d
his eyes, covered with thick eyelashes, were dull, unless animated by
congenial conversation. He was of a fair complexion; and his hair,
originally sandy, became gray from a severe illness which he suffered in
his 48th year. His general conversation consisted in the detail of
chivalric adventures and anecdotes of the olden times. His memory was so
retentive that whatever he had studied indelibly maintained a place in
his recollection. In fertility of imagination he surpassed all his
contemporaries. As a poet, if he has not the graceful elegance of
Campbell, and the fervid energy of Byron, he excels the latter in purity
of sentiment, and the former in vigour of conception. His style was well
adapted for the composition of lyric poetry; but as he had no ear for
music, his song compositions are not numerous. Several of these,
however, have been set to music, and maintain their popularity.[72] But
Scott's reputation as a poet is inferior to his reputation as a
novelist; and while even his best poems may cease to be generally read,
the author of the Waverley Novels will only be forgotten with the disuse
of the language. A cabinet edition of these novels, with the author's
last notes, and illustrated with elegant engravings, appeared in
forty-eight volumes a short period before his decease; several other
complete editions have since been published by the late Mr Robert
Cadell, and by the present proprietors of the copyright, the Messrs
Black of Edinburgh.

As a man of amiable dispositions and incorruptible integrity, Sir Walter
Scott shone conspicuous among his contemporaries, the latter quality
being eminently exhibited in his resolution to pay the whole of his
heavy pecuniary liabilities. To this effort he fell a martyr; yet it was
a source of consolation to his survivors, that, by his own extraordinary
exertions, the policy of life insurance payable at his death, and the
sum of L30,000 paid by Mr Cadell for the copyright of his works, the
whole amount of the debt was discharged. It is, however painfully, to be
remarked, that the object of his earlier ambition, in raising a family,
has not been realised. His children, consisting of two sons and two
daughters, though not constitutionally delicate, have all departed from
the scene, and the only representative of his house is the surviving
child of his eldest daughter, who was married to Mr John Gibson
Lockhart, the late editor of the _Quarterly Review_, and his literary
ex