New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-08-10
TIE SCOTT CENTENARY.

Although the reasons given for celebrating
yesterday in Edinburgh the centennial ami
versary of the birth of Walter Scott, instead
of waiting for Tuesday next, are somewhat
trivial, we cannot but regard the change as
happy one. For the last twenty years the FIT
teenth of August has been devoted to festi-
val in the most brilliant city of civilization in
honor of the birth of a man who symbolizes
only the destructive and repressive forces of
modern society. In 1869, this gala-day
attained its highest splendor and glory
! to celebrate the completion of the GEN.
tury which had elapsed since the birth
of Napoleon. 1t saw the apparent triumph,
and the promise of perpetuity of the institu-
ton of Cesarism which his genius had founded
and his name had sustained. year Later
Paris was in mourning, and Napoconism was
dying on the battle-felds of Lorraine. This
year the spell that seemed immortal has van
ished forever, and the Fifteenth of August
exists no longer as date or a holiday for
France. 1t is well enough, therefore, that the
proud and loving countrymen Of Scott should,
in this memorable year, consecTate to his
memory some other day than that so recently
sullied by the incense of a false and hur,tul
glory.
Carlyle has called him rightly "the pride
" of all ScOtchmen." He gives to Scotland its
first and strongest claim to eminence in the
world of letters. She has nursed among her
crags aud heaths great number of men of
genuine and noble gilt Of speech and song.
There is no finer product of the purely literary
talent than the NOctes AmbrOsianG; the world
has given birth to no higher development of
the logical faculties than are found in Reid
and Hamilton; no poet lies closer to mems
hearts than Robert Burns. But Walter
Scott possessed to a greater extent than
any man of our time that practical and uni
versal power of expression and construction
which gains for a writer the attention and the
homage of world. His easy prominence
over all competition is readily seen in the re-
suits of his labor. His picture in his lifetime
was better known in Europe and America than
that of any sovereign and he gained by the
proceeds Of his literary labor two millions and
a half of dollars. This is a bald statement
of well known fact, bat what vast and
widespread popularity docs it not denote7 He
created the modern novel. He formed
the very taste which made him immortal.
He formed a host of ideal exlstenceS, and pre-
pared for them their reception in the world
He was a man of this world. Pure and noble
and generous az are the teachings of his genius
he never leaves the atmosphere of earth. His
sympathies are wholesome, human ones. lie
bIeathes our air ard speaks our language, and
feels our needs and orr passions. He is NJ
high priest of humanity; he is simply the friend
and benefactor of man. The reward Of his
hearty manlness of life and character and
mind is the largest love and acceptance which
any writer has ever received from the kindly
trace of men,"
1t is hard to resist the temptation to over
praise which assas us when the world is
pausing for day to do homage to this robust
and bcnefcent genius. We all know and re-
member his faults-his hasty and careless
composition, his feversh activity, his lack of
artistic conscience. But when that is said,
censure can 20 no further In bis broad and
hearty grasp he united the resources OF the
modern scholar and the free and breezy
originality Of the early world. No writer is
richer in those gems Of alusiOn and sugges
ton which show the traces of days and
nights of studious toll Burton and Rabe-
lais do not know their classics better, and
yet there is an airy ease and freshness in
his poems which ia more Ike licmcr than
anything we have in modern Literature. He
knew the heart of man well enough for every
purpose Of poetry aud fiction, but ho never