tative of the mind of" this "age" in literature, "encumbered." although he thinks, "by innumerable faults and weaknesses." "But," says Mr. Ruskin, "it is pre-eminently in these faults and weaknesses that Scott is representative of the mind of his age: and because he is the greatest man born among us, and intended for the enduring type of us, all our principal faults must be laid on his shoulders, and he must bear down the dark marks to the latest ages." An abridgment cannot well show how Mr. Ruskin proves or illustrates this statement: the entire sixteen paragraphs in which he treats of it should be read. Whatever degree of concurrence there may be with his opinion, there can hardly be other than accord with his terse, true estimation that Scott was one of "those great men whose hearts were kindest, and whose spirits most perceptive of the work of God."

The preface of this book ended with an expression of the writer's hope that he may be of some service to those who derive pleasure or satisfaction from the romance told by the life of a true-hearted man. But he can hardly finish this final chapter without expression of something better, of a trust that he may in some degree have helped to appreciation of the truth in the character of an honest, earnest, genial man, who loved the sunshine and the beauty God has spread over earth; the inner life of Nature, as we may call it; the purer, and many of the more heroic traits of human character; and the integrity of what he bore "without reproach," -"the grand old name of gentleman."

Now that a full century has passed since he was born into the world, and we have reached one of those periodic points of view from which we, by sound and pleasant practice, look back upon some favorite object standing in the Past, but extending influence on our times, and on those yet to come, we see the full proportions of his character and fame. It is well for us to pause in the hurry of existence, and from such positions to regard the acts that give rise or development to great ideas, or the advent on earth of a great — especially of a great and good — man. And particularly is it well now for us, with the respect of gratitude and of affection, to contemplate him whose character and works have been the subjects of these sketches. For not alone is he one who has given us, by his creations, hours and days of pleasure, not, indeed, alone a man who has typified and benefited an eventful age in civil

ization he is peculiarly and nobly a lesson and a help in the daily lives of generations now or hereafter active with engrossing business cares. To every commercial man his fatal ensnarement, by temptation of unsound and speculative prosperity, is one of the most serious warnings that modern civil life can furnish; and his heroic "discharge of duty" after disaster, "a duty which there was nothing but the sense of chivalrous honour to make stringent," is one of the noblest models. His mind, if its dearest affections were attached to the varied picturesqueness of past ages, and the airy creations of poetic fancy, had solid strength of an integrity and of a true commercial pride, and an adhesion to their requirements, that more than one financial centre, and house, and man, shows too sadly lacking. And while he demonstrated that brilliant genius is compatible with sober morality, domestic peace, and patient common sense in those affairs that, in different extents, are parts of every life, he also proved how pleasantly and how appropriately the graces of fancy, as well as of the heart and of principle, can not only adorn, but render complete, any character, however "practical" it may be.

In the profession that he chose and followed, if his office was not to enunciate or to record the gravest thoughts of Themis, it was his to wreathe afresh her brow with myrtle empurpled with his native heather; and to show the world that even her severer virtues are not inseparable from the Muse's charms, and that her followers, whatever be the guile attributed to portions of them, can not only well maintain a worthy representative upon Parnassus, but also in the lists of Chivalry, whether set like those of older or of recent times.

In literary pursuits he is eminently a model, of principles and practice not less important than those of style and of conception that here do not require analysis. He recommends the sanctities of home; the purity of civil and domestic life; the freshness and the truthfulness of nature, material or human; and respect for sacred things.

And now while we withdraw attention from him, we yet, in our farewell, seem gazing on an ideal form that he presents to us. As when retiring from some great spire or dome, we see it still rising high, although each lesser thing around it has sunk low or disappeared, so we, with Time, moving from his age, regard the just pro

portions that his fame and character assume. That character, wrote Mr. Lockhart, "seems to belong to some elder and stronger period than ours ;" and, he continued, I "cannot help likening it to the architectural fabrics of other ages which" Scott "most delighted in,” with all their marvellous variety of rich and beautiful, grand and picturesque design. If the writer should attempt to make an application of this excellent comparison to one of these fabrics, he would make it to Lincoln Cathedral, on its "sovereign hill." Rising lofty from foundations deep and sure, enriched by the imagination and the art, the wealth of mind and treasure, and the better qualities of many generations past, invested with associations dearly cherished, noble and pre-eminent, it stands watching over the ancient castle, the gothic palace, the cloister, the quiet homes that cluster beneath it, and the broad lands spread around, — all with stories of the human hearts that through the centuries gone were active in them. A spirit that once animated the Cathedral, like the spirit once in him, long ago departed, but to reappear in holier development. And the lofty fabric towering with the intricacies of its mediæval beauty, though now sending out no tones of mortal voice, has yet an eloquence, and day by day diffuses harmonies, more widely spreading, over earth.

The faith of Rome celebrates four Archangels, four Virgin Patron Saints, four Evangelists, four Latin Fathers of the Church. And these illustrious groups may allowably suggest to us the radiant and immortal four in English Literature, whose now ideal forms rise through the centuries of its long history, — each preeminent in a broad domain: John Milton in religious poetry; William Shakespeare in the drama; Geoffrey Chaucer in the poetry of nature; and Walter Scott in all romance.

Established in his worthy place in this great company, we see his form bearing its crown, lofty and dominant like towering Lincoln, bright and eloquent and noble in the clear sunlight, that, like our parting gaze while we now leave his Lands, lingers longest on the pinnacled diadem.