rks of Dryden_, the _Works of Swift_, and the
_Lives of the Novelists_.

CHAPTER IV

SCOTT'S CRITICISM OF HIS CONTEMPORARIES

Scott's freedom from literary jealousy--His disapproval of the
typical reviewer's attitude--Jeffrey, Gifford, and Lockhart--His own
practice in regard to reviewing--His informal critical
remarks--Opportunity for favorable judgments afforded by the number
of important writers in his period.

Poets--Burns--Coleridge--Relation of _Christabel_ to
Scott's work--Scott's dislike for extreme
Romanticism--Wordsworth--Southey--Scott's review of
_Kehama_--Byron--Scott's opinion of Byron's
character--Campbell--Moore--Allan Cunningham--Hogg--Crabbe--Joanna
Baillie--Matthew Lewis--Scott's judgment on his early taste for
poetry--Absence of comment on the work of Lamb, Landor, Hunt,
Hazlitt, and DeQuincey.

Novelists--Jane Austen--Maria Edgeworth--Cooper--Personal relations
between Scott and Cooper--Scott's verdict on Americans in
general--Washington Irving--Goethe--Fouque--Scott's interest in men
of action.

To study Scott's relations with contemporary writers is a very pleasant
task because nothing shows better the greatness of his heart. His
admirable freedom from literary jealousy was an innate virtue which he
deliberately increased by cultivation, taking care, also, never to
subject himself to the conditions which he thought accounted for the
faults of Pope, who had "neither the business nor the idleness of life
to divide his mind from his Parnassian pursuits."[231] "Those who have
not his genius may be so far compensated by avoiding his foibles," Scott
said; and some years later he wrote,--"When I first saw that a literary
profession was to be my fate, I endeavoured by all efforts of stoicism
to divest myself of that irritable degree of sensibility--or, to speak
plainly, of vanity--which makes the poetical race miserable and
ridiculous."[232] The record of his life clearly shows that his kindness
towards other men of letters was not limited to words. One who received
his good offices has written,--"The sternest words I ever heard him
utter were concerning a certain poet: 'That man,' he said, 'has had much
in his power, but he never befriended rising genius yet.'"[233] We may
safely say that Scott enjoyed liking the work of other men. "I am most
delighted with praise from those who convince me of their good taste by
admirin