[Sir Walter Scott as a Critic of Literature by Margaret Ball]@TWC D-Link book
Sir Walter Scott as a Critic of Literature

CHAPTER VI
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He used his opinion that an author, even in his own lifetime, commonly receives fair treatment from the public, as an argument against establishing in England any literary body having the power of pensioning literary men.[468] On this subject he said, "There is ...

really no occasion for encouraging by a society the competition of authors.

The land is before them, and if they really have merit they seldom fail to conquer their share of public applause and private profit....

I cannot, in my knowledge of letters, recollect more than two men whose merit is undeniable while, I am afraid, their circumstances are narrow.

I mean Coleridge and Maturin." Scott's whole attitude toward criticism shows that he felt its supreme function to be elucidation.


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