Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1891-12-29
Adieu for evermors
My lovel
And adieu for eyermore

My lovel
And adieu for evermore
These are not precisely the theme,
which enjoy mistaken popularity to-day
- the poet OF battles fares III IN noisyu
England. says Sir Francis Doyle
az consequence there are many people
who speak slightingly OF Scotts poetry
and who appear TO claim for themseiye,
some inscIutable superiority by so doing
They give you TO understand witEoU
putting it too coaTsely into words THAI
they are beyond that thing. but that they
liked il very we'll as children and a.,
pleased il you enjoy it still There il
even class OF uufortunates who. through
20 apparent fault of their own, hav5
ceased TO take delight in SCOTS novels
and who manifest a curious indignation
because the characters in them 60 ahead
and do things, instead OF thinking and
talking about them. which is the present
approved fashion of evolving fiction.
Why, what time have the good pecrls
in Quentin Durward" for speculatiea
and chatter1 The rush OF events carries
them irresistibly into action. They p,ot
and fight and run away and scour the
country aud meet with so many advtn,
tures and perform so many brave and
CIuel deeds that they have no Chano,
for intiospection and the Joys Of analysis
Naturally, those writers who TrIls them
selves upon making a story cut OF noth
ing. and who are more concerned with
excluding material than with telling
their tales, have scsnt liking for Sir Wal
ter, who thought little and prated not at
all about the "art OF fiction" but used
the subject which came to hand with the
instructive and unhesitatiDg skill of
great artist
The battles in Quentin Durward and
'Oid Mortality are, l think. as fine i'm
their way as the Battle of Flodden;"
and Floddeu, says Andrew Lang is the
finest fight on record better even than
the stand OF Alas by the ships in rh1
'Iliad better than the Staying OF the
Wooers ip the Odyssey"
The ability to carry us whittier VI
would TO show us whatever he pleased,
r"' stir our hearts blood with tbs
story Of
Old. unhappy. far-of things
Aud battles long ago.
vas the special gift OF Scott-of the man
whose sympathies were as deep as life,
whose outlook was as wide as the broad
bosom of the earth he trod on lie be.
Iieved in action, and he delighted in de.
scribing it
THE thinkers voluntary death in
life" was not for him the power that
moves the world, but rather deeds
deeds that make history and that sing
| themselves forever He honestly felt
himself to be a much smaller man than
| Wellington. He stood abashed in tho
presence Of the soldier who had lei
large issues. and controlled the fate OF
nations. He would have been sincerely
amused 70 learn from Robert Elsmere"
what q delicious thing it is to con-
template Sir Walter reading Robert
Elsmere THAT the decisive events Of
the world take place in the intellect.
The decisive events Of the world, Scott
held, take place in the field OF action-on
the plains Of Marathon and Waterloo
rather than in the brain tissues OF Viii
liam Goodwin. He knew what befei
Athens when she could put forward nc
surer defence against Philip OF Macedon
than the most brilliant orations ever
written in praise of freedom. 1t was
better. he probably thought, to argue as
the English did-"in platoons. Agnes
keTplier in the Atlantic Monthly.