novelist, like the
master of a puppet-show, has his drama under his absolute authority, and
shapes the events to favour his own opinions; and that whether the Devil
flies away with Punch, or Punch strangles the Devil, forms no real
argument as to the comparative power of either one or other, but only
indicates the special pleasure of the master of the motion."

Scott was deeply in sympathy with the literature of the century within
which he was born. To the evidence of his _Swift_ and of the _Lives of
the Novelists_ it may be added that he contemplated making a complete
edition of Pope, and that he professed to like _London_ and _The Vanity
of Human Wishes_ the best of all poems. James Ballantyne said, rather
ambiguously, "I think I never saw his countenance more indicative of
high admiration than while reciting aloud from those productions."[222]
In one of his letters Scott spoke of the "beautiful and feeling verses
by Dr. Johnson to the memory of his humble friend Levett, ... which with
me, though a tolerably ardent Scotchman, atone for a thousand of his
prejudices."[223] Not only did he admire the great biography, but he
called Boswell "such a biographer as no man but [Johnson] ever had, or
ever deserved to have."[224] But he once said that many of the
_Ramblers_ were "little better than a sort of pageant, where trite and
obvious maxims are made to swagger in lofty and mystic language, and get
some credit only because they are not understood."[225]

Among other eighteenth century writers, Addison is distinguished by high
praise in a few casual references,[226] but Scott once admitted that he
did not like Addison so much as he felt to be proper.[227] A collection
of Prior's poems Scott calls "an English classic of the first
order."[228] He speaks of Parnell as "an admirable man and elegant
poet,"[229] and mentions "the ponderous, persevering, and laborious
dullness of Sir Richard Blackmore."[230] But these observations are of
little importance except as they indicate that Scott had read the
authors of the eighteenth century and acquiesced in the conventional
judgments upon them. It is seldom in his brief and casual comments that
Scott is particularly interesting as a critic, except when he is
speaking of living writers, for he lacked the gift of conciseness. When
he has a large canvas he is at his best, and this he has in the
principal works described in this chapter:--_The Minstrelsy of the
Scottish Border_, the _Wo