tt never refers to the delightful _Specimens of
English Dramatic Poets_. At one time Lamb wrote to Sir Walter asking a
contribution toward a fund that was being raised to help William Godwin
out of pecuniary troubles, and Scott replied, through the artist Haydon,
with a cheque for ten pounds and a pleasant message to Mr. Lamb, "whom I
should be happy to see in Scotland, though I have not forgotten his
metropolitan preference of houses to rocks, and citizens to wild rustics
and highland men."[316] Hazlitt and Hunt were two other writers whose
literary work Scott ignored.[317] This, as well as his neglect of Lamb's
and DeQuincey's essays, may be due largely to the fact that he seldom
read newspapers and magazines, and these writers were journalists and
contributors to periodicals. Voracious reader as Scott was, he had to
economize time somewhere, and the hours saved from papers could be given
to books. We do find one or two references to these men as political
writers. Scott hoped Lockhart would learn, as editor of the _Quarterly_,
to despise petty adversaries, for "to take notice of such men as Hazlitt
and Hunt in the _Quarterly_ would be to introduce them into a world
which is scarce conscious of their existence."[318]

Among novelists, those of Scott's contemporaries to whom he gave the
highest praise were women. This is, however to be expected, and it is
natural to find Jane Austen receiving the highest praise of all; since
Scott was emphatically not of the tribe of critics who are able to
appreciate only one kind of novel or poem. Her novels seemed to grow
upon him and he read them often. It was in connection with her
"exquisite touch" that he was moved to reflect, in the words so often
quoted from his _Journal_, "The Big Bow-wow strain I can do myself like
any now going."[319] Among the expressions of admiration which occur in
his review of _Emma_,[320] Scott records a characteristic bit of protest
in regard to the tendency of Miss Austen and other novelists to make
prudence the guiding motive of all their favorite young women
characters, especially in matters of the heart. He did not like this
pushing out of Cupid to make way for so moderate a virtue as prudence;
he thought that it is often good for young people to fall in love
without regard to worldly considerations. Scott rated Miss Edgeworth
nearly as high as Miss Austen, and hers is the added honor of having
inspired the author of _Waverley_ with a desire to em