of other writers, especially
those who wrote stories in any form. This explanation was hinted at by
Sir Walter himself, and formulated by Lockhart; it seems a fairly
reasonable way of accounting for a trait that at first appears to
indicate only a foolish excess of good-nature. This rich and active
imagination, which Scott brought to bear on everything he read, perhaps
explains also his habit of paying little attention to carefully worked
out details, and of laying almost exclusive emphasis upon main outlines.
When he was writing his _Life of Napoleon_, he said in his _Journal_:
"Better a superficial book which brings well and strikingly together the
known and acknowledged facts, than a dull boring narrative, pausing to
see further into a mill-stone at every moment than the nature of the
mill-stone admits."[14] Probably his high gift of imagination made him a
little impatient with the remoter reaches of the analytic faculties. Any
sustained exercise of the pure reason was outside his province,
reasonable as he was in everyday affairs. He preferred to consider
facts, and to theorize only so far as was necessary to establish
comfortable relations between the facts,--never to the extent of trying
to look into the center of a mill-stone. It was not unusual for him to
make very acute observations in the spheres of ethics, economics, and
psychology, and to use them in explaining any situation which might seem
to require their assistance; but these remarks were brief and
incidental, and bore a very definite relation to the concrete ideas they
were meant to illustrate.

Scott was a business man as well as an antiquary and a poet. Mr.
Palgrave thought Lockhart went too far in creating the impression that
Scott could detach his mind from the world of imagination and apply its
full force to practical affairs.[15] Yet the oversight of lands and
accounts and of all ordinary matters was so congenial to him, and his
practical activities were on the whole conducted with so much spirit and
capability, that after emphasizing his preoccupation with the poetic
aspects of the life of his ancestors, we must turn immediately about and
lay stress upon his keen judgment in everyday affairs. To a school-boy
poet he once wrote: "I would ... caution you against an enthusiasm
which, while it argues an excellent disposition and a feeling heart,
requires to be watched and restrained, though not repressed. It is apt,
if too much indulged, to engender