REMARKS AT THE CELEBRATION BY THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF THE
CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HIS BIRTH, AUGUST 15, 1871
SCOTT, the delight of generous boys.
As far as Sir Walter Scott aspired to be known for a fine
gentleman, so far our sympathies leave him.... Our concern is
only with the residue, where the man Scott was warmed with a
divine ray that clad with beauty every sheet of water, every
bald hill in the country he looked upon, and so reanimated the
well-nigh obsolete feudal history and illustrated every hidden
corner of a barren and disagreeable territory.
Lecture, “Being and Seeing,” 1838.