“As a poet, Scott cannot live, for he has never in verse written
anything addressed to the immortal part of man. In making amusing
stories in verse, he will be superseded by some newer versifier; what he
writes in the way of natural description is merely rhyming nonsense. As
a prose writer, Mr. Wordsworth admitted that Scott had touched a higher
vein, because there he had really dealt with feeling and passion. As
historical novels, professing to give the manners of a past time, he did
not attach much value to those works of Scott’s, so called, because that
he held to be an attempt in which success was impossibility. This led to
some remarks on historical writing, from which it appeared that Mr.
Wordsworth has small value for anything but contemporary history. He
laments that Dr. Arnold should have spent so much of his time and powers
in gathering up, and putting into imaginary shape, the scattered
fragments of the history of Rome.”