CHAPTER II

SCOTT'S QUALIFICATIONS AS CRITIC

Wide reading Scott's first qualification--Scott the
antiquary--Character of his interest in history--His
imagination--His knowledge of practical affairs--Common-sense in
criticism--Cheerfulness, good-humor, and optimism--General aspect of
Scott's critical work.


Wide and appreciative reading was Scott's first qualification for
critical work. A memory that retained an incredible amount of what he
read was the second. One of the severest censures he ever expressed was
in regard to Godwin, who, he thought, undertook to do scholarly work
without adequate equipment. "We would advise him," Scott said in his
review of Godwin's _Life of Chaucer_, "in future to read before he
writes, and not merely while he is writing." Scott himself had
accumulated a store of literary materials, and he used them according to
the dictates of a temperament which had vivid interests on many sides.

We may distinguish three points of view which were habitual to Scott,
and which determined the direction of his creative work, as well as the
tone of his criticism. These were--as all the world knows--the
historical, the romantic, the practical.

He was, as he often chose to call himself, an antiquary; he felt the
appeal of all that was old and curious. But he was much more than that.