Joe Miller records a case pretty much in point; where
the keeper of a museum, while showing, as he said, the very sword with
which Balaam was about to kill his ass, was interrupted by one of the
visitors, who reminded him that Balaam was not possessed of a sword, but
only wished for one. 'True, sir,' replied the ready-witted cicerone; 'but
this is the very sword he wished for.' The Author, in application of this
story, has only to add that, though ignorant of the coincidence between
the fictions of the tale and some real circumstances, he is contented to
believe he must unconsciously have thought or dreamed of the last while
engaged in the composition of Guy Mannering.

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

TO

GUY MANNERING.

The second essay in fiction of an author who has triumphed in his first
romance is a doubtful and perilous adventure. The writer is apt to become
self-conscious, to remember the advice of his critics,--a fatal
error,--and to tremble before the shadow of his own success. He knows
that he will have many enemies, that hundreds of people will be ready to
find fault and to vow that he is "written out." Scott was not
unacquainted with these apprehensions. After publishing "Marmion" he
wrote thus to Lady Abercorn:--

"No one acquires a certain degree of popularity without exciting an equal
degree of malevolence among those who, either from rivalship or from the
mere wish to pull down what others have set up, are always ready to catch
the first occasion to lower the favoured individual to what they call his
'real standard.' Of this I have enough of experience, and my political
interferences, however useless to my friends, have not failed to make me
more than the usual number of enemies. I am therefore bound, in justice
to myself and to those whose good opinion has hitherto protected me, not
to peril myself too frequently. The naturalists tell us that if you
destroy the web which the spider has just made, the insect must spend
many days in inactivity till he has assembled within his person the
materials necessary to weave another. Now, after writing a work of
imagination one feels in nearly the same exhausted state as the spider. I
believe no man now alive writes more rapidly than I do (no great
recommendation); but I never think of making verses till I have a
sufficient stock of poetical ideas to supply them,--I would as soon join
the Israelites in Egypt in their heavy task of making bricks without
cl