and lived in a town. He inherited most of the clan characteristics, especially the sanguine temper and the love of nature, and in search of information concerning his ancestry had the trend of his mind permanently directed toward Scottish history, tradition, and custom.

Excepting some translations from the German in 1795 and after, Scott's first important publication was the outcome of his familiarity with spoken and written tradition : 'The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border' of 1802 and 1803. When The Lay of the Last Minstrel' came in 1805 and 'Marmion' in 1808, the sales of these and his other poems, surpassing anything ever before known, made him the greatest literary man of his time. "In the spring of 1814," says Lockhart, "appeared Waverley,' an event memorable in the annals of British Literature."

The period of which 'Waverley' treats and the scenes included were chosen with particular care. The plot is more complex than Scott later found it necessary to employ ; the complications are, perhaps, too many, the surprises too great, and some parts appear forced and overwrought, yet the greater part is natural and the movement rapid. The characters are sufficient in number to give a conception of the life and manners of the time-the avowed purpose of the book—and are yet not so many that the picture is confused. They are drawn proportionally, the smaller from the author's and reader's point of view, the larger and important ones impartially, not often by deliberate description, and almost never by psychological analysis. They show themselves forth in soliloquy, conversation, correspondence and action, and are shown by the comments and opinions of others. No important personage in the book is shown as wholly good or bad; all exhibit a natural and human mixture of characteristics. Character resulting from birth and environment is acted upon by training and circumstances and by other character; the personality of the hero develops from comparatively weak, sensitive,

impulsive inexperience toward something more of poise, although to Scott and to his readers the result is not entirely satisfactory Yet it is natural. The emotions treated are many and varied. The range of characters is from peasantry to royalty, from outlawry to peaceful family life, sometimes pictured minutely in minor incidents of common life, sometimes painted with broad impressionistic sweeps. Scott had many methods. The manner of beginning his stories carefully, to bring the reader into their atmosphere, was one from which he seldom varied.

Scott tells his concrete story with few turnings aside to generalize, philosophize, or moralize. He seldom steps forThe story

ward as the author to speak in his own words. is given from the attitude of the hero or the reader; the author has confidence enough in the ability of the latter not to minimize his intelligence by telling him too much, but gives him the pleasure of suspecting and seeing for himself. Nature descriptions are given as seen by the author; generally of beautiful, picturesque, striking or grand scenery, the attitude of the describer being a romantic one, here as in the poems. The easy, rapid flow of the writing, with long, running sentences, now and then not exactly grammatical, but entirely adapted to express the thought, and the appearance even of carelessness, make us almost surprised when study reveals conscious method and technique, a sense of narration and deliberate and thoughtful use of many literary devices. The author is essentially an artist; he appears as such rather than as a moralist or a teacher. But this does not imply, as Carlyle would have us think, lack of moral power. The novels of Scott help toward one of the greatest of moral ends: the realization of the value of life, and, it may be ventured, are more valuable ethically than many of the efforts of professed moralists.

เ

Nothing so much shows the healthy tone of the man as the story of his life after the success of Waverley' and the other novels. The life at Abbotsford, the baronetcy

granted in 1820, the financial failure and the crushing sorrow of Lady Scott's death in 1826, the heroic struggle to remove the debt, and its great reward, the well-won honors, and the death in 1832, are all incidents in the experience of a hero greater than any the author ever drew. of Scott's life is, perhaps, his greatest gift to posterity.

SUBJECTS FOR ESSAYS AND CLASS.

The story

1. How do the author's characteristics make themselves evident in 'Waverley' his sympathy, his love of out-door life, his poetical work?

2. As an exercise, trace through the book any single character, for example that of the Baron Bradwardine, studying the way in which it is drawn.

3. Compare and contrast the characters of Waverley and Fergus MacIvor, of Rose Bradwardine and Flora MacIvor.

4. Make an outline of the plot of the book.

5. What may be said of Scott's use of the supernatural in 'Waverley,'— in his other novels?

6. Does 'Waverley' teach an ethical lesson?

7. How significant of Scott's character were his concealment of the authorship of the Waverley Novels,' and his carelessness in money matters?

8. Comment on Scott's use of half-witted folk in his books, and his attitude toward evil.

9. What are the values and the limitations of the historical novel? 10. Was Scott's faithfulness to historical facts and customs such as to enentitle him to Dowden's characterization, "a great imaginative restorer of the past?"

REFERENCES.

'Waverley' should be carefully read, or re-read, before this lecture. An edition published for twenty-five cents, by F. M. Lupton, New York, in the ‘Elite Series' (paper), may be bought for ten cents. There are many inexpensive editions in cloth. One published by A. L. Burt, New York, in Burt's 'Home Library,' at seventy-five cents, has clear type, good paper, neat binding, and is sold for forty-five cents. In selecting copies of Waverley' one should be careful that they include Scott's numerous prefaces, introductions, advertisements, and appendices. A glossary and an index are often added. A. & C. Black, Edinburgh and London, are the publishers of the standard editions of the 'Waverley Novels.'

All biographies of Scott are based on the 'Life' by his son-in-law, J. G. Lockhart, published in seven volumes in 1838. Thomas Carlyle's essay on Scott was originally published as a review of Lockhart's 'Life.' A one volume (812 pages) abridgement by Lockhart, was published in 1871, by A. & C. Black, Edinburgh. The biography of Scott recommended for this course is that by R. H. Hutton, in the 'English Men of Letters' Series (Harper & Brothers. Cloth, 75 cents. Harpers' Handy Series. Paper, 25 cents), or that by Charles Duke Yonge in the 'Great Writers' Series (Walter Scott, London. Cloth, 18. 6d. Sold in America for 35 cents). All the volumes of the 'Great Writers' Series contain exhaustive bibliographies. Dr. John Brown's 'Majorie Fleming,' and Washington Irving's 'Abbotsford' give charming personal accounts of Scott.

LECTURE II.

Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, Baron

Lytton.

(b. 1803; Rienzi,' 1835; d. 1873.)

"Novelist, dramatist, poet, politician, miscellaneous essayist, the most versatile writer, and one of the most active and widely discursive theorizers of his generation."

-Minto's Essay on Bulwer-Lytton.

Lord Lytton is sometimes confused with his brother and with his son. In 1838 he was made a baronet; in 1844, at the death of his mother, he inherited her estates and added her name to his own, making it Bulwer-Lytton; in 1866 he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Lytton.

His elder brother, William Henry Lytton Earle Bulwer (1801-1872), also an author, was ennobled for his distinguished diplomatic services, and bore the titles Baron Dalling and Bulwer.

Our author's eldest son (1831-1891) succeeded to his father's title as Baron Lytton and, for distinguished services as Viceroy of India, was promoted to an earldom.

Generally spoken of as Lord Lytton, as a poet he is known under the pseudonym of Owen Meredith

Bulwer was born in aristocratic circles, was educated in them at Cambridge and by foreign travel, and became a typical young man of fashion. His grandfather was a learned and eccentric scholar, his father a strong-willed and ambitious general. At twenty-four he estranged the affection of his accomplished and devoted, but proud, mother by marrying against her will. After seven unhappy years this marriage union was dissolved.

As a statesman he spent twenty-four years in the House of Commons, seven in the House of Lords, and some time as Colonial Secretary, not with especial distinction, but with much credit. Influential as an educational theorist, he was made in 1856 Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow. His first book, 'Falkland,' in 1827, was not successful; his second, 'Pelham,' in 1828, was decidedly so. 'Rienzi' came out in 1835. Twice after he was famous Lytton made new reputations with anonymous works, 'The Caxtons,' in 1848, and 'The Coming Race,' after he had been the author of more than fifty volumes. 'The Lady of Lyons' and 'Richelieu' have been called the greatest dramas ever written by an Englishman who was not an actor. He was a shrewd observer and a careful student, and had remarkable industry, energy, and versatility.

'Rienzi' grew from material gathered for a biography which was to correct popular errors concerning the great man, who lived from 1313 to 1354, and embodies careful studies of the tangled Italian politics of the time, the confused relation of Church and State, the life of the people and their turbulent struggle against despotism and oppression. The book centres, as did the history, around the extraordinary figure of Rienzi, a pivotal man,-great, but a failure. The author's skill is notable in picturing, of necessity somewhat analytically, the remarkably complex character of his hero, involving enthusiastic pa