“I have long owed you my best thanks for the uncommon pleasure I had in perusing your high-spirited Turkish fragment. But I should hardly have ventured to offer them, well-knowing how you must be overwhelmed by volunteer intrusions of approbation (which always look as if the writer valued his opinion at fully
* E. G. “If they want to depose Scott, I only wish they would not set me up as a competitor. I like the man and admire his works to what Mr Braham calls Entusymusy. All such stuff can only vex him, and do me no good.”—Byron (1813), vol. ii. p. 259. “Scott is certainly the most wonderful writer of the day. His novels are a new literature in themselves, and his poetry as good as any—if not better—(only on an erroneous system)—and only ceased to be popular, because the vulgar learned were tired of hearing ‘Aristides called the Just’ and Scott the Best, and ostracised him.”—Byron (1821), vol. v. p. 72. |
| LETTER TO LORD BYRON. | 331 |
“To return to the Giaour; I had lent my first edition, but the
whole being imprinted in my memory, I had no difficulty in tracing the
additions, which are great improvements, as I should have conjectured aforehand
merely from their being additions. I hope your lordship intends to proceed with
this fascinating style of composition. You have access to a stream of
sentiments, imagery, and manners which are so little known to us as to convey
all the interest of novelty, yet so endeared to us by the early perusal of
Eastern tales, that we are not embarrassed with utter ignorance upon the
subject. Vathek, bating some
passages, would have made a charming subject for a tale. The conclusion is
truly grand. I would give a great deal to know the originals from which it was
drawn. Excuse this hasty
| 332 | LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. |
