s, and my real
wish to do good to the poor. . . . How could I tread my hall again
with such a diminished crest? How live a poor, indebted man, where
I was once the wealthy, the honored? I was to have gone there
Saturday in joy and prosperity to receive my friends. My dogs will
wait for me in vain. It is foolish, but the thoughts of parting
from these dumb creatures have moved me more than any of the
painful reflections I have put down. Poor things, I must get them
kind masters. I must end these gloomy forebodings, or I shall lose
the tone of mind with which men should meet distress. I feel my
dogs' feet on my knees; I hear them whining and seeking me
everywhere. . . .

"I feel neither dishonored nor broken down by the bad--now really
bad--news I have received. I have walked my last on the domains I
have planted; sat the last time in the halls I have built. But
death would have taken them from me if misfortune had spared them.
My poor people whom I loved so well! There is just another die to
turn up against me in this run of ill-luck,--that is, if I should
break my magic wand in the fall from the elephant, and lose my
popularity with my fortune.

"Read again and for the third time Miss Austen's story of 'Pride
and Prejudice.' That young lady has a talent for describing the
involvements, the feelings, and characters of ordinary life which
is to me the most wonderful I ever met with. The Big Bow-wow strain
I can do myself like any now going, but the exquisite touch which
renders ordinary commonplace things interesting is denied to me."

Troubles had indeed come thick and fast upon poor Scott, and the
heaviest blow was yet to fall. In 1826 Lady Scott was taken from him,
and about the same time a number of his old friends. He felt his
desolation extremely, but kept up bravely for the most part, and worked
prodigiously for many months. There is a grandeur about the way he bore
his misfortunes which casts into shade all that was fine in his
character during his prosperous years. Most men, even of brave and noble
natures, would have been overcome by misfortunes so overwhelming as were
his, and would never have thought of extricating themselves; but he
seemed to rise to the occasion in a quite unexampled manner, and to
fight with the utmost bravery and fortitude to the last. The wound to
his affections