New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-09-20
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

81" " an ~" Dr. Ia Harper q Brothers.
Many readers, if called upon to name the
most delightful biography in the English language
Fould not hesitate to select LOckharts Life OF er
Walter Scott" as the work entitled to that hohOiaOe
or Gmipepce Nor would It be difficult to JUSTIFY theH
preference by features In the character OF e
book It's pictures OF brave vigorous true-Deareu'
intellectual man are not easily 10 De maIcneu' Au0
sketch Sir Walter in the prime OF his days eiooyS %
barona dignes OF AbbOtsford presents an example OF
literary activity genial good fellowship, and graceful
hospitality which has no parallel in British social Ire
NOT less remarkable was the and nObeness win
which be faced the calamites Of his latter years. aOr
ing in their tragic pathOS sad contrast to the branV
prosperity OF his previous career The present VOL
ume, though not in any sense an abridgment OF
Iockhart,s biography, is naturally founded on
that work, and repeats its most conspicuous
features on a miniature scale. 1t IS the pro
duction Of a singularly accomplished writer
man OF original thought, admirably Yersed Ill
literature, combining great critical acuteness Win warm
and sympathes He pOrtrays the character OF
Scott by a succession Of feicOus touches without at
tempting any formal and elaborate estimate But the
true idea OF the is exhibited In natural ana VIVA
colOrs which more impressive in their simphcly
than the ambitious efforts of artistic deneation Inc
incidents Of his life presented with slight comment
and no establishment but they illustrate his rare and
auent nature with force beyond the reach OF merely
dramatic exhibition. Mr.. Hutton relates with consid'
cradle detail the endeavors OF Scott to found
new branch OF the family clan. There Is something
OF irony he REMARKS in the result Of his Herculean
for that purpose Fifteen years after his death
when the estate at length freed from debt all MS
own children and eldest Of his grandchildren were
dead And after the lapse of forydve years. there
remains only girl of his descendants to borrow his
name and to live in his stately halls. Only this was
wanting to give the grandeur Of tragedy TO the end OF
his enterprise He valued his works for the houses ana
lands they were to gain for his descendants Yet every
pudfo he ed al
have gained more from his losing battle than they
could ever gained from his The depth OF
thought and beauty Of expression in the following para
graph make appropriate closeto the admirable work.
What there was IN him Of true grandeur could never
have SEEM had the fifth act OF his life been less
tragic than 1t was Generous large-hearted and mag
unanimous Scott was there something in the days
of his prosperity that fell short Of what men need for
their highest ideal Of strong UnbrOken success
unFivalled popularity, imaginative effort flowing almost
as steadily the current of sreamthese charac-
teristics, which, when enhanced as they were III
his case by the power defy physical pain and to live
I'm mis- imaginative world when his body was writing in
torture. fail to touch the heroic point And there was
nothing in Scott, while he remained prosperous, to re-
lieve adequately the glare Of trimphantprospeny His
religious and moral feeling, though strong and sound
was purely regulative, and not always regulave
where his inward principle not reflected IN the opin
ions Of the society in which he lived The finer spiritual
element in Scott relatively deficient and so the
strength Of the natural man almost too equal COM
plete, and garing Something that should tame the
garng white of that broad sunshine needed and
an the years Of reverse when gift after another
taken away, till at length what he called his
magic wand was broken, and the old man struggled
on the last, without bitterness, without defiance
without murmuung, but not without such sudden
flashes of subdung sweetness melted away the anger
Of the teacher of his chdhOOd-that something seemed
to be supplied Till calamity came Scott appeared to
be a nearly complete natural man, and more. Then
first was perceived in him something above nature,
something which could endure though every end in
life for which he had fought so boldly should be de-
feated-sOmething which could endure and more than
endure, which could shoot soft transparency of its
own through his years Of darkness and decay. That
there was nothing very elevated in Scotrs personal OF
moral or political literary ends-that he for
moment thought Of himself one who was bound to
leave the earth better than he found that he never
seems TO have much contemplated social or pOt-
ica reform for which he ought to cOntendthat he lived
to extent like child blowing soap-bubbles the
brightest and most gorgeous Of which-the AbbOsford
bubble-vanished before his eyes, is not take-of from
the charm Of his career but adds TO IL the very specially
OF its fascination For his entire Inconsistencies
of moral spiritual efforts, the simple straightforward
way in which he abored for ends of the most ordinary
kind, which made 1t clear how much greater the man
than his ends how great the mind and charac-
which prosperity failed display but which became
visible the storm came down and the
night fell Few who battle ayowedy for the right,
battle for it with the calm fOrtude the cheerful equa
ninty with which Scott battled to fulfil his engage
ments and to save his family from ruin He stood high
amongst those
who ever with frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine and opposed
Free hearts, free fOreheads'
among those who have been able to display
One equal temper OF heroic hearts
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will,
To strive, to seek. 10 ind, and not to yield
And wa o
the ends for which he strove that there Is sort Of
grandeur in the tragic fate which denied them to him,
and yet exhibited to all the world the infinite superb
Ory Of the himself to the toy he thus pas
siOnately craving"
VILLAGES AND VILLAGE LIFE. BY NATHANIEL HUI