DEPARTURE OF THE GIPSIES. Painted by Clark Stanton,

R.S.A.

80

PLEYDELL AS KING. Drawn by R. W. Macbeth, A.R.A.

SOLWAY FIRTH. Drawn by F. S. Walker .

400

THE PARTY AT COLONEL MANNERING’S. Painted by R.

Herdman, R.S.A.

512

MEG AT GIBBIE'S KNOWE. Drawn by C. O. Murray

Painted by J. B.

CAPTURE OF DIRK HATTERAICK.

Macdonald, A.R.S.A.

560

GUY MANNERING;

OR,

THE ASTROLOGER.

'Tis said that words and signs have power
O'er sprites in planetary hour;
But scarce I praise their venturous part
Who tamper with such dangerous art.

Lay of the Last Minstrel.

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

TO

GUY MANNERING.

a

cess.

The second essay in fiction of an author who has triumphed in his first romance is a doubtful and perilous adventure. The writer is apt to become self-conscious, to remember the advice of his critics, - a fatal error, and to tremble before the shadow of his own suc

He knows that he will have many enemies, that hundreds of people will be ready to find fault, and to vow that he is “ written out.” Scott was not unacquainted with these apprehensions. After publishing “Marmion” he wrote thus to Lady Abercorn:

“No one acquires a certain degree of popularity without exciting an equal degree of malevolence among those who, either from rivalship or from the mere wish to pull down what others have set up, are always ready to catch the first occasion to lower the favoured individual to what they call his real standard.' Of this I have enough of experience, and my political interferences, however useless to iny friends, have not failed to make me more than the usual number of enemies. I am therefore bound, in justice to myself and to those whose good opinion has hitherto protected me, not to peril myself too frequently. The naturalists tell us that if you destroy the web which the spider has just made, the insect must spend many days in inactivity till he has assembled within his person the materials necessary to weave another. Now, after writing a work of imagination one feels in nearly the same exhausted state as the spider. I believe no man now alive writes more rapidly than I do (no great recommendation); but I never think of inaking verses till I have a sufficient stock of poetical ideas to supply them, — I would as