"I have been," he said, "perhaps the most voluminous author of my day, and it IS a comfort to me to think that I have tried to unsettle no man's faith, to corrupt no man's principles, and that I have written nothing which on my deathbed I should wish blotted out." His last injunction to his son-in-law was: "Lockhart, I may have but a minute to speak to you.

My dear, be virtuous--be religious--be a good man.

Nothing else will give you any comfort when you come to lie here." The devoted conduct of Lockhart himself was worthy of his great relative.

The 'Life of Scott,' which he afterwards wrote, occupied him several years, and was a remarkably successful work.

Yet he himself derived no pecuniary advantage from it; handing over the profits of the whole undertaking to Sir Walter's creditors in payment of debts which he was in no way responsible, but influenced entirely by a spirit of honour, of regard for the memory of the illustrious dead..