"'Rapidity of conception, a readiness of expressing every idea, without losing anything by the way'; 'perpetual animation and elasticity of thought'; and language 'never laboured, never loitering, never (in Dryden's own phrase) cursedly confined,'" are set over against "pointed and nicely turned lines, sedulous study, and long and repeated correction and revision," and are pronounced the superior virtues.[361] The concluding paragraph of Scott's review of a poem on the Battle of Talavera exemplifies his use of this doctrine.

"We have shunned, in the present instance," he says, "the unpleasant task of pointing out and dwelling upon individual inaccuracies.

There are several hasty expressions, flat lines, and deficient rhymes, which prove to us little more than that the composition was a hurried one.

These, in a poem of a different description, we should have thought it our duty to point out to the notice of the author.

But after all it is the spirit of a poet that we consider as demanding our chief attention; and upon its ardour or rapidity must finally hinge our applause or condemnation."[362] Scott's opinions about meters reflect the same taste.