the Presbyterian
eloquence of the Covenanters and their descendants, the dialect hardly
intelligible out of its own region, and not always clear even to natives
of Scotland; on the other hand, the competition for Scott's novels in
all the markets of Europe, as to which I take leave to quote the
evidence of Stendhal:--

'Lord Byron, auteur de quelques heroides sublimes, mais
toujours les memes, et de beaucoup de tragedies mortellement
ennuyeuses, n'est point du tout le chef des romantiques.

'S'il se trouvait un homme que les traducteurs a la toise se
disputassent egalement a Madrid, a Stuttgard, a Paris et a
Vienne, l'on pourrait avancer que cet homme a devine les
tendances morales de son epoque.'

If Stendhal proceeds to remark in a footnote that 'l'homme lui-meme est
peu digne d'enthousiasme,' it is pleasant to remember that Lord Byron
wrote to M. Henri Beyle to correct his low opinion of the character of
Scott. This is by the way, though not, I hope, an irrelevant remark. For
Scott is best revealed in his friendships; and the mutual regard of
Scott and Byron is as pleasant to think of as the friendship between
Scott and Wordsworth.

As to the truth of Stendhal's opinion about the vogue of Scott's novels
and his place as chief of the romantics, there is no end to the list of
witnesses who might be summoned. Perhaps it may be enough to remember
how the young Balzac was carried away by the novels as they came fresh
from the translator, almost immediately after their first appearance at
home.

One distinguishes easily enough, at home in Scotland, between the
novels, or the passages in the novels, that are idiomatic, native,
homegrown, intended for his own people, and the novels not so limited,
the romances of English or foreign history--_Ivanhoe_, _Kenilworth_,
_Quentin Durward_. But as a matter of fact these latter, though possibly
easier to understand and better suited to the general public, were not
invariably preferred. The novels were 'the Scotch novels.' Although
Thackeray, when he praises Scott, takes most of his examples from the
less characteristic, what we may call the English group, on the other
hand, Hazlitt dwells most willingly on the Scotch novels, though he did
not like Scotsmen, and shared some of the prejudice of Stendhal--'my
friend Mr. Beyle,' as he calls him in one place--with regard to Scott
himself. And Balzac has no invidious preferences: he recommends an