careful to preserve, his personal
popularity, of which we have a striking proof in the studied kindnesses
that for years were laid before this country in deeds and words, as
compared with his real acts and sentiments toward America and Americans
which are now revealed in his letters." A passage which doubtless roused
Cooper's ire may be quoted. Of the Americans Scott said, in a letter to
Miss Edgeworth, "They are a people possessed of very considerable
energy, quickened and brought into eager action by an honourable love of
their country and pride in their institutions; but they are as yet rude
in their ideas of social intercourse, and totally ignorant, speaking
generally, of all the art of good breeding, which consists chiefly in a
postponement of one's own petty wishes or comforts to those of others.
By rude questions and observations, an absolute disrespect to other
people's feelings, and a ready indulgence of their own, they make one
feverish in their company, though perhaps you may be ashamed to confess
the reason. But this will wear off and is already wearing away. Men,
when they have once got benches, will soon fall into the use of
cushions. They are advancing in the lists of our literature, and they
will not be long deficient in the _petite morale_, especially as they
have, like ourselves, the rage for travelling."[332]

Scott liked George Ticknor,[333] and he called Washington Irving "one of
the best and pleasantest acquaintances I have made this many a
day."[334] In later life he congratulated himself on having from the
first foreseen Irving's success.[335] When we remember also that Scott
quotes from Poor Richard,[336] refers to Cotton Mather's
_Magnalia_,[337] and speaks of "the American Brown" as one whose novels
might be reprinted in England,[338] we ought probably to conclude that
his acquaintance with our literature was as comprehensive as could have
been expected.

Among continental writers belonging to his period, Goethe was very
properly the one for whom Scott had the strongest admiration. But we
find comparatively few references to his reading the great German after
the early period of translation. Throughout Lockhart's _Life of Scott_
it is evident that the biographer had a more thorough acquaintance with
Goethe than had Scott, and it seems probable that the younger man
influenced the elder in his judgment on _Faust_ and on Goethe's
character. In the Introduction to _Quentin Durward_ we find an
i