Sir Walter Scott. By George Saintsbury. "Famous Scots Series." (Oliphant,
Anderson, and Ferrier.)—There are few living authors blessed with a keener or more generous apprecia- tion of good literature than Mr. Saintsbury. He judges wisely, but he loves heartily, and when, as in the present instance, his theme admits of it he knows how to give free scope to enthusiasm without losing sight of his vocation as a critic. No apology is needed for another volume about Scott, for a great subject can be always treated from a new point of view, and it is sometimes necessary that facts already familiar should be restated with fresh emphasis. At the present time there is a tendency among some youthful critics to think lightly of Scott's method of work- manship and to depreciate his genius. The tastes of the hour may be against him, but he has the permanent forces of Nature on his side. Like Shakespeare, he is for all time, and, like Shake- speare, he is one of the few great humourists and imaginative writers whose power is felt abroad as much almost as in his own country. Mr. Saintsbury justly observes that Scott ruled with rarely equalled power a strangely united kingdom of common- sense fact, and fanciful or traditional romance, and he suggests that if we could conceive Spenser and Fielding blended, the blend would come nearer to Scott's idiosyncrasy than anything else that can be imagined. With the glowing words that close the author's spirited biography every lover of Scott will sympathise.
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