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him his first solid success. Lord Salisbury had arisen to such power
and confidence with his master, that he no longer feared the talents
of Bacon, and with his concurrence, if not by his means, Bacon was
at length appointed Solicitor-General, which, besides its future
promise, was an office worth 5000l. or 6000l. a-year to him in
private practice. Though now a busy man, and constantly engaged
in affairs of the Crown, he nevertheless found time to write and
publish his Wisdom of the Ancients, a work of great elegance and
profound learning, but not one to which the present age owes much.
In 1611 he was appointed joint judge of the Marshal’s court, and
immediately afterwards Attorney-General, on the promotion of Lord
Coke to the office of Chief Justice of the King’s Bench. Bacon did not
attach himself to the fortunes of the reigning favourite Somerset,
and when that lord and his countess were brought to trial for the
murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, he had the management of the
case for the Crown, which he so conducted as to keep himself out of
the disgrace into which Coke and others fell with the King, on
account of this critical affair.
He was farther advanced to the office of Lord Keeper in March, 1617,
on the resignation of the Lord Chancellor Viscount Brackley, and the
same year sat at the head of the council-board, as manager of the
King’s affairs, during the absence of the monarch and his new
favourite Buckingham in Scotland. On the return of the King, Bacon
was made Lord High Chancellor, Jan. 4, 1618; and in July following
he was created Baron of Verulam. In 1620 he sent to the King his
Novum Organum, or ‘New Instrument of Logic, better calculated for
the real progress of science than that of Aristotle.’
The next year Bacon received the title of Viscount St. Albans, and
opened the Parliament of February, 1621, the most honoured, and
among the most powerful subjects of the realm. But this parliament
was fatal to him. James had not called this assembly together for
more than ten years, except for the short session of two months in
1614, and during that period had been subsisting on the
unconstitutional resources of benevolences, and the sale of
monopolies. Almost the first act of this parliament was the inquiry
into abuses, and more particularly those of the courts of justice, and
the sale of patents. As all patents had to pass the seal, it was
natural that the conduct of the Lord Keeper should be looked into,
and this led to farther inquiry concerning the administration of
justice in the Chancellor’s court. The chairman of a committee
appointed to conduct this inquiry, brought up two charges of bribery
against Bacon. This alarmed James and his favourite, and the
parliament was adjourned for three weeks, in the hope that the
affair would blow over. But during this recess, twenty-two cases of
bribery were charged upon the Chancellor, and a deputation from
the lower House waited on him to know whether he would confess
or refute them. In a few days he chose to make confession, and
threw himself on the mercy of his peers. His confession was not
thought ample enough, and too extenuatory; and he was obliged to
make one still more full, in writing, upon which a deputation of
thirteen Lords was sent to him, to know whether it were really his.
His answer to them was, “My Lords, it is my act, my hand, my heart;
I beseech your Lordships to be merciful to a broken reed.” At the
petition of the Peers, the seals were sequestrated, Bacon was
deprived of his speakership and of his seat in Parliament, and farther
was fined 40,000l., sentenced to imprisonment during the King’s
pleasure, debarred from entering the verge of the Court, and
declared incapable of holding any office in future. This penalty was
considerably mitigated by James, who confined him but for a short
space in the Tower, allowed him to make over the fine to assignees
of his own choosing, and, for the settling of his affairs, gave him
leave to reside for some time within the verge of the Court. After
some years, at the earnest solicitation of Bacon, “that his royal
master would be pleased to wipe out his disgrace from the page of
history by his princely pardon,” he received the favour he so much
desired.
At the age of sixty-one, Bacon retired to his country-seat at
Gorhambury, having an income of about 2500l. His debts amounted
to about 30,000l., of which he liquidated a third before his death.
Apart from the noise and stir of life, Bacon more sedulously bent his
mind to the cultivation of philosophy, his true field of labour. With
the exception of his Reign of Henry the Seventh, and a tract written
against the match between Prince Charles and the Infanta of Spain,
the five last years of his life were spent in making philosophical
experiments, and in moulding his works to a more perfect form. It
was his great wish that what he had written should be translated
into the general language of learning, Latin; consequently much of
his time during this period was employed in translating himself, or
revising the translations of his friends. His chief labour, however, was
the reduction of his Instauration to a most highly finished state of
aphorisms. He took incredible pains with this great performance. His
biographer and editor, Dr. Rawley, declares that this work was
revised and corrected, almost re-written, at least ten times, and
finally left unfinished: for a book which taught what was known in
the world, and wherein that knowledge was defective or pretended;
which professed to teach a new system, by which general laws
should be made for the foundation of true science; and which
pointed out what remained to be known, was indeed rather the
undertaking of many lives of manhood, than a few years of one
suffering under a load of debt, disgrace, infirmity, and age. The
peculiarity of Bacon’s philosophical doctrine may be expressed in few
words. He found that the beliefs of learned men (apart from
religious beliefs) rested upon the authority of one unquestionably
great intelligence, Aristotle, who had invented laws of science,
unfounded except in the speculations of his own mind, and many of
them misunderstood by his idolizers. These laws were given or
made, and facts were supposed to follow from them necessarily and
without question. But Bacon proposed to found his general laws on
actual experiments. So that when by a multitude of facts arising
from this course of proceeding, laws should be produced which fairly
accounted for phenomena, the application of such laws might farther
become the confirmation of fresh and, it may be, more difficult,
combinations. It is curious that Bacon’s own experiments should, for
the most part, be so signally frivolous and inconclusive. This may be
accounted for, in some measure, by the novelty of the method,—his
own defence, for he was aware of the fact, is, “that he did not like to
throw away any experiment, however seeming foolish, in case that
some spark of truth should be contained in it, or suggested by it.”
But he certainly did not possess the power of applying his own
principles to practice, and far better examples of the inductive
powers may be found, even in the labours of his predecessors, than
any which his own writings afford.
After having spent five years in this labour for posterity, on the 9th
of April, 1626, Bacon died at the age of 66, at the house of Lord
Arundel, in Highgate, on his way to London. A week’s acute illness
carried him to his grave. He was buried at Old Verulam, and for a
long time no “stone told where he lay,” till the affection of an old
servant erected a marble monument to the memory of his noble
master. His name was well known among the continental nations,
and he himself was understood and appreciated by them, to a far
greater extent than by his fellow-countrymen. Some allusion to this
is found in his will, in which, after having commended his soul to
God, and his body to the dust, he proceeds, prophetically, to
“bequeath his name and fame to foreign nations, and to his own
countrymen after some time be passed over.”
The character of Bacon has been held up as an extraordinary
anomaly, as containing the extremes of strength and weakness.
Pope was pleased to call him
“The greatest, wisest, meanest of mankind,”

probably for the sake of the powerful contrast presented in the line.
That his great strength lay in his intellectual powers there is no
doubt, but that his moral power was slight enough for him to
deserve the character of “meanest of mankind,” is not to be
believed. The wrong he did to Essex is perhaps the strongest stain
that remains on his memory. The charge of bribery is not so heinous
in him as it appears to be at first sight. He says (and though it be a
sophism yet it has some weight,) “that he never sold injustice,” nor
did he: his decrees were pronounced without regard to the parties
concerned, and were none of them reversed; moreover, judicial
bribery was not thought so vicious then as it is now; in France, it
was open and daily. Of the twenty-two charges brought against him,
five only were really for bribery, that is, while the suit was pending.
The rest were presents. He had lived in want for the greater portion
of his life, and becoming suddenly rich, and full of various business,
he was naturally careless of expenses, and left a great deal more
than he ought to have done in the hands of his servants; who lived
upon him so extravagantly, that on passing through his hall (when
they rose at his presence) he said, “Sit down, my masters, your rise
hath been my fall.” There is also every reason to believe that he was
induced to suppress his defence by the intrigues of James, and his
favourite Buckingham; to whose escape he had the weakness to let
himself be made a sacrifice. He has been accused of cringing to this
powerful favourite in less important particulars; but his letters are no
more than a type of the usual style of an inferior to a superior in the
Court in which he lived. He fell upon hard times, first the courtier of
a princess whose thirst of praise and requisition of humility was
unbounded, then the courtier and servant of a king who all but
believed himself to be a god. The most marvellous fact of Bacon’s
character is, that he who knew men so well, and whose insight into
their feelings and motives was so clear, should have been so blind as
to remain totally ignorant, as is apparent from all his letters and
writings, of that youthful spirit of freedom which in the subsequent
reign sprung into such vigorous manhood. But he seems to have
been “the king’s true chancellor,” and to have believed most firmly in
that Divine right for which James argued and his son died.
Bacon’s private character was generous and humane almost to a
fault. His manners were exceedingly winning, and his method of
drawing from all sorts of men the information belonging to their
separate callings was wonderful. He was constitutionally timid, and
was always in weak health. His person was slightly above the
common height, his countenance most dignified, and intellectually
commanding.
 [Statue of Lord
Bacon in St.
Michael’s Church, St.
Alban’s.]

Engraved by W. Holl.

SIR WALTER SCOTT.

From a Bust by Chantrey.

Under the Superintendance
of the Society for the
Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge.

London, Published by
Charles Knight & Co.
Ludgate Street.
 SIR W. SCOTT.

Walter Scott was born in the Old Town of Edinburgh, April 15, 1771,
in a house at the head of the College Wynd, which has been pulled
down to make way for the new buildings of the University. His father
was a writer to the signet, his grandfather a farmer resident in
Roxburghshire, who traced his descent to the ancient Border family
of Scott of Harden. His infancy gave no promise of the robust
manhood which he attained: and in addition to general weakness of
constitution, his right foot received an early injury, which rendered
him lame through life. This delicacy of health induced his parents to
send him, when almost an infant, to his grandfather’s farm at
Sandyknow in Roxburghshire, adjoining the Border fortress called
Smailholm Tower, in the heart of that romantic pastoral district
whose scenery and legends he has rendered famous. [5]“His
residence at this secluded spot, which after early boyhood was, we
believe, occasionally renewed during the summer vacations of the
High School and College, was undoubtedly fraught with many
advantages, physical and mental. It was here that his feeble
constitution was, by the aid of free air and exercise, gradually
strengthened into robustness; and though he never got rid of his
lameness, it was so far overcome as to be in after life rather a
deformity than an inconvenience. It was here that his love of ballad
lore and border story was fostered into a passion; and it was here
doubtless, and at the house of one of his uncles, Mr. Thomas Scott,
of Woolee, also a Roxburghshire farmer, that he early acquired that
intimate acquaintance with the manners, character, and language of
the Scottish peasantry, which he afterwards turned to such
admirable account in his novels.”
 5. This, and the other passages marked with inverted commas,
except those taken from Scott’s Autobiography, are derived
from a memoir of Sir Walter Scott published in the Penny
Magazine, No. 37, and written by Scott’s countryman and
acquaintance, the late Mr. Pringle.
In October, 1779, he entered the High School of Edinburgh, which
he attended during four years. He there acquired the character of
being “a remarkably active and dauntless boy, full of all manner of
fun, and ready for all manner of mischief;” and so far from being
timid or quiet on account of his lameness, that very defect, (as he
himself remarked to be usually the case in similar circumstances
with boys of enterprising disposition) prompted him to take the lead
among all the stirring boys in the street where he lived, or the
school which he attended. In Greek and Latin he made little
progress, and obtained little credit for talent or industry from his
masters; but he has invoked his surviving school-fellows, in the
Introduction to the last edition of the Waverley Novels, “to bear
witness that I had a distinguished character for talent as a tale-teller,
at a time when the applause of my companions was the recompense
for the disgraces and punishments which the future romance-writer
incurred for being idle himself, and keeping others idle, during hours
of the day that should have been employed upon our tasks.”
He entered the University of Edinburgh in October, 1783; but his
attendance there was only for two sessions. About the age of fifteen
the rupture of a blood-vessel again reduced him to a very weak
state, and during the space of two years bodily and mental exertion
were forbidden. He had recourse for amusement to a circulating
library, “rich,” he says, “in works of fiction, from the romances of
chivalry, and the ponderous folios of Cyrus and Cassandra, down to
the most approved works of later times. I was plunged into this
great ocean of reading without compass or pilot, and unless when
some one had the charity to play at chess with me I was allowed to
do nothing, save read, from morning to night.... I believe I read
almost all the old romances, old plays, and epic poetry in that
formidable collection, and no doubt was unconsciously amassing
materials for the task in which it has been my lot to be so much
employed. At the same time I did not in all respects abuse the
license permitted me. Familiar acquaintance with the specious
miracles of fiction brought with it some degree of satiety, and I
began by degrees to seek in histories, memoirs, voyages and travels,
and the like, events nearly as wonderful as those which were the
work of the imagination, with the additional advantage that they
were at least in a great measure true. The lapse of two years, during
which I was left to the service of my own free will, was followed by a
temporary residence in the country, where I was again very lonely
but for the amusement which I derived from a good though old-
fashioned library. The vague and wild use which I made of this
advantage I cannot describe better than by referring my reader to
the desultory studies of Waverley in a similar situation; the passages
concerning whose reading were imitated from recollections of my
own.”
After recovering from this illness his constitution changed, and he
became unusually robust, and capable of enduring great bodily and
mental fatigue; even his lameness occasioning no serious
inconvenience. He then applied himself in earnest to the study of
law, and, to acquire a thorough knowledge of its technicalities, went
through the duties of a clerk in his father’s office. He completed the
usual course of legal education, and was called to the bar in July,
1792. He seemed however little anxious for business; and as usual,
business unsought came slowly: in his legal capacity he acquired
neither wealth nor distinction. But, in amends for this, in those days
of volunteer corps, he made an admirable quarter-master to the
Edinburgh Light Dragoons; and his zeal and skill, and the popularity
which his high powers of social entertainment procured,
recommended him to the friendship of the Duke of Buccleugh, by
whose interest he obtained, in December, 1799, the appointment of
Sheriff of Selkirkshire, with a salary of 300l. He had married in 1797
Miss Carpenter, a lady of foreign birth but English parentage,
possessed of fortune sufficient, when added to the salary of his
office, and his own patrimonial inheritance, to release him from the
necessity of labouring at the bar for a livelihood. This was a step on
which his mind had been some time bent. “My profession and I,” he
says, “came to stand nearly on the footing which honest Slender
consoled himself on having established with Mistress Anne Page
—‘There was no great love between us at the beginning, and it
pleased Heaven to decrease it on farther acquaintance.’ I became
sensible that the time was come when I must either buckle myself
resolutely to ‘the toil by day, the lamp by night,’ renouncing all the
Dalilahs of my imagination, or bid adieu to the profession of the law,
and hold another course.”
Scott was not a premature writer; he had reached his twenty-fifth
year before he tried his strength in composition, excepting a few
trivial attempts in childhood; and his name was still unknown to the
public, when he resolved to devote his powers to literature. His first
essays were made about 1796, when his attention was caught by
the Leonora, and other poems of Bürger, which he translated and
published anonymously. “The adventure,” he says, “proved a dead
loss, and a great part of this edition was condemned to the service
of the trunk-maker.” His next performance was a translation of
Goethe’s drama, Goetz of Berlichingen, published in 1799. But he
continued his devotion to ballad poetry, and as his confidence rose,
essayed his strength in Glenfinlas, and the Eve of St. John, his first
original compositions. At Lasswade on the banks of the Esk, about
five miles from Edinburgh, where he spent several summers after his
marriage, he prosecuted with increased zeal and success his
favourite inquiries into the antiquities and legendary song of his
country, and commenced the work which gave him a name in
literature, the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. “The materials for
this work were collected during various excursions, or raids, as Sir
Walter was wont to call them, through the most remote recesses of
the border glens, made by the poetical compiler in person, assisted
by one or two other enthusiasts in ballad lore. Pre-eminent among
his coadjutors in this undertaking was Dr. John Leyden, an
enthusiastic borderer and ballad-monger like himself, and to whom
he has gratefully acknowledged his obligations both in verse and
prose.”
“Some amusing anecdotes have been printed, and others are still
extant in oral tradition among the border hills, of the circumstances
attending the collection of these ballads. The old women, who were
almost the only remaining depositories of ancient song and tradition,
though proud of being solicited to recite them by ‘so grand a man’
as an Edinburgh Advocate, could not repress their astonishment that
‘a man o’ sense and lair’ should spend his time in writing into a book
‘auld ballads and stories of the bluidy Border wars, and paipish
times....’ The Minstrelsy was printed at Kelso, in 1802, at first in two
volumes, to which a third was added in the second edition. Two
years subsequently Scott published the romance of Sir Tristram, a
Scottish metrical tale of the thirteenth century, which he showed, in
a learned disquisition, to have been composed by Thomas of
Ercildown, commonly called the Rhymer.”
“These works, especially the Border Minstrelsy, were favourably
received by the public, and established Scott’s reputation on a very
respectable footing, as an excellent poetical antiquary, and as a
writer of considerable power and promise, both in verse and prose.
As yet, however, he had produced no composition of originality and
importance sufficient to secure that high and permanent rank in
literature, to which his secret ambition led him to aspire. But he had
now a subject in hand which was destined to attain for him a
popularity far beyond what his most sanguine hopes could have
ventured to anticipate.”
“The Lay of the Last Minstrel appeared in 1805. The structure of the
verse was suggested, as the author states, by the Christabel of
Coleridge; a part of which had been repeated to him about the year
1800. The originality, wildness, poetical beauty, and descriptive
powers of Scott’s Border romance produced an effect on the public
mind, only to be equalled perhaps by some of the earlier works of
Byron.”
“In the spring of 1806 Sir Walter obtained an appointment, which,
he says, completely met his moderate wishes as to preferment. This
was the office of a principal Clerk of Session, of which the duties are
by no means heavy, though personal attendance during the sitting of
the courts is required. Mr. Pitt, under whose administration the
appointment had been granted, having died before it was officially
completed, the succeeding Whig ministry had the satisfaction of
confirming it. The emoluments of this office were about 1200l. a
year; but Scott received no part of the salary till 1812, the
appointment being a reversionary one.”
His reputation and his fortune seemed now to be completely
established. Marmion, published in 1808, and the Lady of the Lake,
in 1810, were received each with greater favour than its
predecessor. Don Roderick, 1811, was not successful; Rokeby, 1813,
and The Lord of the Isles, 1814, were generally thought inferior in
merit to his earlier works. This might arise, in part, from the
extraordinary rapidity of their composition: for Rokeby was
commenced September 15, and finished December 31, 1812; and
the Lord of the Isles was written in the following autumn, with equal
rapidity, but under circumstances which rendered the task a burden,
and damped the fire of his muse. Still these, like their predecessors,
commanded very large sales, and brought in large sums to the
author, and large profits to the publishers. His popularity, however,
was on the ebb, and it was the general impression that Scott had
nearly written himself out. At the time when this was said, he had
already published one anonymous poem, the Bridal of Triermain,
1810, as if ashamed of his prolific pen. Afterwards, in 1817, he
published Harold the Dauntless, in the same way. The censure,
however, was not unfounded; and the two last acknowledged poems
of Scott were inferior in interest and execution to his earlier
productions. Another reason for the decrease of Scott’s popularity he
has himself assigned, in the rapid growth of Lord Byron’s.
It was about the end of 1813 that accident threw in his way the
mislaid manuscript of the beginning of Waverley, seven chapters of
which he had composed in 1805, and had thrown aside, in deference
to the unfavourable opinion of a critical friend. At different times he
had been inclined to resume this work, but had been prevented by
the loss of the manuscript: which he now applied himself in earnest
to complete. Waverley was published in the summer of 1814; and
obtained success beyond the author’s fondest expectations. The
history of this wonderful series of works of fiction, and the author’s
reasons for adopting and retaining his incognito, are familiar to the
public, through his own account in the Introduction to the Waverley
Novels. The manner in which the secret was kept is a remarkable
anecdote in literary history: for, whatever conclusions might be
drawn from internal evidence by Scott’s intimate friends, and from
putting things together by the public, not a particle of external
evidence was produced to fasten it upon him, until the failure of
Constable’s house in 1826 led to Scott’s public avowal of the
authorship in 1827. Perhaps this mystery tended to keep alive the
public interest: perhaps also Scott had a keener relish of the homage
paid to the Great Unknown, than if it had been offered to him in his
own person.
Scott’s metrical romances, as they were composed with unexampled
rapidity, commanded also unexampled prices from the booksellers.
And at the same time he found leisure for a variety of laborious
works in criticism, biography, and miscellaneous literature, which
added considerably both to his funds and his reputation. Among
these were new editions of the works of Dryden and Swift, with
biographical accounts; Sadler’s State Papers; Somers’s Tracts; Lives
of the Novelists; besides numerous contributions to encyclopædias,
reviews, and other periodical publications. His scheme of devoting
himself to literature had borne fruit of fame and profit beyond his
brightest anticipations. His certain income (we presume after the
year 1812) is said by Mr. Pringle to have exceeded 2000l.: and he
was supposed to double that sum by the exuberant harvest of his
brain.
“Amidst all this labour Scott found abundant leisure not only for his
official avocations, but for social enjoyment and rural recreation.
While the Court of Session was sitting, he lived in Edinburgh, in a
good substantial house in North Castle Street. During the vacations
he resided in the country, and appeared to enter with ardour into the
ordinary occupations and amusements of country gentlemen. After
he was appointed Sheriff of Selkirk he hired for his summer
residence the house and farm of Ashiesteil, on the banks of the
Tweed; and here many of his poetical works were written. But with
the increase of his resources grew the desire to possess landed
property of his own, where he might indulge his tastes for building,
planting, and gardening. Commencing with moderation, he
purchased a small farm of about one hundred acres, lying on the
south bank of the Tweed, three miles above Melrose, and in the very
centre of that romantic and legendary country which his first great
poem has made familiar to every reader. This spot, then called Cartly
Hole, had a northern exposure, and at that time a somewhat bleak
and uninviting aspect: the only habitable house upon it was a small
and inconvenient farm-house. Such was the nucleus of the mansion
and estate of Abbotsford. By degrees, as his resources increased, he
added farm after farm to his domain, and reared his chateau, turret
after turret, till he completed what a French tourist not inaptly terms
‘a romance of stone and lime,’ clothing meanwhile the hills behind,
and embowering the lawns before, with flourishing woods of his own
planting. The embellishment of his house and grounds, and the
enlargement of his landed property, became, after the establishment
of his literary reputation, the objects, apparently, of Scott’s most
engrossing interest; and whatever may be the intrinsic value of the
estate as a heritage to his posterity, he has at least succeeded in
erecting a scene altogether of no ordinary attractions, and worthy of
being associated with his distinguished name.”
“During the greater part of the summer and autumn he kept house
at Abbotsford like a wealthy country gentleman, receiving with a
cordial, yet courtly, hospitality, the many distinguished persons, both
from England and the Continent, who found means to obtain an
introduction to his enchanted castle. Anything more delightful than a
visit to Abbotsford, when Sir Walter was in the full enjoyment of his
health and spirits, can scarcely be imagined. After his morning
labours, which, even when busiest, were seldom protracted beyond
mid-day, (his time for composition being usually from seven to
eleven or twelve o’clock,) he devoted himself to the entertainment of
his guests with so much unaffected cordiality, such hilarity of spirits,
and such homely kindliness of manner, and above all with such an
entire absence of literary pretension, that the shyest stranger found
himself at once on terms of the easiest familiarity with the most
illustrious man in Europe.”
In the spring of 1820, Scott was created a baronet by George IV., as
a testimony of personal regard; and on the King’s visit to Scotland in
1822, he was appointed to superintend the arrangements for his
Majesty’s reception; an office gratifying to his national feelings and
antiquarian tastes, as well as to his aristocratical predilections.
The profusion of his expenditure no doubt had considerable effect in
strengthening the general belief that Scott was the author of the
Waverley Novels; inasmuch as he possessed no ostensible means
from which the sums expended in the purchase and improvement of
Abbotsford, as well as the liberal hospitality which he there
exercised, could be defrayed. His urbanity, his innate kindliness of
nature, his unassuming demeanour, and readiness to foster humble
merit, had almost disarmed ill-will, besides softening the asperity of
party feelings; and men looked without envy on a fortune which, to
be the produce of one man’s literary labours for the short space of
twenty years, seemed almost beyond belief, as well as beyond
example, and acknowledged it to be deserved, without a doubt of its
continuance, or reality. In this belief, (for otherwise he would have
acted differently, being naturally a prudent man,) Scott himself
rested secure, until January, 1826, when the house of Constable and
Co. became bankrupt, at the close of that calamitous season which
pressed so heavily upon all branches of trade. He then, to use his
own words, found himself called on to meet the demands of
creditors upon commercial establishments with which his fortunes
had long been bound up, to the extent of no less a sum than
120,000l. How and why he was led into so deep a confidence, and
how far the prices received for his works were connected with his
commercial transactions, has never, we believe, been clearly
explained, nor does it much import the public to know; the error, so
far as his reputation is concerned, (and the only charge against him
was want of prudence,) he amply redeemed by the nobleness of his
conduct under this crushing misfortune; and it has been truly said
that “the honour which rests upon his memory for his gigantic
exertions to pay off this immense debt without deduction, is a far
nobler heritage to his posterity than the most princely fortune.”
“On meeting his creditors, he refused to accept of any compromise,
and declared his determination, if life was spared him, to pay off
every shilling. He insured his life in their favour for 22,000l.;
surrendered all his available property in trust (Abbotsford being
rendered inalienable by the marriage articles of his eldest son); sold
his town house and furniture, and removed to a humbler dwelling;
and then set himself calmly down to the stupendous task of reducing
this load of debt. The only indulgence he asked for was time; and, to
the honour of the parties concerned, time was liberally and kindly
given him. A month or two after the crash of Constable’s house,
Lady Scott died; domestic affliction thus following fast upon worldly
calamity.”
For five years after his pecuniary misfortunes, namely, from January
1826 to the spring of 1831, Sir Walter continued his indefatigable
labours; and in that period, besides several new works of fiction, he
produced the History of Scotland, published in Lardner’s Cyclopædia,
Tales of a Grandfather, Letters on Demonology, and a number of
smaller pieces. The Life of Napoleon was in part composed anterior
to the calamity of which we speak: it was published in 1827, and
though read with interest, did not display the research and
impartiality which the character of an historian requires. He also
superintended a new edition of the Waverley Novels, with prefaces
and illustrative notes; and the profits of all these works were so
considerable, that by the close of 1830, 54,000l. had been paid off;
all of which, except six or seven thousand, had been produced by his
own literary labours. The copyright of the published novels was sold
by Constable’s creditors for 8,400l., half of which was assigned to Sir
Walter by his creditors, in consideration of his assistance in
furnishing prefaces and notes to the new edition.
But over-exertion in the evening of life, and under circumstances too
well calculated to weaken the elasticity of his spirits, and to destroy
the pleasure which he used to feel in composition, broke his
constitution and brought on premature old age. In the autumn of
1830 he retired from his office of Clerk of Session. In the following
winter, symptoms of paralysis began to appear. Still he continued to
labour until the summer of 1831, in the course of which mental
exertion was strictly forbidden. He was advised to visit Italy in the
following autumn, and even in his declining condition must have
been gratified by the sympathy and the honour rendered to him. A
passage to Malta in the Barham man-of-war was granted to him by
the British Government; and at Rome and Naples he was received
with honours rarely paid except to royal blood. But his desire to
return to his native land became irrepressible; and he hurried
homewards, taking the route by the Rhine, with a rapidity which
proved very injurious. He reached London in nearly the last stage of
physical and mental weakness. Still the love of his native land was
strong in death, and after remaining some weeks in the metropolis,
he was conveyed at his own earnest desire by sea to Leith, and
reached Abbotsford, July 11. After lingering two months, almost
without consciousness, in the last stage of his most afflictive malady,
he expired, September 22, 1832. His body was laid in his family
burial-place in the ruined abbey of Dryburgh on the Tweed.
Throughout the kingdom his death was regarded like the loss of a
friend; and the general admiration of his talents, respect for his
conduct, and sympathy for his misfortunes, was shown by the
favourable reception of a project for raising a subscription to
discharge the incumbrances existing on the Abbotsford estate, and
to preserve it by entail in Sir Walter’s family, as a lasting memorial of
his genius.
Scott’s works, in the last uniform edition, fill eighty-eight closely
printed duodecimo volumes. Of these his poems occupy twelve, the
novels forty-eight, the miscellaneous prose works twenty-eight. The
Letters on Demonology, History of Scotland, and a few minor
productions are not included herein, in consequence of the
copyrights being vested in different hands. From his numerous
unnamed works, we may select for mention his Border Antiquities,
Picturesque Scenery of Scotland, his share in Weber and Jameson’s
Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, Paul’s Letters, which contain the
liveliest description ever given of the Battle of Waterloo, and three
dramas, Halidon Hill, the Doom of Devorgoil, and the Auchindrane
Tragedy.

[View of Abbotsford.]

In closing this Series, an apology may be thought necessary for the

omission of many portraits which have formerly been advertised for
publication. In a few instances this has arisen from the nonexistence
of authentic portraits; in some from their remoteness, or the
difficulty of obtaining leave to copy those which are known to exist:
the latter causes have compelled us to engrave from prints to a
greater extent than was at first contemplated. But where access
could be had to the originals, in France and Italy as well as England,
artists have been employed to copy them for the engraver’s use; and
it is our duty to express our gratitude for the liberality with which
applications for this purpose have, for the most part, been acceded
to. One important branch of science, metaphysics, has been left with
very few representatives, in consequence of the highly controversial
nature of the subject. This work was planned to include those, and
those only, of all nations, who since the revival of art and within the
era of authentic portraiture, have been great originators and
inventors in arts, sciences, and literature: but the line which
separates those who have originated from those who have improved
or greatly excelled, is so hard to draw, that many persons have been
admitted, whose claims may not be reconcilable with a strict
adherence to the principle at first laid down; and one extension
forms a precedent and reason for another. Regarding it as a
collection of the most distinguished men of modern times,
completeness is impossible, from the vast extent of the subject and
the diversities of judgement which differences in character, the bias
of natural prejudices, and greater or less familiarity with the results
of their lives, cause men to pass upon the worth and eminence of
others. A Briton may think the foreigners in our collection too
numerous; a foreigner will be as likely to say, that in choosing full
one half from our own countrymen, we have given way to national
pride: but to every nation its own great men are the most interesting
and the most important. We believe, however, that except where no
portraits can be found, as in the cases of the inventor of Printing,
and the discoverer of the New World[6], no branch of science is
without one or more of its fittest and most distinguished
representatives; and we claim the merit of having brought together,
in a book of easy access, a greater number of the genuine likenesses
of men eminent in every branch of honourable distinction than has
ever been included in a similar scheme.

6. There is a Portrait of Columbus at Naples, but it is of a late

age.
An extension of the work would no doubt have allowed us to
approximate somewhat nearer to completeness. But in every
undertaking of this sort there is a limit in respect of size and
expense which it is inexpedient to pass: and this consideration
prescribes that for the present we should end our labour. But death
has added many illustrious names to our list since it was first drawn
up; and as every year lays some honoured head in the grave, a fresh
fund of interest, and fresh reasons for the resumption of the work,
will be continually accruing. It is, therefore, not unlikely that the
Gallery of Portraits may hereafter be resumed and continued in a
similar form.
A series of Indexes is subjoined, which present the portraits in
alphabetical and chronological order, and classed according to the
pursuits in which they have excelled, and the nations to which they
belong. This it is hoped will make amends for the absence of any
system in the order of their issuing, which would have rendered it
almost impossible to maintain the monthly publication with
punctuality.
We avail ourselves of this opportunity to correct a few mistakes in
the text; but have not thought it necessary to give a list of obvious
or unimportant errata.
Life of Fox, vol. i., p. 107, par. 3. The anecdote here told, applies, we have been
informed, not to the debate on the Test Act, but to the application of dissenting
ministers for relief on the subject of Subscription.
Life of Banks, vol. i., p. 193, for February 13, read January 4: on the authority of
his baptismal register. See Penny Cyclopædia.
Life of More, vol. ii., p. 32, line 22, for 1555, read 1535.
Life of Pascal, vol. ii., p. 51, for Sir W., read Sir John Herschel.
Life of Bentley, vol. iii., p. 51, three lines from bottom, for 1781, read 1701.
Life of Schwartz, vol. iii., p. 93, last line but one, for being, read besides.
Life of D’Aguesseau, vol. iv., p. 5, eleven lines from bottom, read, in which, it was
said, the obnoxious.
Life of Blake, vol. v., p. 77, read, Robert Blake was born at the seaport town of
Bridgewater in Somersetshire, where his father followed the occupation of a
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