awakened in his mind, as he himself has told us, a latent
suspicion that he had better retire from the field of poetry before his
youthful competitor, and betake himself to another career, in which
hitherto no rival had appeared. Under the influence of this feeling of
distrust in his poetical powers, the all but forgotten manuscript of
_Waverley_ was drawn forth from its obscurity, the novel was finished, and
given to the world in July 1814. From that moment the historical romance
was born for mankind. One of the most delightful and instructive species
of composition was created; which unites the learning of the historian
with the fancy of the poet; which discards from human annals their years
of tedium, and brings prominently forward their eras of interest; which
teaches morality by example, and conveys information by giving pleasure;
and which, combining the charms of imagination with the treasures of
research, founds the ideal upon its only solid and durable basis--the
real.

The historical romance enjoys many advantages for the creation of
interest, and even the conveying of information, over history. It can
combine, in a short space, the exciting incidents which are spread over
numerous volumes; and, by throwing entirely into the background the
uninteresting details of human events, concentrate the light of
imagination on such as are really calculated to produce an impression.
Immense is the facility which this gives for the creation of interest, and
the addition of life, to the picture. What oppresses the historian is the
prodigious number of details with which he is encumbered. As his main
object is to convey a trustworthy narrative of real events, none of them
can, with due regard to the credit of the narrative, be omitted. If they
are so, it is ten to one that the author finds reason to repent his
superficial survey before he has concluded his work; and if he is
fortunate enough to escape such stings of self-reproach, he is quite
certain that the blot will be marked by some kind friend, or candid
critic, who will represent the thing omitted, how trifling soever, as the
most important incident in the whole work, and the neglect of which is
wholly fatal to its credit as a book of authority. Every traveller knows
how invariably this is the case with any object which may have been
accidentally omitted to be seen in any province or city; and that the only
way to avoid the eternal self-reproaches consequent on having