on his own accuracy and his own learning—they do not serve to elucidate his meaning, but to parade his erudition. The intuitive spirit which infuses antiquity into ancient images is, perhaps, the true learning which a work of this nature requires—without it, pedantry is offensive; with it, useless. No man who is thoroughly aware of what Prose Fiction has now become, of its dignity—of its influence—of the manner in which it has gradually absorbed all similar departments of literature—of its power in teaching as well as amusing—can so far forget its connection with History—with Philosophy—with Politics—its utter harmony with Poetry, and obedience to Truth, as to debase its nature to the level of scholastic frivolities; he raises scholarship to the creative, and does not bow the creative to the scholastic.
With respect to the language used by the characters introduced, I have studied carefully to avoid what has always seemed to me a fatal error in those who have attempted, in modern times, to introduce the beings of a classical age.[1]
- ↑ What the strong common sense of Sir Walter Scott has expressed so well in his Preface to Ivanhoe 1st edition, appears to me, at least, as applicable to one, a writer who draws from classical,—as to one who borrows from feudal—Antiquity. Let
