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    sent the transaction as it appeared to some supposed spectator ; as in that most animated and graphic of all poetical battles , in * Marmion ; ' or the attack on Front de BceuFs castle , as seen by Rebecca from the chamber of Ivanhoe ; or the coronation of George III ., as it appeared in glimpses to the bewildered niece of

    Redgauntlet . In these and a thousand other scenes which have imprinted themselves on the memories of millions , and will pn ( hose of millions more , the elements of the power exercised over the imagination are the same ; truth of detail , with skilful combination , making it available for the production of a single and deep impression .

    The most difficult province in which this faculty of conception can be exercised , is that of human character . From the external manifestations , recorded or invented , of an individual mind , to penetrate into the inner chambers and sanctuary of the soul , and thence to look back again , through the media of his opinions , passions , and senses , upon the world without ; to see with his eyes , feel with his heart , act on his motives , and express his

    hopes and fears in all their strength and peculiarity ; and to accomplish this with characters formed under the most dissimilar influences of station , age , religion , and different degrees of civilization ^ is a proud triumph of genius . Scott achieved it to an extent , and with a success , which have never been surpassed . By shrewd observation of the living , careful study of the memorials of the dead , and an induction which seemed to approach to intuition , he could see , and make us see , the world , and life , and

    all things , as they appear , or have appeared , to lowland trader and highland marauder , to the duke or the dominie , to whigs and J acobites , to cavaliers and covenanters , to courtiers and Alsatians , to the crusader and the bagman . He had possessed himself of the globe , kneaded by the witch in ' Thalaba , ' of a thousand eyeballs , and as rapidly as the features of Matthews could change , does he give us , for glasses to gaze through , the oculi ipsissimi of Richard Cceur de Lion , and Gilbert Glossin , Esq ., W . S ., of Meg Dodds , and of Queen Elizabeth .

    Various circumstances were subsidiary to the exercise of this faculty , and to the delight which it was the means of producing to a multitude of readers . The time and country of Scott ' s birth were fortunate for it . During the early years of his life , Scotland was peculiarly rich in subjects for its exercise . Society was just

    in the state which it had passed in this country , and which had yielded the rich harvest reaped by Smollett and Fielding . There was the constant excitement , for an acute observer and humorist , of a strongly-marked individuality of character . Its scenery , too , was comparatively unexplored . The faculty which could have given a charm to the most familiar prospect , had the advantage for its materials of diversified and romantic views , all fresh and startling , and of which any tolerable copy could not have

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    of Sir Walter Scott 70 S

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1832, page 725, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1824/page/5/