Page:Female Portrait Gallery.pdf/78

Ivanhoe is the first historical novel—Scott was the magician who took up the old ballad, the forgotten chronicle, and the dim tradition, saying, "Can these bones live?" He gave them breathing, brilliant, active life. No historian ever did for his country what he has done—no one ever made the past so palpably familiar to the present. Till he drew attention towards it, it is singular how little people in general knew of the English history. He has acted as master of the ceremonies between us and our forefathers, and made popular the entertainment he originated. It has been deemed an objection to the historical novel, that its coloured pages are likely to divert attention from the graver page of history. We might answer, that a reader so indolent and so unenquiring would have been likely, without such attraction, not to have read at all; but we must also draw attention to the fact of how many severely antiquarian works date their origin from the interest excited in the Waverley novels. Moreover, we must add that Ivanhoe is perfect merely as an historical picture; it gives the most accurate idea of the manners of the time. Scott has also been accused of too great a leaning towards chivalry. There was, we admit, in his own temperament, a keen sympathy with that stirring and picturesque time; but if he lost none of the brilliant colour, he also gave the reverse. Not one in ten thousand ever considered the hard and uncertain