He justly believed that he could do his best work so.

Yet it was a natural result of his facility that he should look upon the literature he produced as of comparatively little moment.

Some of his remarks about his critical work, however, show that he really regarded creative writing as the business of his life, and that in contrast with it he considered his criticism a relief from more arduous labor.

After the publication of _Marmion_ he wrote: "I have done with poetry for some time--it is a scourging crop, and ought not to be hastily repeated.

Editing, therefore, may be considered as a green crop of turnips or peas, extremely useful for those whose circumstances do not admit of giving their farm a summer fallow."[488] After years of novel-writing he said of writing a review, "No one that has not laboured as I have done on imaginary topics can judge of the comfort afforded by walking on all-fours, and being grave and dull."[489] From what Scott said about Dryden as a critic we may conclude that the unsystematic character of his own scholarly work may have been a matter of principle as well as inclination.