first, the glory of God be not so abridged and abased as to be thrust into the hand or lips of a lewd old woman, whereby the work of the Creator should be attributed to the creature; secondly, that the religion of the Gospel may be seen to stand without such peevish trumpery; thirdly, that favour and Christian compassion be used towards these poor souls, rather than rigour and extremity." Such a work, with such a purpose, and such a common-sense straightforwardness mingled with its humanity, could not fail to draw down on the author's head every possible ridicule, obloquy, and confutation. And when Scot laughed at the difficult tricks of legerdemaine, and explained how they were performed, we cannot wonder at his book being burnt by the common hangman, and at 'refuters' appearing on all sides. He was attacked by Meric Casaubon, Glanvil (author of the Scepsis Scientifica'), and finally, by the sapient King James himself, who wrote his 'Demonologie,' as he informs us, "chiefly against the damnable opinions of Wierus and Scot, the latter of whom is not ashamed in public print to deny there can be such a thing as witchcraft." Scot's boldness could not at once succeed, when opposed by a reign. ing king and the statute law of the land. When human reason was so blinded by superstition that it was a common practice to throw a woman, suspected, into a pond, and if she escaped drowning she was burnt as a witch; it is not to be expected that common sense could gain many converts; and yet, from its having had three editions, and being translated into French and German, it would appear to have met with great success. It is now extremely rare: as an evidence of the peculiar phases which the human mind historically exhibits, this work, as well as the superstition which it combats, merits attention. This "solid and learned person," as Hallam calls him, "for such he was beyond almost all the English of that age," died in 1599, and was buried with his ancestors in the church at Smeeth. SCOTT, DANIEL. [STEPHENS, H.] SCOTT, DAVID, was born in Edinburgh, October 10, 1806. The son of a landscape-engraver, he was brought up to his father's profession; but from childhood he had sketched and drawn incessantly, and at length his father yielded to his desire to become a painter. From the first his ambition was to paint in the 'grand style.' His early pictures were of themes such as the 'Hopes of Early Genius dispelled by Death,' Fingal and the Spirit of Lodi,' and 'Lot and his Daughters flying · SCOTT, SIR MICHAEL. SCOTT, JOHN. (ELDON, Earl of.] 366 from the Cities of the Plain.' Of a melancholy turn of mind, and of work when completed will be the new chapel, library, rector's residence, somewhat gloomy theological views, his pictures naturally wore a and other additional buildings at Exeter College, Oxford, now in sombre air, and attracted few admirers beyond the circle of his friends. course of erection. But all these works will be thrown in the shade His Lot and his Daughters' was returned from the British Institution by the noble Hôtel de Ville, Hamburg, for which in a competition of as too large; his series of outline etchings, Monograms of Man,' met many of the leading architects of Europe he carried off the first prize; with a slow and unremunerative sale; and it was not till 1831 that he and which will be in extent and costliness one of the most important, sold his first picture. But he loved labour, and he went on painting and judging from the designs, one of the most imposing modern works subjects with which few could sympathise, in a manner that did little in gothic architecture. to remove the unattractiveness of the theme. Slowly however he Mr. Scott was in 1849 appointed architect to the Dean and Chapter made his way, finding ardent if not numerous admirers; and his of Westminster, in which capacity he designed the new Abbey Gateprogress began to be watched with interest by his fellow-citizens. In House, and buildings on the north of the Abbey; has made various 1832 he visited Italy, staying awhile at the Louvre on his way. In judicious restorations and improvements in the Abbey itself; and Italy of course his chief stay was at Rome, but the amenities of designed a 'restoration of the Chapter House, executed from very Raffaelle seem rather to have repelled him, his chief attention, charac- careful examination and measurement,' which was exhibited at the teristically enough, being fixed on Carravaggio. Here however he Royal Academy in 1850. Mr. Scott was one of the founders of the made the acquaintance of the leading resident artists; he worked Architectural Museum. In 1855 he was elected an Associate, and in hard, and painted much; and his power in painting was evidently en- 1860 Member of the Royal Academy. He is the author of:-'A larged. His style however was not materially changed. He continued Plea for the Faithful Restoration of our Ancient Cathedrals,' 12mo, to paint in the grand style' pictures of heroic size; and even when 1850; Additional Churches, a Letter' [to Dr. C. Wordsworth], 8vo, he stooped to the simpler realities of life, or to such matters as 'Love 1854; and 'Some Remarks on Gothic Architecture: Secular and whetting his Darts,' 'Ariel listening to the Mermaid,' 'Beauty wounded Domestic, Present and Future,' 8vo, 1857. by Love,' the 'Triumph of Love,' and the like, it was very much in the spirit of an ancient Covenanter. The themes he entered upon with more congenial feeling were such as his 'Genius of Discord' (a large work, painted at Rome, but repainted on his return); Descent from the Cross;' 'Jane Shore found Dead in the Street;' Orestes pursued by Furies; Achilles mourning over the Dead Body of Patroclus;' Paracelsus, the Alchemist, in his Lecture-Room;' 'Hope passing over the Horizon of Despair;' 'The Dead rising at the Crucifixion;' 'Peter the Hermit addressing the Crusaders,' and several others, which alike attest his remarkable diligence and his soaring ambition; but which, in their want of power to interest the spectator, and their artistic shortcomings, too clearly show that lofty ambition, strong imagination, and unwearied industry, are insufficient to form a great painter, without living genius, a well-directed purpose, and carefully disciplined technical skill. Mr. Scott had built himself a large studio in Edinburgh, and was full of dreams of future glory, despite the warnings of failing health, when the cartoon competition in connection with the new houses of parliament aroused his feelings to a high pitch of excitement. He prepared and sent in a large cartoon of The Defeat of the Spanish Armada,' but it was unnoticed by the judges who awarded the prizes, and the blow fell upon the painter with a severity similar in its intensity to that which the like fate inflicted upon Haydon-whom in his ambitious thoughts, and passion for 'grand art' and huge canvasses, Scott greatly resembled. But Scott painted on; devoting now all his energies to his largest and perhaps on the whole best work, 'Vasco da Gama encountered by the Spirit of the Storm in passing the Cape,' now in the hall of the Trinity House, Leith. This work occupied him during the last ten years of his life, and he lived only to complete it, dying on the 5th of March 1849 in his forty-third year. Some of his great works have been purchased for public institutions in Edinburgh. Scott was a vigorous writer both in prose and verse. His Essays on the Characteristics of the Great Masters' excited a good deal of attention when first published in 'Blackwood's Magazine, 1840; and some of his poetry is contained in the 'Memoir of David Scott, R.S.A., containing his Journal in Italy, Notes on Art, and other Papers,' 8vo, 1850. This Memoir is a warm-hearted tribute to his worth and merits by his brother, Mr. William B. Scott, himself an artist of considerable ability. SCOTT, SIR MICHAEL, was born in Scotland, in the early part of the 13th century. If he really was, as has been assumed, Scott of Balweary, he succeeded in right of his mother, who was the daughter and heiress of Sir Richard Balweary of that ilk (as it is phrased), to that estate, which is in the parish of Kirkaldy, in Fifeshire. The literary reputation both of Sir Michael Scott and of his contemporary Thomas Learmont (the Rhymer) may be taken as affording a presumption, which other circumstances go to corroborate, that Scotland in the 13th century was by no means in the benighted state commonly supposed. In fact there is reason to believe that during the peaceful and prosperous reign of Alexander III., which terminated in 1286, the dawn of civilisation in the northern part of our island made a nearer approach to the more advanced light of art and letters in England than was generally maintained in the subsequent progress of the two countries. Scott however probably studied at some foreign university, either Oxford or Paris. He is said to have gone to France in early life, and to have spent some years in that country; after which he proceeded to the court of the emperor Frederic II., who, possessed of remarkable literary acquirements himself, was then the great patron of learned men. If he did not however remain in Germany after the death of Frederic, which took place in 1250, he must have been still only in early manhood when he left that country-most probably at least under thirty,—since, as we shall find, he was employed in public duties scarcely suited to a person in very advanced age forty years after this date. If he passed some years, as is asserted, at the court of Frederic, he could not well have been much more than twenty when he first presented himself to or was sent for by the Emperor. Dempster indeed states that he was but a young man when he was writing books at the request of Frederic, "cujus rogatu hic etiam juvenis multa opera scribere est agressus." Yet Dempster was not aware that he was Scott of Balweary; he tells us indeed that his name Scotus was not that of his family, but of his nation. Is it possible that the Michael Scott of Balweary, whom we find living in Scotland, and actively engaged in the public service, in 1290, may be mistakenly assumed to have been the learned person of that name who resided at the court of Frederic II.? It is said further, that upon leaving Germany, Scott came to England, where he was received into great favour by Edward I. But Edward did not become king of England till 1272, twenty-two years after the death of the learned Scotsman's German patron. From England he is said to have returned to his native country, though when is not precisely noted. For the rest, all that is known is that a Michael Scott of Balweary, who is spoken of by Hector Boece as the famous scholar of that name, was one of the two ambassadors (Sir Michael de Wemyss, another Fife baron, was the other) sent to Norway by the estates of Scotland, in 1290, to bring home the infant heiress of the throne (Margaret, called the Maiden of Norway, daughter of the Norwegian king Eric.) *SCOTT, GEORGE GILBERT, R.A., one of the most distinguished English practitioners of gothic architecture, was born about 1811, at Gawcott, near Buckingham, of which place his grandfather, the author of a much esteemed 'Commentary on the Old and New Testament,' was the incumbent. Apprenticed to an architect, Mr. Scott early directed his attention chiefly to gothic architecture, the study of which was then attracting very general attention. Having entered into partnership with Mr. Moffatt, the superiority of their designs soon began to secure to the firm a large measure of patronage. The first of their works which gained general notice was however the very elegant cross erected at Oxford, and known as 'the Martyrs' Memorial,' and which in its admirable proportions and excellent finish was an undoubted advance on any modern structure of the kind. It The common account is, that Sir Michael Scott died in Scotland in was followed by the large and handsome parish church at Camberwell, the following year, 1291. Dempster says, "Vixit usque in ultimam finished about 1844, by the Infant Orphan Asylum at Wanstead, and senectutem, et attigit annum MCCXCI., quo obiisse certum." But other important works. The partnership was dissolved in 1845; and Sir Robert Sibbald, in his History of Fife and Kinross,'-after telling after the fire of 1846 Mr. Scott was employed after a severe competi- us that, "in testimony of this honourable commission and embassy' tion to erect the magnificent church of St. Nicholas at Hamburg, one in which the two "equites Fifani illustres, et summæ prudentiæ apud of the finest gothic churches recently erected in Germany, and a work suos illis temporibus habiti," as Buchanan describes them, were that did no little to raise the character of English architects on the employed, "there is still preserved in the house of Wemyss a silver Continent. In 1847 the erection of the cathedral church of St. John, basin of an antique fashion, which David [Michael?] de Wemyss got Newfoundland, was commenced from his designs; and in 1848 the from the king of Norway at that time "-adds: "And there is an College at Brighton, Sussex. Among his English churches may be indenture betwixt Sir Michael Wemyss de eodem miles, and Sir mentioned St. John's, Holbeck, Leeds; West Derby, Liverpool; Michael Scott of Balweary, miles, in presentia Joannis Balioli regis Croydon; Holy Trinity, Rugby; St. Andrews, Ashley Place; and apud Monasterium de Lundoris, anno 1294." (Edit. of 1802, p. 326.) others at Harrogate; at Trefnant, near St. Asaph; and at Haley Hill, We suspect there is no evidence for the death of Sir Michael Scott in Halifax. He has also been entrusted with the restoration or rebuild- 1291, at all to be compared with this evidence of the existence of a ing of the fine church of St. George, Doncaster, and with the superin-person of the same name and designation three years later. But in tendence of the works at Ely Cathedral. Another very important another place (p. 316) Sibbald asserts that the same Scott who was sent to Norway in 1290, went on a second embassy to that country to demand the cession of the Orcades in the fifth year of Robert I., that is to say, in the year 1310. If this statement be correct, it is in the highest degree improbable that Michael Scott the ambassador could have been the person of the same name who figured as a distinguished literary character at the court of Frederic II. more than sixty years before. It is more likely that the one was the son of the other. The real or supposed literary works of Sir Michael Scott are the following:-1, 'A History of Animals,' in Latin; according to some authorities, a translation from the Arabic of Avicenna. But of this we know nothing. Dr. George Mackenzie, Scott's most elaborate biographer, says that the work exists "in fol. editionis neque tempore neque loco expressis." Dempster mentions Abbreviationes Avicenna' in one book, and also 'De Animalibus ad Cæsarem' (i. e. Frederic) in one book. 2, 'Aristotelis Opera, Latine versa, partim e Græco, partim Arabico, per viros lectos et in utriusque linguæ prolatione peritos, jussu Imperatoris Fredirici II.,' fol., Venet., 1496. The common accounts make Scott to have been the sole author of this translation; but it proclaims itself, as we see, to be the work of several hands. Possibly Scott may have contributed the translation of the Natural History, and may have done it from the Arabic, which may be all the foundation for the assignment to him of the version of Avicenna. Warton, speaking of the new translations of Aristotle from the originalGreek into Latin, made about the 12th century, says, "I believe the translators understood very little Greek. Our countryman Michael Scotus, was one of the first of them, who was assisted by Andrew, a Jew. Michael was astrologer to Frederic, emperor of Germany, and appears to have executed his translations at Toledo in Spain, about the year 1220. These new versions were perhaps little more than corrections from those of the early Arabians, made under the inspection of the learned Spanish Saracens." (Note to Dissert. on Introd. of Learning into England,' in 'Hist. of English Poetry.') 3, 'De Procreatione, et Hominis Phisionomia, Opus.' There is a copy of the first edition of this tract in the King's Library at the British Museum, printed without the name of the place, in 1477; and in the general library of the museum are other editions, with the title slightly varied, printed in 1480 and 1487; and some, both in 4to and 12mo, without date, and possibly still older. It is also the same work which was printed, with the title of De Secretis Naturæ,' at Strasbourg in 1607, and at Frankfurt in 1615, in 16mo, and with the works of Albertus Magnus, at Amsterdam, in 1655, 1660, &c., in 12mo. Bayle had an Italian translation of it, an octavo pamphlet of seven leaves, printed at Venice in 1533, with the title Physionomia, laqual compilo Maestro Michael Scotto, à prieghi di Federico Romano Imperatore, huomo di gran scienza; e è cosa molte notabile, e da tener secreta, pero che l'è di grande efficacia, e comprende cose secrete della natura, bastanti ad ogni astrologo; e è diviso in tre parti.' 4, 'Mensa Philosophica, seu Enchiridion, in quo de quæstionibus mensalibus, et variis ac jucundis hominum congressibus, agitur,' 12mo, Franc., 1602; 8vo, 1608; 24mo, Lips., 1603. There is an English translation of this treatise (which Tiedemann, in his Esprit de la Philosophie Speculative,' says contains some curious things), entitled 'The Philosopher's Banquet,' done into English by W. B., 3rd edit., enlarged, 12mo, London, 1633. The Mensa Philosophica' is one of the works attributed to Theobald Anguilbert. 5, "Quæstio Curiosa de Natura Solis et Lunæ.' This is a chemical treatise upon the transmutation of gold and silver, and is printed in the 5th vol. of the 'Theatrum Chimicum,' 8vo, Strasbourg, 1622. 6, Eximii atque excellentissimi physicorum motuum cursusque syderii investigatoris, Mich. Scotti, super autor. Sphærar., cum quæstionibus diligenter emendatis, incipit expositio perfecta, illustrissimi Imperatoris D. D. Frederici precibus.' This is a commentary upon the celebrated treatise of Sacrobosco 'De Sphæra,' but is a mere compilation, and is believed to be falsely attributed to Scott. Dempster, after his fashion, enumerates a long list of additional titles, which it is quite unnecessary to transcribe. But Michael Scott's chief reputation after his death, if not in his lifetime, was as a great magician. "De quo," says Dempster, writing in the beginning of the 17th century, "innumerabiles etiam nunc hodie aniles fabulæ circumferuntur, nec ullum apud nostrates clarius nomen." Even to this day he is traditionally remembered in that character in his own country; and various legends of his wondrous performances are still told, and half believed, among the peasantry, some of which may be found collected in the notes to Sir Walter Scott's 'Lay of the Last Minstrel,' in which poem the opening of the wizard's grave in the abbey of Melrose, and the taking from the dead man's cold hand of his "book of might," makes so striking an incident. Dempster says:— "Ut puto, in Scotia libri ipsius dicebantur me puero extare, sed sine horrore quodam non posse attingi, ob malorum dæmonum præstigias, quæ illis apertis fiebant." But in earlier times the fame of his magic skill was spread over Europe. Dante has introduced him in his 'Inferno:' "Quell' altro, che ne' fianchi è così poco, Delle magiche frode seppe il giuoco." and he is also mentioned by Boccaccio and other early Italian writers. He is severely arraigned by John Picus (Mirandula), in his work against astrology; and is defended from such charges, as well as Picus himself, in Naudé's 'Apologie pour les grands personnages faussement accusés de Magie.' The Scottish tradition, as we have seen, is, that Michael Scott was buried in his own country at Melrose. Another account however makes him to have died, and his remains to have been interred, in the abbey of Ulme, or Holme Cultram, in Cumberland; and here also, it is pretended, his magic books were preserved. Satchells, in his rhyming History of the Right Honourable name of Scott,' affirms that he got his account of the origin of that name out of an extract from one of Michael Scott's works, which a person showed him at Burgh-under-Bowness, in Cumberland, in the year 1629. His informant told him, he says, that the book from which the passage was taken was never yet read through, and never would be; young scholars had only picked out something from the contents, but none dared to read the body of the work. And he adds :— "He carried me along the castle then, And showed me his written book hanging on an iron pin; Of hardened metal, like steel, or accumie; As the Book of Martyrs and Turk's Historie. Then in the church he let me see A stone where Mr. Michael Scott did lie;" &c. &c. This has been taken for a piece of poetic invention in Satchells; but we may observe that Camden, in his 'Britannia,' tells us that the magic books of Michael Scott were in his time still said to be preserved at Ulme, though they were then mouldering to dust. It is probable from this that they had been in the habit of showing at that place some ancient volumes which they called Scott's magic writings. Camden adds:-"He was a monk of this place about the year 1290, and applied himself so closely to the mathematics and other abstruse parts of learning, that he was generally looked on as a conjuror; and a vain credulous humour has handed down I know not what miracles done by him." SCOTT, WALTER, was born in Edinburgh on the 15th of August, 1771. The sixty-one years of his life were filled by the incessant labours of a strong and restless mind, which in the latter half of its career fixed upon its own efforts no small share of public attention, during one of the most exciting periods of European history. The history of his early boyhood is the tale of a naturally strong constitution struggling with disease. He had attained his twenty-second month, and could already walk tolerably well for a child of his age, when the girl who took care of him was awakened one morning by his screams, and on examination found his right leg powerless and cold as marble. Medical aid was vain; he was lame for life; and during upwards of two years the previously healthy boy continued a pining child. In his fifth year his parents thought him sufficiently recovered to trust him, first to the charge of his grandfather at Sandy Knowe on the Tweed, and afterwards to that of a maiden aunt, who carried him to Bath. The boy had attained his eighth year before he was deemed strong enough to be sent to the high school of Edinburgh. While attending this seminary, and during the first winter of his attendance at college (1784), he enjoyed tolerably good health, and was able, notwithstanding his lameness, to join in most of the sports of his classfellows. Towards the close of the year 1784 he had a violent attack of sickness, for the only distinct account of which we are indebted to himself:-"My indisposition arose in part at least from my having broken a blood-vessel, and motion and speech were for a long time pronounced positively dangerous. For several weeks I was confined strictly to my bed, during which time I was not allowed to speak above a whisper, to eat more than a spoonful or two of boiled rice, or to have more covering than a counterpane." In May 1786 he was sufficiently recovered to commence his apprenticeship as writer to the signet, at that time the usual commencement of the education of Scotch barristers; and his subsequent life was little troubled with indisposition. These juvenile sicknesses had a powerful influence upon the development of his mental powers. The aunt to whose care he was intrusted when a mere boy possessed an immense store of legendary tales, which were frequently put in requisition for the amusement of the invalid. During the confinement of his second attack he was allowed to devour the contents of a circulating library, founded, it is believed, by Allan Ramsay, rich in "the romances of chivalry and the ponderous folios of Cyrus and Cassandra, down to the most approved works of modern times." Scott has declared, "I believe I read almost all the romances, old plays, and epic poetry in that formidable collection." The child's love of stories was thus ripened into an ill-regulated fondness for books; the practice of reading, to which he was drawn by inability to do anything else, created a craving for that pleasure, and the constant succession of new books rendered unnecessary the exercise of attention required to extract a new pleasure on reperusal. His mind was accustomed to find pleasure in yielding passively to a succession of new images. Those ideas remained impressed on his memory which most roused his emotions; and he contracted unconsciously the habit of grouping them in conformity to that law of association which links events following or seeming to arise out of each other in the progress of an adventure. His mind even at that early age was developing the talents of the story-teller; and, as in the cases of Göthe and Richardson, the precocious command of language, giving voice and form to the stories which his imagination constructed, showed itself in the pleasure he found in inventing and telling tales for the amusement of his companions. The society around him was favourable to the nourishment of such ten dencies. His father was a strict disciplinarian, a precisionist in religion, and a legal formalist. He exacted from his children a strict observance of the outward forms of religion, and spared no trouble to imbue their minds with a knowledge of the doctrines of the national church. He strove to make the actions of his domestic circle as strictly conformable to rules as his causes in the Court of Session. The strong hand of discipline like this usually serves to make children more intent upon the stolen enjoyment of their favourite amusements. Walter read with more avidity what his father scorned as trifling reading, and hung on the lips of every one who could gratify him with legendary tales. He was surrounded too by characters calculated to leave a deep impression on the mind of a bookish boy. The Lowlands of Scotland had by that time settled down into the same regulated habits of steady industry that still characterise them; but many old-world characters belonging to a less tranquil period were still surviving. George Constable, of Wallace Craigie, near Dundee, who sat for his picture in the Antiquary; Mrs. Anne Murray Keith, the Mrs. Bethune Babel of the Chronicles of the Canongate;' Mrs. Margaret Swinton, who figures in the introduction to 'My Aunt Margaret's Mirror;' Alexander Stewart, of Invernahyle, a Highland gentleman, who had been "out in the forty-five," by their appearance and conversation carried the boy's imagination back to a state of society which had ceased to exist, and formed a connecting link between the real world in which he lived and the imaginary world which he found in his romances. He had opportunities too of observing closely the manners and feelings of the lower classes of society in the agricultural districts in the south of Scotland. His grandfather, being a farmer, lived on a footing of more familiar intercourse with his domestics than was even then customary in towns, and in his house Scott learned the pass-word to the confidence of that class. As he grew in years and in strength, he was encouraged by his family, probably with a view to confirm his health, to take long rambles on foot and on horseback through the border and highland counties where his father had relations or clients. The impressions thus derived might have faded even from a retentive memory in the busy period of confirmed manhood; but a direction had been given to his awakening intellect, which led him to brood over and cherish them. On one of his visits to a paternal uncle, who resided in the environs of Kelso, he became acquainted with the collections of the Bishop of Dromore. "In early youth," he says, in the 'Essay on Imitations of the Ancient Ballad,' prefixed to the third volume of the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,' "I had been an eager student of ballad poetry, and the tree is still in my recollection, beneath which I lay and first entered upon the enchanting perusal of Percy's 'Reliques of Ancient Poetry,' although it has long perished in the general blight which affected the whole race of oriental platanus to which it belonged." The perusal of this work led him on to the kindred publications of Herd and Evans. Herd's book was an attempt to do for Scottish what the bishop had accomplished for English traditional song. In Evans's work some poems of modern date were intermingled with the old ballads, and among others 'Cumnor Hall' by Mickle, adverted to in the notes which Scott appended to 'Kenilworth,' in Cadell's collective edition of his novels. The hot controversy which arose between Percy and Ritson led the amateurs of old ballad poetry to plunge more deeply than they contemplated into philological and antiquarian discussions. The effects of this upon Scott may be conjectured from the subjects of one essay composed as a class exercise during his attendance on the moral philosophy lectures of Dugald Stewart in 1790, and three which he read in the years 1792-93 in the Speculative Society. They are, On the Manners and Customs of the Northern Nations of Europe,' 'On the Origin of the Feudal System,' 'On the Origin of the Scandinavian Mythology,' and 'On the Authenticity of Ossian's Poems.' The topics which at that time engrossed the attention of his young contemporaries (among whom were the future founders of the 'Edinburgh Review') were practical, economical, and political discussions. Scott however held on his own way: his favourite themes were the old world, the bent of his mind was historical. Like most young men addicted to literary pursuits, he had at an early age tried his hand at rhyme. His ballad studies kept alive the inclination. Burns, whom he saw at the house of Professor Ferguson in 1786-87, seems to have made a lasting impression upon him, both by his writings and his personal appearance. For ten years however his rhyming propensities remained in abeyance, till they were re-awakened by the popularity earned by the ballads of Monk Lewis. Scott's attention had been directed to German literature by a very superficial essay on 'The German Theatre,' read by Henry Mackenzie at a meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1788. Scott and several of his companions formed a class, soon after the publication of that paper, for the purpose of studying the German language; but these studies were followed up in a rather desultory manner till the year 1793 or 1794, when Miss Aiken (Mrs. Barbauld) directed his attention to the works of Bürger. He had some difficulty in procuring them; BIOG. DIV. VOL. V. and had already met the young lion of the day, Lewis, and been stimulated, by his conviction of his own superiority in general information, to attempt an appeal to the public, when an edition of Bürger, which a friend had procured for him from Hamburg, came into his hands. Having made a free version of the poems which had most caught his fancy, they met with so much applause in the friendly circles where he recited them, that he was, as he himself playfully says, "prevailed on by the request of friends to indulge his own vanity by publishing the translation of Bürger's' Leonora,' and the Wild Huntsman,' in a thin quarto" (1796). This event is mainly of importance as it marks the termination of his probationary career, his course of hard study, with vague aspirations after some mode of turning it to account. The die was in fact cast: from that moment he was an author for life. It is necessary that we advert to Scott's more active pursuits before closing this retrospect of his probationary years. He was apprenticed to his father in May 1786. He never however acted regularly as clerk. His absences on jaunts to the Highlands and the border counties were long and frequent; and a gentleman who was in Mr. Scott's office during the period of Walter's nominal apprenticeship, assured us that his time while there was mostly spent in playing chess. In 1791, having finally resolved to adopt the profession of advocate, he recommenced his attendance upon the college classes, interrupted by his illness, and joined the Speculative Society. In 1791 he petitioned and was admitted by the Faculty of Advocates to his first trials; in 1792 he passed the rest, and was called to the bar. As a member of the Speculative Society and the faculty, he took an active part in the private business of both bodies. In the civil court, he has told us, his employment did not exceed one opportunity of appearing as the prototype of Peter Publio. But in the Court of Justiciary he made several appearances, in all of which he distinguished himself by diligent preparation. His conduct at this period was marked by an anxious desire to force himself into professional employment, and by that energy which promised success, could he but succeed in making a beginning. We have now brought the subject of our narrative to the commencement of that literary career which he prosecuted with unabated perseverance till his death. The story of his literary life naturally divides itself into three epochs: that during which he was achieving his poetical fame, extending from the publication of his translation of Bürger in 1796 to the publication of Waverley' in 1814; the period of the celebrity of his novels, during which they followed each other in brilliant and rapid succession from the publication of Waverley' till the bankruptcy of Constable in 1826; the period of his Herculean struggle to re-adjust his affairs, shattered by the convulsion of 1826, till he sunk over-tasked into a premature grave in 1832. It is in every case difficult, perhaps inexpedient, to separate the part from the man: in the case of Scott it is impossible. We proceed therefore briefly, as our limits command, to trace, for each of the three periods we have enumerated, an outline of his actual life and circumstances, and of the literary works produced under their influence. Unaware of the extent to which he had become involved in the literary career, he continued for some time his professional efforts. He was engaged as counsel for the defendants in several of the prosecutions for riots, seditious practices, and other offences arising out of the political ferment of the day. It has been imagined that the active part which his political zeal induced him to take in organising and disciplining the volunteer corps of horse formed in Edinburgh, contributed to mar his professional prospects. It certainly distracted his attention from legal studies, but it accelerated rather than retarded his promotion. In December 1799 he was appointed sheriff of Selkirkshire; in 1806 he was appointed one of the principal clerks of the Court of Session. The duties of these offices, even when discharged by the same individual, left a large proportion of his time at his own disposal. The first mentioned insured to him a small competency; the other was ultimately a lucrative appointment, although the arrangement he made with his predecessor in office prevented his deriving the full emolument from it till 1812. In addition to these sources of income he succeeded to a small landed property on the death of an uncle in 1797, and received a moderate fortune with Miss Carpenter, whom he married towards the close of the same year. He was thus placed above absolute dependence upon the literary exertions to which his inclination and leisure invited him. At the same time his relish for the elegant luxuries of life and the ambition to mingle on a feeling of equality with the families of the aristocracy, upon some of whom, as well as upon the honest farmers above alluded to, he had a claim of relationship-an ambition strengthened by his fondness for the legends of chivalry operating on an imaginative disposition, rendered further additions to his fortune not indifferent to him. It is questionable whether even this stimulus could have nerved him to perseverance in the dry drudgery of the law, but his active and energetic disposition courted labour so long as it did not impose any restraint upon the rambling desultory habits of thought acquired during the days of incessant reading of his sickly boyhood. Even before he formed his final resolution to use literature "as a staff-not as a crutch," he followed up the appeal made to the public by the printing of William and Helen.' In 1799 he published a translation of Göthe's 'Götz of Berlichingen.' He composed and 2 B circulated among his friends the ballads of 'Glenfinlas' and 'The Eve of St. John.' In 1799 he received a visit from Mr. (now Sir John) Stoddart, who repeated to him many then unpublished poems of his friends Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey, and inspired him with a relish for their peculiar beauties. An intimacy which Scott formed with Mr. Heber, on the occasion of that gentleman's residence in Edinburgh during the winter of 1799-1800, confirmed his antiquarian tastes and extended his acquaintance with old English literature: he advanced from the school of the old ballad into that of the Elizabethan drama. The bustling patronage of Lewis had made Scott's name familiar to many persons of literary tastes in England, and his acquaintance with the literati of Edinburgh became more extensive and intimate. About the beginning of the present century he paid several visits to Teviotdale, a district even less visited at that period than the Highlands, and in the course of these excursions not only added considerably to his stores of traditionary song, but, what was of more consequence, learned to know that stalwart race whom he afterwards portrayed with such graphic power in Guy Mannering.' We have now reached the period of his life at which he took his final plunge into literary occupation and avowedly commenced author by profession. His first publication in this capacity was his 'Border Minstrelsy,' a work which afforded him an opportunity of exercising his talents in various departments and showing the magnitude of his store of heterogeneous and not very well assorted knowledge. In his introductions he showed his talents as an essayist; in his notes, his research and critical acumen as an antiquarian; in the imitations of the old ballad, his taste and talent for poetical composition. The Border Minstrelsy' is indeed little more than the accumulated materials out of which he hewed the best of his later works-a chaos through which the fragmentary lights of creative imagination were everywhere sparkling. The book is scarcely less interesting when viewed as the commencement of his connection with those commercial speculations in literature which ultimately broke down and crushed him, than as his first serious effort in the character of an author. Mr. James Ballantyne was, at the time of the publication of the 'Border Minstrelsy, the editor of a provincial newspaper in Kelso. To him Scott offered the printing of his book. The offer, after some hesitation, was accepted, a new fount of types, superior to anything previously seen in Scotland, was procured, and under the direction of the principal workman on Mr. Ballantyne's establishment, who had been some time in the employment of Bensley, a specimen of typography was produced, which at once established the reputation of what was for a time rather affectedly called the "border press." Not long after Mr. Ballantyne removed to Edinburgh, and commenced printer on a large scale, in partnership, as was proved by subsequent disclosures, with Scott. To this part of Scott's history we shall have occasion to return hereafter. · Scott commenced his career as the most popular poet of his day, in 1805, with the publication of The Lay of the Last Minstrel.' This poem was followed in 1808 by Marmion;' in 1809, by The Lady of the Lake; in 1811, by Don Roderick; in 1813, by Rokeby; in 1814, by The Lord of the Isles.' To these may be added The Bridal of Triermain' and 'Harold the Dauntless, published anonymously, the former in 1814, the latter in 1816. These poems took the literary world by surprise; they were unlike anything that had preceded them. There was an easy flow in their frequently slovenly versification, a condensed energy of thought, which even the total neglect of the 'limæ labor' could not entirely conceal or obliterate; a pithy shrewdness in the occasional remarks upon life and manners; enough of the wild recondite spirit which the author had caught from Coleridge to lend a zest to his composition; enough of the leaven of common-place to render it intelligible to the mass of readers; and an entirely new class of heroes and adventures. Much of the popularity which attached to Scott's poems was owing to the novelty of their subjects, and much to his compliance with the taste of the times; but his strong native sense, the stores of out-of-the-way knowledge upon which he could draw, and the easy flow of his versification and imagery, rendered them also works of real intrinsic merit. As the first gloss of novelty wore off, the voice of criticism was more distinctly heard. Lord Byron's more exaggerated tone of sentiment and greater power of condensed rythmical declamation made a deeper impression upon the public mind, and caused Scott's works to appear comparatively feeble by the force of contrast. The imitators, too, who had caught the outward form of Scott's versification, and found plenty of heroes in old fabliaux' and romances, had for a time surfeited the public with his peculiar style of poetical composition. With a prudent caution, said to be characteristic of his nation, he prepared to exchange a field of literary exertion in which he found himself in danger of losing his popularity, and after the failure of two anonymous trials ('The Bridal of Triermain,' and 'Harold the Dauntless') never attempted to re-enter it. · Some time previous to his abdication of the laurel, the success of Miss Edgeworth's 'Pictures of Irish Life,' and his consciousness of an extensive acquaintance with the manners and customs of Scotland, more especially of the olden time, had stimulated him to attempt a portraiture of them in a prose imaginative narrative. The task was prosecuted for some time, but in consequence of the unfavourable opinion of a friend, laid aside. In 1814 however he resolved to make the attempt, and 'Waverley' was published anonymously. This book, published without any parade of announcement, and without the attraction of an author's name, made its way noiselessly and rapidly to a high place in public estimation. In the course of four years it was followed in rapid succession by ‘Guy Mannering,' The Antiquary,' The Black Dwarf,' 'Old Mortality,' Rob Roy,' and 'The Heart of Mid-Lothian,' all bearing the indisputable impress of the same parent mind. The circumstance of Scott's having published a poem in the same year in which ' Waverley' appeared, and his engagement in other literary undertakings being known, combined, with the common prejudice that a poet cannot excel as a prose writer, to avert from him for a time the suspicion of the authorship of the 'Waverley' novels, The taciturnity of the few intrusted with the secret defeated all attempts to obtain direct evidence as to who was the author. From the first, however, suspicion pointed strongly towards Scott, and so many circumstances tended to strengthen it, that the disclosures from Constable's and Ballantyne's books, and his own confession, scarcely increased the moral conviction which had long prevailed, that he wai the "great Unknown." The light half-playfully worn veil of mystery served however, no doubt, to excite the public curiosity and to add a factitious interest to the Waverley' novels at the time of their publication. But their own merits were doubtless the main cause of their success. As narra. tives they have little merit: the plot is uniformly inartificial and unskilfully wrought up; the ostensible heroes and heroines, insipid or unnatural. It is in the admirable Scotch characters, in the ease and truth of their actions and conversation, that the charm of these novels consists. There is a power and depth in the characters themselves; they had been originally conceived with the intense love of a strong mind; they had remained stored up in its memory for years, mellowing in tone and growing more distinct in form, and were at last, accidentally we may almost say, poured out with a felicity and strength of expression of which the author was himself scarcely aware that he was capable. This new vein of popular applause was worked as sedulously as the former, and, like it, worked out. The novels which from 1818 to 1826 followed those we have enumerated in rapid succession, are not, like them, the outpourings of long-treasured thoughts; they bear marks of reading for the purpose of finding materials to fill up a previously sketched outline. They are of dif ferent degrees of merit, but all are inferior in depth of tone and weight of metal, to the works of the first four years. Individual characters and incidents in some of them may be equal, but not one of them can bear comparison when considered as a whole. Scott's novels and poems however occupied by no means the whole of his time, during the thirty years of his busy life, of which they were the luxuriant produce. He contributed to the Edinburgh Review' at its commencement, and when differences of political opinion induced him to break off from that publication, he took a warm interest in the establishment of the Quarterly.' His trade connections with the Ballantynes, and through them with Constable and other publishers, led him to project many publications, and to take an active part in them as editor or contributor. To these we owe the 'Life of Dryden" (1808), of Swift (1814), the biographical and critical prefaces to Ballantyne's collection of the English novelists, and his annotations to such books as Sadler's 'Correspondence.' His biographical and critical writings are characterised by masculine good sense, vigour, and a happy play of humour, rather than by subtle analysis or a just and delicate taste. From 1796 till 1826 Scott's life was busy and happy, and seemingly prosperous. By the patronage of friends he was rendered independent; by his own exertions he was raised to affluence. His notoriety as an author gave him an extensive circle of acquaintance. His manly and sensible character commanded respect, his bonhommie and talent for increasing the hilarity of the social hour conciliated the love of all who knew him. The continuance of apparent success increased his confidence in his own resources to a degree bordering on presumption. The ambition of his life was to enact the part of one of those feudal lords who were the favourite objects upon which his imagination dwelt. To this was owing the purchase and building of Abbotsford, the strewing of it with "auld nick-nackets," and the extensive scale on which he exercised his hospitality. He endeavoured to revive old times in his mansion on the Tweed. The last few years of his prosperity were spent in a gorgeous dream. The open-air daylight masquerade of the reception of George IV. in Edinburgh, in which Sir Walter Scott was a prominent actor, was the most gorgeous scene of what we can scarcely look upon in any other light than that of an opium dream. But the worm was gnawing at the root of his magnificence. Constable, Ballantyne, and Scott were all men of sense and talent, but the spirit of enterprise was stronger in them than that of accurate mercantile calculation. From the beginning their undertakings had been on a larger scale than their capital warranted; and as difficulties thickened around them their confident spirits looked for relief to bolder and more extensive speculations. This could not go on for ever: the commercial crisis of 1825-26 precipitated, but did not cause the catastrophe. When what is called in Scotland" a state of the affairs" of Constable and Co. and Ballantyne and Co. was made up subsequently to the bankruptcy of the two companies, it appeared that Sir Walter Scott |