It is true that but for the difficulties in which he was latterly immersed, we might never have known the noble courage with which he met and rose superior to misfortune.
In 1808 a scheme of great magnitude was under contemplation by Murray and the Ballantynes.

It was a uniform edition of the "British Novelists," beginning with De Foe, and ending with the novelists at the close of last century; with biographical prefaces and illustrative notes by Walter Scott.

A list of the novels, written in the hand of John Murray, includes thirty-six British, besides eighteen foreign authors.
The collection could not have been completed in less than two hundred volumes.

The scheme, if it did not originate with Walter Scott, had at least his cordial support.
Mr.Murray not unreasonably feared the cost of carrying such an undertaking to completion.

It could not have amounted to less than twenty thousand pounds.