these characters carefully, we find that each by contrast appears far
more perfect than when separate--as the bone, which, however excellent
its state of preservation may be, never seems to the eye of the
physiologist so complete as when in its place in the complete skeleton.
And through this contrast we learn that Scott, having by sympathy and
historical-romantic study, comprehended the lost secret of all
_illuminee_ mysteries--that of human dependence on nought save the laws
of a mysterious and terrible Nature--could not refrain from ever and
anon whispering the royal secret, though it were only to the rustling
reeds and rushes of fashionable novels. Having learned, though in an
illegitimate way, that the friend of PAN, the great king of the golden
touch, had ass's ears, he _must_ tell it again, though in murmurs and
whispers:

'Qui cum ne prodere visum
Dedecus auderet, cupiens efferre sub auras,
Nec posset reticere tamen, secedit, humumque
Effodit: et domini quales aspexerit aures,
Vox refert parva; terraeque immurmurat haustae.'[10]

It is to be remarked, in studying collectively these outlaws as set
forth by Scott, that while the same characteristic lies at the basis of
each, there is very great variety in its development, and that the
author seems to have striven to present it in as many widely differing
phases as he was capable of doing. When we reflect that Scott himself
could not be fairly said to be perfectly _at home_ in more than half a
dozen departments of history, and yet that he has taken pains to set
forth as many historical varieties of minds absolutely emancipated from
all faith, and finally, when we recall that at the time when he wrote,
the great proportion of the characteristics of these _dramatis personae_
were utterly unappreciated, and that by even the learned they were
simply reviewed as 'infidels,' we cannot but smile at the care with
which (like the sculptor in the old story) he carved his images, and
buried them to be dug up at a future day by men who, as he possibly
hoped, would appreciate more fully than did his contemporaries his own
degree of forbidden knowledge. I certainly do not exaggerate the
importance of these characters when speaking in this manner. They could
not have been conceived without a very great expenditure of study and of
reflection. They are, as I said, subjective, and such portraits of
humanity always involve a vastly greater amount of penetrati