ayed
in the pages of Hume, but the Elizabeth of _Kenilworth_ is the one which
is engraven on every mind; and when the romantic tale and heroic death of
Mary of Scotland are thought of, it is less the masterly picture of
Robertson, or the touching narrative of Tytler, that recurs to the
recollection, than the imprisoned princess of the _Abbot_, or the immortal
Last Sacrament of Schiller.

Considered in its highest aspect, no art ever was attempted by man more
elevated and ennobling than the historical romance. It may be doubted
whether it is inferior even to the lofty flights of the epic, or the
heart-rending pathos of the dramatic muse. Certain it is that it is more
popular, and embraces a much wider circle of readers, than either the
_Iliad_ or the _Paradise Lost_. Homer and Tasso never, in an equal time,
had nearly so many readers as Scott. The reason is, that an interesting
story told in prose, can be more generally understood, and is appreciated
by a much wider circle, than when couched in the lofty strains and
comparative obscurity of verse. It is impossible to over-estimate the
influence, for good or for evil, which this fascinating art may exercise
upon future ages. It literally has the moulding of the human mind in its
hands;--"Give me," said Fletcher of Saltoun, "the making of ballads, and I
will give you the making of laws." Historical romances are the ballads of
a civilized and enlightened age. More even than their rude predecessors of
the mountains and the forest, they form those feelings in youth by which
the character of the future man is to be determined. It is not going too
far to say, that the romances of Sir Walter Scott have gone far to
neutralise the dangers of the Reform Bill. Certain it is that they have
materially assisted in extinguishing, at least in the educated classes of
society, that prejudice against the feudal manners, and those devout
aspirations on the blessings of democratic institutions, which were
universal among the learned over Europe in the close of the eighteenth
century. Like all other great and original minds, so far from being swept
away by the errors of his age, he rose up in direct opposition to them.
Singly he set himself to breast the flood which was overflowing the world.
Thence the reaction in favour of the institutions of the olden time in
church and state, which became general in the next generation, and is now
so strongly manifesting itself, as well in the religious con