“Dear Lockhart,—I had your kind letter, and congratulate you on your hard-fought battle. Wilson has surmounted difficulties of which he was not aware, for the worthy wrote to Lord Melville on the subject of his interference, and received a most capital answer. Moreover, all sorts of anonymous letters were directed to little purpose at the same quarter. The victory, however, being gained, it is greatly the opinion of Mr.
1 Postmark, July 25, 1820. The letter could not be discovered for Scott’s Correspondence: I owe it to the kindness of my friend, Mr. C. M. Falconer of Dundee, who found this, and some other papers, by a curious accident. |
| 240 | LIFE OF J. G. LOCKHART. |
“I am sure our friend has been taught the danger of
giving way to high spirits in mixed society, where there is some one always
ready to laugh at the joke and to put it into his pocket to throw in the
jester’s face on some future occasion. It is plain Wilson must have walked the course had he been
cautious in selecting the friends of his lighter hours, and now, clothed with
philosophical dignity, his friends will really expect he should be on his guard
in this respect, and add to his talents and amiable disposition the proper
degree of retenue becoming a moral
teacher. Try to express all this to him in your own way, and believe that, as I
have said it from the best motives, so I would wish it conveyed in the most
delicate terms, as from one
| SCOTT’S REMONSTRANCE | 241 |
“For the reasons above mentioned I wish you had not published the ‘Testimonium.’ It is very clever, but descends to too low game. If Jeffrey or Cranstoun, or any of the dignitaries, chose to fight such skirmishes there would be some credit in it; but I do not like to see you turn out as a sharp-shooter with ——. ‘What does thou drawn among these heartless hinds?’ If M’Culloch were to parade you upon the score of Stanza xiii., I do not see how you could decline his meeting, as you make the man your equal (ad hoc, I mean), when you condescend to insult him by name. And the honour of such a rencounter would be small comfort to your friends for the danger which must attend it. I have hitherto avoided saying anything on this subject,1 though some little turn towards personal satire is, I think, the only drawback to your great and powerful talents, and I think I may have hinted as much to you. But I wished to see how this matter of Wilson’s would turn, before making a clean breast upon this subject. It might have so happened that you could
1 Later Sir Walter says that he remonstrated before Lockhart’s marriage. It is impossible to know on which occasion,—the present, or a later period,—his memory was at fault. |
| 242 | LIFE OF J. G. LOCKHART. |
‘Strike up our drums—pursue the scattered stray.’
|
“Besides all other objections of personal enemies,
personal quarrels, constant obloquy, and all uncharitableness, such an
occupation will fritter away your talents, hurt your reputation both as a
lawyer and a literary man, and waste away your time in what at best will be but
a monthly wonder. What has been done in this department will be very well as a
frolic of young men, but let it suffice, ‘the gambol has been
shown’—the frequent repetition will lose its effect even as
pleasantry, for Peter Pindar, the
sharpest of personal satirists, wrote himself down,
| “REVERE YOURSELF” | 243 |
“The magazine, I should think, might be gradually
restricted in the point of which I complain, and strengthened and enlarged in
circulation at the same time. It certainly has done and may do admirable
service; it is the excess I complain of, and particularly as respecting your
share in it, for I care not how hard others lay on the Galwegian Stot, only I would not like to have
you in that sort of scrape which, if he have a particle of the buffalo in him,
might, I think, ensue. Revere yourself, my dear boy, and think you were born to
do your country better service than in this species of warfare. I make no
apology (I am sure you will require none) for speaking plainly what my anxious
affection dictates. As the old warrior says, ‘May the name of
Mevni be forgotten among the
people, and may they only say, Behold the father of Gaul.’ I wish
you to have the benefit of my experience without purchasing it; and be assured,
that the consciousness of attain-
| 244 | LIFE OF J. G. LOCKHART. |
“I am delighted to hear you get on so soon with the Roman tale.1 It cannot but be admirable, and is quite new. I would have you anxiously consider the author for a little time. The Abb. gets on; I hope it will do, and am greatly encouraged by your sentiments and Erskine’s. James Ballantyne, a good specimen of a certain class of readers, likes the second volume better than the first—Vogue la galère.
I have at present a visit from Dr. [name illegible]; he has stayed with me some days, and I think him intelligent and sensible, under a good deal of high-church and classical bigotry—neither indeed is the sort of bigotry which I dislike. If Charles goes eastward ho! I shall be glad to have compassed his acquaintance . . .
. . . which would be a beautiful thing if it could be
1 “Valerius.” |
| FAUST | 245 |
