his plot. It is a curious fact, that the true has always been more opposed at the outset than the false; the circulation of the blood and vaccination nearly lost their discoverers credit and practice, while some vender of quack medicines makes a rapid fortune. This may perhaps be accounted for, simply, that the impostor addresses the multitude, while the scientific discoverer appeals to his brethren in knowledge, all of whom are inclined to deny, what, if admitted, must show, that a great part of their own research and acquirement has been in vain; still he who trades on human credulity will have a good stock on hand, especially when the lure held forth is that of gain.
Sir Arthur Wardour, involved in embarrassments from which he lacked skill, resolution, and means to extricate himself, was the very man to hope improbabilities—and from the improbable to the impossible is but a step. It is very remarkable the skill with which Sir Walter works out his second-rate characters—we should ascribe this to their being taken from real life—his dramatis personæ are remembrances rather than inventions, he required straw for his bricks, and his imagination did not begin to work till his memory had garnered up material: hence his Scottish novels are unquestionably the best, for there his impressions are the most vivid. He needed a clue to the labyrinth of human nature—and that clue was observation. He
