rigid of the Presbyterians. For
myself, I have doubt as to the correctness of their criticisms. "Old
Mortality," in contrast with the previous novels of Scott, has a place
similar to the later productions of George Eliot as compared with her
earlier ones. It is not so vivid a sketch of Scotch life as is given in
"Guy Mannering." Like "The Antiquary," it is bookish rather than
natural. From a literary point of view, it is more artistic than "Guy
Mannering," and more learned. "The canvas is a broader one." Its
characters are portrayed with great skill and power, but they lack the
freshness which comes from actual contact with the people described, and
with whom Scott was familiar as a youth in the course of his wanderings.
It is more historical than realistic. In short, "Old Mortality" is
another creation of its author's brain rather than a painting of real
life. But it is justly famous, for it was the precursor of those
brilliant historical romances from which so much is learned of great men
already known to students. It was a new departure in literature.

Before Scott arose, historical novels were comparatively unknown. He
made romance instructive, rather than merely amusing, and added the
charm of life to the dry annals of the past. Cervantes does not portray
a single great character known in Spanish history in his "Don Quixote,"
but he paints life as he has seen it. So does Goldsmith. So does George
Eliot in "Silas Marner." She presents life, indeed, in "Romola,"--not,
however, as she had personally observed it, but as drawn from books,
recreating the atmosphere of a long gone time by the power of
imagination.

The earlier works of Scott are drawn from memory and personal feeling,
rather than from the knowledge he had gained by study. Of "Old
Mortality" he writes to Lady Louisa Stuart: "I am complete master of the
whole history of these strange times, both of persecutors and
persecuted; so I trust I have come decently off."

The divisional grouping of these earlier novels by Scott himself is
interesting. In the "Advertisement" to "The Antiquary" he says: "The
present work completes a series of fictitious narratives, intended to
illustrate the manners of Scotland at three different periods. WAVERLEY
embraced the age of our fathers [''Tis Sixty Years Since'], GUY
MANNERING that of our own youth, and THE ANTIQUARY refers to the last
ten years of the eighteenth century." The dedication of "Tales of My
Landlord" descri