s marvellous
recreation of James I. to give a laboured but very ordinary portrait of
Napoleon."[415] His partial failure in this instance may have been due
to an unfortunate choice of subject. Only a few years before he wrote
the book Scott had been thinking of Napoleon as a "tyrannical
monster,"[416] a "singular emanation of the Evil Principle,"[417] "the
arch-enemy of mankind,"[418]--phrases which, in spite of their
vividness, hardly seem to promise a life-like portrayal of the man.[419]

In one notable respect, Scott's conception of how history should be
written was very modern: he would depict the life of the people, not
simply the actions of kings and statesmen. His historical novels, said
Carlyle, "taught all men this truth, which looks like a truism, and yet
was as good as unknown to writers of history and others, till so taught:
that the bygone ages of the world were actually filled by living men,
not by protocols, state-papers, controversies, and abstractions of
men."[420] One who has the academic notion that a novel, to be great,
must be written with no ulterior purpose, is almost startled to observe
how definitely Scott considered it the function of his novels to portray
ancient manners. Speaking of old romances as a source which we may use
for studying about our ancestors, he said: "From the romance, we learn
what they were; from the history, what they did: and were we to be
deprived of one of these two kinds of information, it might well be made
a question, which is most useful or interesting."[421] He wished to make
his own romances serve much the same purpose as those written in the
midst of the customs which they unconsciously reflected. Of _Waverley_
he said, "It may really boast to be a tolerably faithful portrait of
Scottish manners."[422] He interrupts the story of _The Pirate_ to
describe the charm of the leaden heart, and offers this excuse: "As this
simple and original remedy is peculiar to the isles of Thule, it were
unpardonable not to preserve it at length, in a narrative connected with
Scottish antiquities."[423] His comment on _Ivanhoe_ was as follows: "I
am convinced that however I myself may fail in the ensuing attempt, yet,
with more labour in collecting, or more skill in using, the materials
within his reach, illustrated as they have been by the labours of Dr.
Henry, of the late Mr. Strutt, and above all, of Mr. Sharon Turner, an
abler hand would have been successful."[424]

Scott's earl