Indeed, no man can read Scott without being more of a public man, whereas the ordinary novel tends to make its readers rather less of one than before.
Next, though most of these stories are rightly called romances, no one can avoid observing that they give that side of life which is unromantic, quite as vigorously as the romantic side.

This was not true of Scott's poems, which only expressed one-half of his nature, and were almost pure romances.

But in the novels the business of life is even better portrayed than its sentiments.

Mr.Bagehot, one of the ablest of Scott's critics, has pointed out this admirably in his essay on _The Waverley Novels_.

"Many historical novelists," he says, "especially those who with care and pains have read up the detail, are often evidently in a strait how to pass from their history to their sentiment.