held by the ablest men on both sides of these disputed issues. The
result, however, was, I think, that while he entered better and better
into both sides as life went on, he never adopted either with any
earnestness of conviction, being content to admit, even to himself, that
while his feelings leaned in one direction, his reason pointed decidedly
in the other; and holding that it was hardly needful to identify himself
positively with either. As regarded the present, however, feeling always
carried the day. Scott was a Tory all his life.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Lockhart's _Life of Scott_, vi. 172-3. The edition
referred to is throughout the edition of 1839 in ten volumes.]

[Footnote 2: Lockhart's _Life of Scott_, x. 241.]

[Footnote 3: Lockhart's _Life of Scott_, i. 243-4.]

[Footnote 4: Lockhart's _Life of Scott_, i. 128.]




CHAPTER II.

YOUTH--CHOICE OF A PROFESSION.


As Scott grew up, entered the classes of the college, and began his legal
studies, first as apprentice to his father, and then in the law classes of