Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1833-09-12
MIR. BULWAR'S CHARACTER
OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.

most commanding genius Of modern times
has left us To seek for that successor TO
his rcnown which, ia all probability, u
remote generation alone will furnish
forth. 1t is true we have been long pre-.
pared for the event--lt does not fall upon
US suddcniy-leafa after leaf was stripped
| from that noble tree before il was iellcd
to the earth at last our sympathy in his
decay has soilcned to us the sorrow for
his death. 1t is not Off intention to
trace the character or to cnunnrate the
works of the great man whose career is
run; to every eye that feads--eyery
ear that hears-eycry heart that rcmeni %
bers, has much at least of his character
is already known, that he had all the en-
uberance of genius and ncnc otts eXccs-
scs; that he was at once equitable and
gcnerous-.hat his heart was ever open
to charity-that his life has probably
been shortened by his scrupuIouJ regard
for Justice. His career was one spiGn-
did rciutatlon OF the popular fallacy, that
genius has of necessity viccs--that its
light must be mctcoric-and its courses
4 wayward and uncontrolled. He has left
mankind two great lessons,-we scarcely
know which is the most valuable. lie
has taught US how much delight ore hu-
man being can confer upon the world;-
he has taught us also that the imag ina
ton may aspire to the widest flights
without wandering into error. OF whom
else among our great list Of names-the
heir-looms Of our nation-can we say
tInt hn l,o. InI al,
and nothing to forgive!
1t is in four different paths of intellect
ual emincncc that Sir Walter Scott has
won his lume; as poet, bographer,
an historian, and novelist 1t is not
now time with tho great mans ebay
t scarce cold) TO enter into the nicetles Of
: critical discussion. We cannot now
e weigh, and silt and compare. We feel
too deeply at this moment TO reason well
but we ourselves would incline to con-
slider him greatest as il poet. Whether
it be that to our earliest recollections he
was most endearcd by those mighty lays
which called from antiquity all its no
blest spirit, and bre athcd life s. nature
into that literature, which was then Ian
gushing under the drowsiness of eternal
imitation, and the trappings of false
and Gallo artiiicIality of school, at once
burthensomc and frivolous; whatever
be the cause of Our differing from the
world in general on this point, certain il
lis that We think him even greater as a
poet than novelist and where it pos
sibe that time could wither up the inter
est Of the world in either, we think tha
the prose of Waverly might suffer befor
y the verse Of Marmion. Never, indeed
al has there been poet so thoroughly HC
\ meric as Scott-thc battle-the feast
the council-thc guard-room at Strln
= the dying warrior at Flodden--th
fierce Bertrdm speeding up the aisle
ID all are IIomcric; all live--move--
II breath and burn-aikc poetry, but alik
,r lie. There is this difference, too mark
ed and prominent-between his vcrs
/ and his prose the first is emphatcall
,c the verse of Scott-tiYc latter 1--WE mca
:, in its style) may be the prose of any ON
!" the striking originality, the darIn
u, ~ boldness, the astonishing visour of tn
" style, in the Lay OF the Last MinstreI
arc lost in the Antiquary and Guy Man
ncring.
Scott may be said in prose, to hav
e, no s,y e.-Thcre are tlrose, we know
who call this very absence of style
merit-we will not dispute it; if it be SO
- Scott is the first great prose writer fror
Bacon to Gibbon,-nay from Hcrodo
A. tus, in Greek, to Paul Courier, i
n, French-who has claim to 1t. Fo
e. our own part, we think him great, /
l. spite ofthe want of style, and not bccaus
o. of it. As a biographcr, he has been uI
on fortunate in his subjects; the two mo-
tn important Of the various lives he has e
ly thcr dclncated or sketched.-that
DRYDEN and that Of Swit-are men
whose incxpiable bascncss genius cou
- neither give the dignity of virtue nor ii
. interest of error. Nor, perhaps, if "
w. may presume to say so, was the bert
Ic the biographcr's mind that Of the juno
81. he had more of the spirit Of vencratic
nd than that of inquiry. And in this est
ns mate, both of men and books, his reason
ing seldom satisfies VS. so much as %
- enthusiasm charms. lie was born n'
to compose criticisms, but to create cn'
H. les; and the lessons he should dr"'
.g- from the lives aud genius of other mct
Ter the poet-tbc romancer-the ct,uc-
the philosopher of future ases-w'li o'
duce from his own.
&C. As an historian, we confess that W
prize him more highly than as blogr'
=, pher: il is true that the same faults a.
:, !" apparent in both, but there IS in tn
" grand History Of Napolean more scoI