Sir Walter Scott was certainly so obliging as to say many flattering things to me, which I, as certainly, did not repay in kind.

As Johnson said of his interview with George the Third, it was not for me to bandy compliments with my sovereign.

At that time the diary was a sealed book to the world, and I did not know the importance he attached to such civilities." It is a pity that the transcriber of the passage in the _Journal_ changed "manner," which was the word Scott wrote, to the more objectionable "manners." (_Journal_, Vol.

I, p.
295.)] [Footnote 329: Scott's letter was substantially as follows: "I have considered in all its bearings the matter which your kindness has suggested.

Upon many former occasions I have been urged by my friends in America to turn to some advantage the sale of my writings in your country, and render that of pecuniary avail as an individual which I feel as the highest compliment as an author.