pass them, deepening our reverence for the essential soul, apart from accident and circumstance, making us feel more truly, more tenderly, more profoundly, lifting the thoughts upward through the shows of time to that which is permanent and eternal, and bringing down on the transitory things of eye and ear some shadow of the eternal, till we

This is the office which he will not cease to fulfil as long as the English language lasts.-J. C. SHAIRP.

BOOKS OF REFERENCE.

guage."

Hazlitt's "Lectures on the English
Poets."

Howitt's "Homes and Haunts of the
British Poets."

Biographies of Wordsworth: By Chris- | Craik's "English Literature and Lantopher Wordsworth (1851), George H. Calvert (1878), and F. W. H. Myers, edited by Morley, in the "English Men of Letters" Series. Essays: By Francis Jeffrey, S. T. Coleridge, De Quincey, Professor John Wilson, E. P. Whipple, David Masson, James Russell Lowell, Doyle, Brimley, Hutton, H. A. Taine, and Talfourd.

Stopford Brooke's "
English Poets."

Carlyle's "Reminiscences."
Field's "Afternoons with the Po-
ets."

J. C. Shairp's "Studies in Poetry and
Philosophy."

Theology in the Walter Bagehot's "Literary Stud

ies."

SIR WALTER SCOTT

(1771-1832).

PORTRAITS OF SCOTT.

OF Scott's numerous portraits, the three best and most celebrated were taken in the years 1820 and 1824.

The Lawrence Portrait.-One of Scott's first visitors (after his arrival in London, March, 1820) was Sir Thomas Lawrence, who informed him that the king had resolved to adorn the great gallery, then in progress at Windsor Castle, with portraits by his hand of his majesty's most distinguished contemporaries: all the reigning monarchs of Europe, and their chief ministers and generals, had already sat for this purpose. On the same walls the king desired to see exhibited those of his own subjects who had attained the highest honors of literature and science, and it was his pleasure that this series should commence with Walter Scott. The portrait was of course begun immediately, and the head was finished before Scott left town. Sir Thomas has caught and fixed with admirable skill one of the loftiest expressions of Scott's countenance at the proudest period of his life. To the perfect truth of the representation, every one who ever surprised him in the act of composition at his desk will bear witness. The expression, however, was one with which many who had seen the man often were not familiar; and it was extremely unfortunate that Sir Thomas filled in the figure from a separate sketch. after he had quitted London. . . . Lawrence told me, several years afterwards, that in his opinion the two greatest men he had painted were the Duke of Wellington and Sir

Walter Scott. "And it was odd," said he, "that they both chose usually the same hour for sitting-seven in the morning. They were both as patient sitters as I ever had. Scott, however, was, in my case at least, a very difficult subject."-LOCKHART.

The Chantrey Bust.-This marble bust, done by Sir Francis Chantrey in 1820, now at Abbotsford, seems to command the most favorable criticism of all Scott's likenesses. A duplicate of it was executed for the Duke of Wellington in 1827, and in 1828 the sculptor offered the bust to Sir Walter as a gift, provided he would sit to him for another. Accordingly, in the same year another likeness was sculptured, which was soon placed in the gallery of Sir Robert Peel, at Drayton Manor.

The Leslie Portrait.-In 1824 a half-length portrait was painted by C. R. Leslie, R.A., at Abbotsford, for Mr. George Ticknor, of Boston. America is fortunate in being the possessor of this portrait, as its excellence in execution and its close resemblance to the great novelist has been attested.

PERSONAL APPEARANCE.

When I last wrote I was about to be introduced to Sir Walter Scott. He quite answered all my expectations of him, and you may suppose they were very high. His manners are those of an amiable and unaffected man and a polished gentleman, and his conversation is something higher, for it is often quite as amusing and interesting as his novels, and without any apparent attempt at display. It flows from him in the most easy and natural manner. As I take it for granted that the most insignificant particulars relating to such a man will be interesting to you, I will give you a description of his personal appearance, and even his dress. He is tall and well-formed, excepting one of his ankles and foot (I think the right), which is crippled and makes him walk very lamely. He is neither fat nor thin. His face is perfectly Scotch, and though some people think it heavy, it struck me as a very agreeable one. He never could have been handsome. His forehead is