NEW-YORK: WILLIAM LEWER, BASEMENT ROOMS, CORNER OF PINE-STREET AND BROADWAY. MDCCCXXXVII. 1 784-1854 E 45 ·S43 L & V.I 59 27662 PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. THE extraordinary talents, coupled with the astonishing industry, of Sir Walter Scott, have justly placed him on the very pinnacle of literary eminence; whilst his well-known goodness of heart, the varied and extensive benevolence of his feelings, and his superior conversational endowments, have, for years before his death, rendered him the universal theme of personal admiration. The life of such a man, written from competent sources, and by one familiar with his thoughts, habits, tastes, and opinions, must necessarily be indeed a desideratum in literature. Such, in fact, was the influence of Scott's name,-such was the authority of his opinions in the various essays and criticisms that emanated from his pen, that he is actually identified, deeply so, with the history of his times, both morally and politically, and this identification is not confined to the impression produced by him in his own country. In every corner of the old continent his works were sought with avidity. From the farthest corners of the earth the cry was still for the writings of Scott; and as for the United States of America, it is believed that a greater number of editions, each of numerous impressions, have been sold and disseminated here, than in all the rest of the world besides. It is therefore matter of general gratulation, that the task of bringing this distinguished man's life and thoughts before the world, should have fallen upon such a writer as Mr. Lockhart. Himself a writer of no mean eminence, an able and candid critic, and imbued with many congenial sentiments and opinions that pervaded the heart of the "Wizard of the North," he comes forward with other important claims to authority and regard, in bringing this biography before the world. He is the son-in-law of its subject, married to that daughter whom Sir Walter so well and deservedly loved. Mr. Lockhart has for years gone hand in hand with Scott in his schemes, has been a participator in his deliberations, a witness of his emotions, whether pleasurable or otherwise, that were hidden from the eyes of the world. He has thus had opportunities of knowing the real springs of action, which a biographer less intimate with Scott might have misapprehended: he was able to study the man, to enter into the recesses of his soul, to perceive the thousand gushing fountains of benevolence and liberal feeling, which are indeed only perceptible to the view of the inmate and the closest connection. He could also supply thousands of illustrative arguments and examples to the force of his narrative where it was needful; and above all, as the executor of Sir Walter Scott, he had access to an accumulation of papers and documents that copiously administered to the construction of a full and clear biography. These were important aids, and well indeed has Mr. Lockhart availed himself of them. During the eventful period in which Scott's earthly career is placed, there have sprung up an unusual number of eminent characters, in every department of human action. Such has been the nature of his own career, that hardly one of such distinguished personages is a stranger to him, and not to one has he been less than the most welcome and honored guest. The monarch, the statesman, the divine, the warrior, the man of letters, the man of science, the merchant, the agriculturist, the mechanic, the peasant, the soldier, the sailor, the gypsy, the vagrant, have all partaken in their degree and manner of the pleasure which it was Scott's peculiar gift to communicate. Instances of these are happily and in appropriate places distributed liberally through the pages of this work; and it is therefore no bad judgment to say-as has been said that not the most enchanting work which has come from the hand of Scott possesses half the charm, or half the interest, which arises from the perusal of the author's own life, as written by his son-in-law, Mr. J. G. Lockhart. With such claims to patronage in the literary world, it would have been an unpardonable neglect to leave this interesting piece of biography out of the series of Foster's Cabinet Miscellany. It must indeed hold a conspicuous place in general collections of standard prose works; and whilst it will place the character and peculiarities of Scott within the view of all the world, it will be no mean addition to the literary reputation of his biographer, and no slight additional gratification to an innumerable host of readers. NEW-YORK, Sept. 4, 1837. P R E F A СЕ. IN obedience to the instructions of Sir Walter Scott's last will, I had made some progress in a narrative of his personal history, before there was discovered, in an old cabinet at Abbotsford, an autobiographical fragment, composed by him in 1808-shortly after the publication of his Marmion. This fortunate accident rendered it necessary that I should altogether remodel the work which I had commenced. The first Chapter of the following Memoirs consists of the Ashestiel fragment; which gives a clear outline of his early life down to the period of his call to the barJuly, 1792. All the notes appended to this Chapter are also by himself. They are in a hand-writing very dif ferent from the text, and seem, from various circumstances, to have been added in 1826. It appeared to me, however, that the author's modesty had prevented him from telling the story of his youth with that fulness of detail which would now satisfy the public. I have therefore recast my own collections as to the period in question, and presented the substance of them, in five succeeding chapters, as illustrations of his too brief autobiography. This procedure has been attended with many obvious enough disadvantages; but I greatly preferred it to printing the precious fragment in an Appendix. I foresee that some readers will be apt to accuse me of trenching upon delicacy in certain details of the sixth and |
