Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-11-04
The scott SHINE


AT the unveing on Saturday of the stStue
OF Walter Scott, presented by Scotchmen to the
city of New York and erected in Central park,
Mr.. VIM. Cullen Bryant delivered the following
address:
"The Scottish residents of this city whose
| public spirit and reverence for genius have
moved them to present to the people of New
| York the statue of their countryman which has
| just now been unveiled TO the public gaze, have
| honored me with a request that | should so far
| take part in these ceremonies as TO speak few
words concerning the great poet and novelist, of
| whose reuown they are so justly proud.
| CAS- look round on this assembly perceive
| few persons of my own age-few who can re-
| member, as can, the rising and setting of this
| brilliant luminary of modern literature. l well
| recollect the time when Scott, then thirty-fonr
| years of age, gave to the world his Lay of the
| Last Minstrel the first of his works which
awakened the enthusiastic admiration that after
wards attended all he wrote. In that poem the
spirit of the old Scottish ballads-the most
beautiful of their CLASSIFIED again. In it we
had all their fire, their rapid narrative, their
unlabOred graces, their pathos, animating a
story to which he had given certain epic
breadth and unity. We read with scarcely less
delight his poem of Marmion,' and soon after
ward the youths and madens of our country
hung with rapture over the pages of his Lady
of the Lake.
need not enumerate bis other poems, but
this | will say of them all, that no other me-
trical narratives in our language seem to me
TO possess an equal power of enchanting the at
tention of the reader, and carrying him on from
incident to incident with such entire freedom
from WEAKNESS. These works, printed in cheap
editions, were dispersed all over our country;
they found their way to almost every freside,
and their popularity raised up both here and in
Great Britain multitude Of imitators now for
gotten.
"This power over the mind of the reader was
soon TO be eXempliied in a more remarkable
manner, and when, at the age of forty-three
Scott gave to the world, without any indication
of its authorship, his romance of 'Waverley,'
all perceived that new era in the literature Of
fiction had begun. Here they said, is genius
of new order. What wealth of materials,
what free mastery in moulding them into shape,
what invention, humor, pathOs, vivid portrait
ure of Understanding overcharged or eX-
aggerated, yet all distinct, spirited and life like
Are we not they asked, to have other works by
the same handP
"The desire thus expressed was soon gratifed
The expected romances came forth with rapid
ity which amazed their readers. Some, it is true,
aserbed them to Scott as the only man who
could write them. 1T cannot be- said others;
Scott is occupied with writing histories and
poems, and editing work after work, which re-
quire great labor and research; he has no time
for writing romances like these So he went
on, throwing off these remarkable works as if
the writing of them had been but pastime, and
fairly bombarding the world with romances
from his mysterious covert. 1t was like what
in the neghborhood of this city we see on a fine
evening Of the fourth of July, when rocket after
rocket rises from the distant horizon and bursts
in the air, throwing off to the right and left jets
of fame and fire balls of every brilliant hue, yet
whose are the hands that launch them we know
not. So we read and wondered and lost our
selves in conjectures as to the author who minis
tered 10 our delight; and when at length, at
public dinner in the year 1927, Scott avowed
himself to be the sole author of the 'Waverley
| Novels the interest which we felt at this dis
closure was hardly less than that with which we
heard ofthe issue of the great battle of Waterloo.
II have seen design by some artist in which
Scott is shown surrounded by the personages
whom, in his poems and romances, he called in
to being. They formed a vast crowd, face be-
yond face, each with its characteristic expires.
sion-a multitude so great that it reminded me
of the throng-the cloud may call it-of cher
ubim which, in certain pictures on the walls of
European churches surround the Virgin Moth
err. For forty years has Scott lain in his grave,
and now his countrymen place in this park an
image of the noble brow, so fortunately copied
by the artist beneath which the personageS of
| his imagination grew into being. Shall we say
| gFe'0, as if they sprang up spontaneously in his
mind, like plants from fruitful soil, while his
| fingers guided The pen that noted down their
words and recorded their acts2 Or should
| we imagine the faculties of his mind
| TO have busted themselves at his bidding
in the chambers OF that active brain, and gradu-
| ally to have moulded the characters of his won
| derful fetions to their perfect form? At all
| events, let us say that He who breathed the
| breath Of life into the frame of which copy is
| before US, impaired with that breath portion
| of his own creative power.
| "And now as the statue of Scott is set up in
| this beautiful park, which few years since
| possessed no human associations, historical or
poetic, connected with its shades, its lawns, its
rocks and its waters, these grounds become
| peopled with new memories. Hencelorth the
silent earth at this spot will be eloquent of old
traditions the airs that stir the branches OF the
trees will whisper of feats of chivalry to the
visitor. All that vast crowd of ideal personages
| created by the Imagination of Scott will enter
with bis sculptured effigy and remain-Fergus
| and Flora MclYor, Meg Merrilies and Dirck
| Hatteraik, the Autiquary and his Sister and
| Edie Ochitree, Rob Roy and Helen Macgregor,
| and Baillie Jaryie and Dandie Dinmont, and
| Diana Vernon and Old MortalIty-but the night
would be upon us before could 90 through the
muster roll of this great army. They will pass
| in endless procession around the statue of him
in whose prolific brain they had their birth, un.
til the language which we speak shall perish,
| and the spot on which we stand shall be again
| q woodland wilderness"