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diff --git a/44367-0.txt b/44367-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bb7992c --- /dev/null +++ b/44367-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1422 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44367 *** + +Transcriber's Note: + + Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have + been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. + + Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. + + + + + LEARN ONE THING + EVERY DAY + + SEPTEMBER 15 1916 + + SERIAL NO. 115 + + THE + MENTOR + + WALTER SCOTT + + By HAMILTON W. MABIE + Author and Editor + + DEPARTMENT OF + LITERATURE + + VOLUME 4 + NUMBER 15 + + FIFTEEN CENTS A COPY + + + + +The Wizard of the North + + + [Illustration] + +The causes of Sir Walter Scott's ascendancy are to be found in the +goodness of his heart, the integrity of his conduct, the romantic +and picturesque accessories and atmosphere of his life, the fertile +brilliancy of his literary execution, the charm that he exercises, +both as man and artist, over the imagination, the serene, tranquilizing +spirit of his works, and, above all, the buoyancy, the happy freedom of +his genius. + + [Illustration] + +He was not simply an intellectual power, he was also a human and gentle +comforter. He wielded an immense mental force, but he always wielded it +for good, and always with tenderness. It is impossible to conceive of +his ever having done a wrong act, or of any contact with his influence +that would not inspire the wish to be virtuous and noble. The scope +of his sympathy was as broad as are the weakness and need of the human +race. He understood the hardship in the moral condition of mankind and +he wished and tried to relieve it. + + [Illustration] + +His writings are full of sweetness and cheer, and they contain nothing +that is morbid--nothing that tends toward surrender or misery. He +did not sequester himself in mental pride, but simply and sturdily, +through years of conscientious toil, he employed the faculties of a +strong, tender, gracious genius for the good of his fellow-creatures. +The world loves him because he is worthy to be loved, and because +he has lightened the burden of its care and augmented the sum of its +happiness. + +From "Over the Border" by William Winter + + + + + [Illustration: FLORA MACIVOR--"WAVERLEY" + + COURTESY, THE PAGE COMPANY + FROM A DRAWING BY R. W. MACBETH] + + + + +Waverley + +ONE + + +"Waverley" is a story of the rebellion of the chevalier Prince Charles +Edward, in Scotland, in 1745. + +Edward Waverley, the central figure of the tale, was a captain of +dragoons in the English army. He obtained a leave of absence from +his regiment and went to Scotland for a rest, staying at the home of +Baron Bradwardine. During his stay a band of Highlanders drove off the +Baron's cattle, and Waverley offered his assistance in recovering them. + +Fergus MacIvor was the chief of the band which stole the cattle. +Waverley met his sister, Flora, and fell in love with her, but she +discouraged him. + +Later Waverley was wounded by a stag; and the rebellion having started +in the meanwhile, one of the Highlanders, assuming Waverley to be a +sympathizer, used his name and seal to start a mutiny in Waverley's +troop. For this reason Waverley was dismissed from his regiment for +desertion and treason. Indignant at this unjust treatment, Waverley +joined the rebellion, first, however, returning home in an attempt +to justify himself. On this trip he was arrested for treason, but was +rescued by the Highlanders when on his way to the dungeon of Stirling +Castle. + +Waverley served in the war, and when the rebellion was crushed he +escaped, and later made his way to London. There his name was cleared +from the false charges, and a pardon obtained for both himself and +Baron Bradwardine. Flora's brother was executed, and she herself +retired to a convent at Paris. Waverley married Rose, the beautiful +daughter of Baron Bradwardine. + +One of the most charming scenes in the story took place shortly after +Waverley met Flora at the home of her brother. Flora had promised to +sing a Gaelic song for him in one of her favorite haunts. One of the +attendants guided him to a beautiful waterfall in the neighborhood, and +there he saw Flora. + +"Here, like one of those lovely forms which decorate the landscapes +of Poussin, Waverley found Flora gazing on the waterfall. Two paces +farther back stood Cathleen, holding a small Scottish harp, the use of +which had been taught to Flora by Rory Dall, one of the last harpers +of the western Highlands. The sun, now stooping in the west, gave a +rich and varied tinge to all the objects which surrounded Waverley, +and seemed to add more than human brilliancy to the full, expressive +darkness of Flora's eye, exalted the richness and purity of her +complexion, and enhanced the dignity and grace of her beautiful form. +Edward thought he had never, even in his wildest dreams, imagined a +figure of such exquisite and interesting loveliness. The wild beauty of +the retreat, bursting upon him as if by magic, augmented the mingled +feelings of delight and awe with which he approached her, like a fair +enchantress of Boiardo or Ariosto, by whose nod the scenery around +seemed to have been created--an Eden in the wilderness. + +"Flora, like every beautiful woman, was conscious of her own power, +and pleased with its effects, which she could easily discern from +the respectful yet confused address of the young soldier. But as she +possessed excellent sense, she gave the romance of the scene and other +accidental circumstance full weight in appreciating the feelings with +which Waverley seemed obviously to be impressed; and unacquainted with +the fanciful and susceptible peculiarities of his character, considered +his homage as the passing tribute which a woman of even inferior charms +might have expected in such a situation. She therefore quietly led the +way to a spot at such a distance from the cascade that its sound should +rather accompany than interrupt that of her voice and instrument, and +sitting down upon a mossy fragment of rock, she took the harp from +Cathleen." + +"Waverley" was the first of the world-famous series of romances +to which it gives the title. It was published anonymously in 1814. +Although the authorship of the series was generally accredited to +Scott, it was never formally acknowledged until business conditions +necessitated it in 1826. + + + + + [Illustration: MEG MERRILIES DIRECTS BERTRAM TO THE CAVE--"GUY + MANNERING" + + COURTESY, THE PAGE COMPANY + FROM AN ETCHING BY C. O. MURRAY] + + + + +Guy Mannering + +TWO + + +Guy Mannering, a young Englishman traveling through Scotland, stopped +one night at the home of the Laird of Ellangowan. When the Laird +learned that the young man had studied astrology, he begged him to +cast the horoscope of his son, who had been born that night. What was +Mannering's dismay to find that two catastrophes overhung the lad, +one at his fifth, and the other at his twenty-first year! He told the +father, however, that he might be warned; and later went his way. + +The fortunes of the Laird of Ellangowan, Godfrey Bertram, waned +rapidly. In addition to this, his son, Harry, at the age of five, was +kidnapped. It was impossible to learn whether the child was alive or +dead. The boy's mother died from the shock; and some years later the +Laird himself followed her, leaving his daughter Lucy penniless. + +In the meanwhile, Guy Mannering had become Colonel Mannering. He had +married and had a daughter, Julia. She had fallen in love with a young +officer, named Vanbeest Brown, who had served in India under Colonel +Mannering. The colonel objected to him as a suitor, because of the +obscurity of his birth. + +When things were at their worst for Lucy Bertram, Colonel Mannering +returned to England. Accidentally hearing of the straits to which she +had been reduced, he at once invited her and her guardian to make their +home with him and his daughter Julia. + +Captain Brown followed the Mannerings to England; and finally he +proved to be the long lost Harry Bertram, brother of Lucy. He had been +abducted with the help of Meg Merrilies, a gypsy, and some smugglers, +at the instigation of a man named Glossin, once agent for the Laird of +Ellangowan, who had hoped to get possession of the Laird's property. +He finally succeeded in this; but, after his crime was discovered, he +died a violent death in prison. Bertram had been kidnapped and taken to +Holland, where the name of Vanbeest Brown had been given him. + +Meg Merrilies is regarded as one of the great characters of fiction. + +"The fairy bride of Sir Gawaine, while under the influence of the +spell of her wicked stepmother, was more decrepit, probably, and what +is commonly called more ugly, than Meg Merrilies; but I doubt if she +possessed that wild sublimity which an excited imagination communicated +to features marked and expressive in their own peculiar character, and +to the gestures of a form which, her sex considered, might be termed +gigantic. Accordingly, the Knights of the Round Table did not recoil +with more terror from the apparition of the loathly lady placed between +'an oak and a green holly,' than Lucy Bertram and Julia Mannering +did from the appearance of this Galwegian sibyl upon the common of +Ellangowan. + +"'For God's sake,' said Julia, pulling her purse, 'give that dreadful +woman something, and bid her go away,' + +"'I cannot,' said Bertram: 'I must not offend her.' + +"'What keeps you here?' said Meg, exalting the harsh and rough tones +of her hollow voice. 'Why do you not follow? Must your hour call you +twice? Do you remember your oath?--were it at kirk or market, wedding +or burial,'--and she held high her skinny forefinger in a menacing +attitude.... + +"Almost stupefied with surprise and fear, the young ladies watched +with anxious looks the course of Bertram, his companion, and their +extraordinary guide. Her tall figure moved across the wintry heath +with steps so swift, so long, and so steady, that she appeared rather +to glide than to walk. Bertram and Dinmont, both tall men, apparently +scarce equaled her in height, owing to her longer dress and high +headgear. She proceeded straight across the common, without turning +aside to the winding path by which passengers avoided the inequalities +and little rills that traversed it in different directions. Thus the +diminishing figures often disappeared from the eye as they dived into +such broken ground, and again ascended to sight when they were past the +hollow. There was something frightful and unearthly, as it were, in the +rapid and undeviating course which she pursued, undeterred by any of +the impediments which usually incline a traveler from the direct path. +Her way was as straight, and nearly as swift, as that of a bird through +the air. At length they reached those thickets of natural wood which +extended from the skirts of the common towards the glades and brook of +Derneleugh, and were there lost to the view." + +"Guy Mannering" was published in 1815, the second of the Waverley +novels to appear. It is said to have been the result of six weeks' +work. There are less than forty characters in the book, and the plot is +not very complicated. + + + + + [Illustration: EFFIE DEANS AND GEORDIE--"HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN" + + COURTESY, THE PAGE COMPANY + FROM THE PAINTING BY SIR J. E. MILLAIS] + + + + +Heart of Midlothian + +THREE + + +In "Heart of Midlothian" Scott set himself to draw his own people +at their best. The real heroine of the book is Jeanie Deans, whose +character was drawn from that of Helen Walker, the daughter of a farmer +in Scotland. With a few variations Jeanie's story was hers. + +Effie Deans, the sister of Jeanie, was doomed to death for child +murder. Jeanie might have saved her on the witness stand by lying; but +this she could not do even to save her sister. However, she showed the +depth of her love by going on foot all the way to London and getting a +pardon from the king. + +Effie was released; but even before Jeanie reached home, she eloped +with her betrayer, George Staunton, who married her and took her to +London with him. There they lived as Lord and Lady Staunton, for George +succeeded to the title of his father. + +Jeanie married a Presbyterian minister, and by a combination of +circumstances, learned that Effie's son had never really been killed, +but had been given to the care of Meg Murdockson, whose daughter Madge +had also been betrayed by Staunton, or Geordie Robertson, as he was +known in Scotland. + +When Sir George Staunton learned this, he was anxious to discover the +whereabouts of his son. He traced him to a certain band of vagabonds, +of which Black Donald was the chief. Staunton attempted to arrest the +leader, but in the affray was shot by a young lad called the Whistler. +This lad later proved to be his long lost son. + +Effie, who was now Lady Staunton, overcome with grief, attempted to +drown her sorrows in the gayeties of the fashionable world. But this +was in vain. She could not forget her grief, and finally she retired to +a convent in France, where she remained until her death. + +Jeanie and her husband were given a good parish by the Duke of Argyle, +and through Effie's influence the children of her sister were helped +greatly. + +"Heart of Midlothian" was first published anonymously in 1818. It +takes its name from the Tolbooth, or old jail of Edinburgh, where Scott +imagined Effie to have been in prison. This book has fewer characters +than any other of Scott's novels. It has also a smaller variety of +incidents, and less description of scenery. One of the most touching +scenes in all fiction is that in which Jeanie visits her sister in the +prison under the eyes of the jailor, Ratcliffe. + +"Ratcliffe marshalled her the way to the apartment where Effie was +confined. + +"Shame, fear, and grief, had contended for mastery in the poor +prisoner's bosom during the whole morning, while she had looked forward +to this meeting; but when the door opened, all gave way to a confused +and strange feeling that had a tinge of joy in it, as, throwing herself +on her sister's neck, she ejaculated: 'My dear Jeanie!--my dear Jeanie! +It's lang since I hae seen ye.' Jeanie returned the embrace with an +earnestness that partook almost of rapture, but it was only a flitting +emotion, like a sunbeam unexpectedly penetrating betwixt the clouds +of a tempest, and obscured almost as soon as visible. The sisters +walked together to the side of the pallet bed, and sat down side by +side, took hold of each other's hands, and looked each other in the +face, but without speaking a word. In this posture they remained for +a minute, while the gleam of joy gradually faded from their features, +and gave way to the most intense expression, first of melancholy, and +then of agony, till, throwing themselves again into each other's arms, +they, to use the language of Scripture, lifted up their voices and wept +bitterly. + +"Even the hard-hearted turnkey, who had spent his life in scenes +calculated to stifle both conscience and feeling, could not witness +this scene without a touch of human sympathy. It was shown in a +trifling action, but which had more delicacy in it than seemed to +belong to Ratcliffe's character and station. The unglazed window of the +miserable chamber was open and the beams of a bright sun fell right +upon the bed where the sufferers were seated. With a gentleness that +had something of reverence in it, Ratcliffe partly closed the shutter, +and seemed thus to throw a veil over a scene so sorrowful." + + + + + [Illustration: THE BLACK KNIGHT AT THE HERMITAGE--"IVANHOE" + + COURTESY, THE PAGE COMPANY + FROM A DRAWING BY AD. LALAUZE] + + + + +Ivanhoe + +FOUR + + +Sir Wilfred, Knight of Ivanhoe, a young Saxon knight, brave and +handsome, was disinherited by his father because he loved Rowena, a +Saxon heiress and a ward of his father. He therefore went on a crusade +to Palestine with Richard the Lion Hearted. Returning, under the name +of Desdichado (The Disinherited) he entered the lists of the Ashby +Tournament: and, having won the victory, he was crowned by the Lady +Rowena. + +At this tournament there was one knight in particular who aided +Ivanhoe. This was the Black Knight, and his feats of valor set all the +spectators to wondering who he might be. He was in reality Richard the +Lion Hearted, the Crusader, King of England. + +Just at this time King Richard's younger brother, John, was conspiring +to take the throne of England from him. One of his fellow conspirators +was Maurice de Bracy, who was in love with Rowena. He captured her as +she was returning from the tournament, and imprisoned her in the Tower +of Torquilstone. + +Ivanhoe, who was wounded in the tournament, was cared for by Isaac of +York and his daughter, Rebecca. She fell in love with him, but realized +that she could never marry him; and knowing that Ivanhoe loved Rowena, +she offered to give any sum of money for her release. + +This was not effected, however, until Torquilstone had been besieged +by Locksley, who was really Robin Hood, and his men, led by the Black +Knight. The Black Knight had come upon this band in his wanderings +through Sherwood Forest. He ran across the little chapel of the Hermit, +one of Locksley's men, in the the following manner: + +"The entrance to this ancient place of devotion was under a very +low round arch, ornamented by several courses that zigzag moulding, +resembling shark's teeth, which appears so often in the more ancient +Saxon architecture. A belfry rose above the porch on four small +pillars, within which hung the green and weatherbeaten bell, the feeble +sounds of which had been some time before heard by the Black Knight. + +"The whole peaceful and quiet scene lay glimmering in twilight before +the eyes of the traveler, giving him good assurance of lodging for +the night; since it was a special duty of those hermits who dwelt +in the woods to exercise hospitality towards benighted or bewildered +passengers. + +"Accordingly, the knight took no time to consider minutely the +particulars which we have detailed, but thanking Saint Julian (the +patron of travelers), who had sent him good harborage, he leaped from +his horse and assailed the door of the hermitage with the butt of his +lance, in order to arouse attention and gain admittance." + +The Hermit who lived there and who gave the Black Knight food and +lodging, was Friar Tuck. + +Finally Rowena was rescued and married Ivanhoe. Rebecca was carried +away by the Templar Bois-Guilbert, who was madly and vainly in love +with her, to the Preceptory of Templestowe, and convicted of sorcery. +She was condemned to be burned alive, but was allowed a trial by +combat. Ivanhoe was her champion, and in the contest with the Templar +he was the victor. Rebecca was then pronounced guiltless and freed. + +"Ivanhoe" is one of Scott's most famous novels. It was written and +published in 1819. The manuscript is now at Abbotsford. + + + + + [Illustration: VARNEY, LEICESTER AND AMY ROBSART--"KENILWORTH" + + COURTESY, THE PAGE COMPANY + FROM A DRAWING BY AD. LALAUZE.] + + + + +Kenilworth + +FIVE + + +The central figure in "Kenilworth" is that of Queen Elizabeth of +England, but the real heroine is Amy Robsart. She was the daughter +of Sir Hugh Robsart. The Earl of Leicester, infatuated by her charms, +married her secretly. He then established her at Cumnor Place, a lonely +manor house. There she lived alone with one or two attendants. But she +bore her solitude with pleasure as long as she was sure that Leicester +loved her. + +However, Leicester and the Earl of Surrey were rivals for the favor +of Queen Elizabeth. In fact, each hoped that he might wed her; and, +therefore, Leicester did not want his marriage to Amy made public. + +Edmund Tressilian, who had been engaged to Amy, discovered her +hiding place, and, not knowing that she was married, tried in vain to +induce her to return home. Then he appealed to the queen; and when a +disclosure of the truth seemed inevitable, Richard Varney, Leicester's +closest friend, affirmed that Amy was his wife. Varney was then ordered +to appear with her at the approaching revels at Kenilworth Castle, +which belonged to the Earl of Leicester. + +Leicester and Varney went to Amy and endeavored to persuade her to pose +for a short time as Varney's wife. + +"'How, my Lord of Leicester,' said the lady, disengaging herself from +his embraces, 'is it to your wife you give the dishonourable counsel to +acknowledge herself the bride of another--and of all men, the bride of +that Varney?' + +"'Madam, I speak it in earnest--Varney is my true and faithful servant, +trusted in my deepest secrets. I had better lose my right hand than his +service at this moment. You have no cause to scorn him as you do.' + +"'I could assign one, my Lord,' replied the Countess; 'and I see he +shakes even under that assured look of his. But he that is necessary +as your right hand to your safety, is free from any accusation of mine. +May he be true to you; and that he may be true, trust him not too much +or too far. But it is enough to say, that I will not go with him unless +by violence, nor would I acknowledge him as my husband, were all--' + +"'It is a temporary deception, madam,' said Leicester, irritated by her +opposition, 'necessary for both our safeties, endangered by you through +female caprice, or the premature desire to seize on a rank to which +I gave you title only under condition that our marriage, for a time, +should continue secret. If my proposal disgust you, it is yourself has +brought it on both of us. There is no other remedy--you must do what +your own impatient folly hath rendered necessary--I command you.' + +"'I cannot put your commands, my Lord,' said Amy, 'in balance with +those of honor and conscience. I will _not_, in this instance, obey +you. You may achieve your own dishonor, to which these crooked policies +naturally tend, but I will do naught that can blemish mine. How could +you again, my Lord, acknowledge me as a pure and chaste matron, worthy +to share your fortunes, when, holding that high character, I had +strolled the country the acknowledged wife of such a profligate fellow +as your servant Varney?'" + +Later Varney attempted to drug her; and in fear of her life she escaped +and made her way to Kenilworth. She could not get to her husband, +however; and she was discovered and misjudged by Tressilian. Queen +Elizabeth found her half fainting in a grotto, but Varney kept her from +learning the truth by persuading the queen that Amy was insane. He also +made Leicester believe that she was false and really loved Tressilian, +a thing which was not true. + +For this reason Leicester gave him his signet ring and authority to act +for him. Amy was hurriedly taken back to Cumnor Place. + +In the meanwhile Leicester, who really loved Amy, and soon discovered +the injustice of his suspicions, confessed everything to Queen +Elizabeth. The queen, feeling herself insulted, treated him with scorn +and contempt; but she immediately dispatched Tressilian and Sir Walter +Raleigh to bring Amy back to Kenilworth. They arrived just too late. +Amy, decoyed from her room, stepped on a trap-door prepared by Varney, +and plunged to her death. After her tragic taking off, Tressilian fell +into profound melancholy and died soon after, "young in years, but old +in grief." + +"Kenilworth" appeared in 1819. It was the second of Scott's great +romances drawn from English history, and is regarded as one of the most +delightful of English historical romances. + + + + + [Illustration: LUCY AND THE MASTER--"THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR" + + COURTESY, THE PAGE COMPANY + FROM THE PAINTING BY SIR J. E. MILLAIS] + + + + +The Bride of Lammermoor + +SIX + + +Edgar, Master of Ravenswood, was the son of Allan, Lord Ravenswood. +His father had fought in the Revolution of 1688, and his side had been +vanquished. For this his title had been abolished and his estate taken +from him. He had fought hard for his rights in the courts, but in +vain, and at length he died breathing curses on Sir William Ashton, who +became owner of the estates. + +Edgar, the son, penniless and proud, had vowed vengeance on the family +of Sir William Ashton. However, in spite of this, he fell in love with +Lucy, Sir William's daughter. They became engaged secretly. + +"Ravenswood found Lucy seated alone by the ruin.... + +"'I like this spot,' said Lucy at length, as if she had found the +silence embarrassing: 'the bubbling murmur of the clear fountain, the +waving of the trees, the profusion of grass and wild-flowers, that rise +among the ruins, make it like a scene in romance. I think, too, I have +heard it is a spot connected with the legendary lore which I love so +well.' + +"'It has been thought,' answered Ravenswood, 'a fatal spot to my +family; and I have some reason to term it so, for it was here I first +saw Miss Ashton--and it is here I must take my leave of her for ever.' + +"'To take leave of us, Master!' she exclaimed; 'what can have happened +to hurry you away?--I know Alice hates--I mean dislikes, my father--and +I hardly understood her humor to-day, it was so mysterious. But I +am certain my father is sincerely grateful for the high service you +rendered us. Let us hope that having won your friendship hardly, we +shall not lose it lightly.' + +"'Lose it, Miss Ashton?' said the Master of Ravenswood. 'No--wherever +my fortune calls me--whatever she inflicts upon me--it is your +friend--your sincere friend, who acts or suffers. But there is a fate +on me, and I must go, or I shall add the ruin of others to my own.' + +"'Yet do not go from us. Master,' said Lucy; and she laid her hand, +in all simplicity and kindness, upon the skirt of his cloak, as if to +detain him. 'You shall not part from us. My father is powerful, he has +friends that are more so than himself--do not go till you see what his +gratitude will do for you. Believe me, he is already laboring in your +behalf with the Council.' + +"'It may be so,' said the Master proudly; 'yet it is not to your +father, Miss Ashton, but to my own exertions, that I ought to owe +success in the career on which I am about to enter. My preparations are +already made--a sword and a cloak, and a bold heart and a determined +hand.' + +"Lucy covered her face with her hands, and the tears, in spite of her, +forced their way between her fingers. 'Forgive me,' said Ravenswood, +taking her right hand, which, after slight resistance, she yielded +to him, still continuing to shade her face with the left. 'I am too +rude--too rough--too intractable to deal with any being so soft and +gentle as you are. Forget that so stern a vision has crossed your +path of life--and let me pursue mine, sure that I can meet no worse +misfortune after the moment it divides me from your side.' + +"Lucy wept on, but her tears were less bitter. Each attempt which +the Master made to explain his purpose of departure only proved a new +evidence of his desire to stay; until, at length, instead of bidding +her farewell, he gave his faith to her for ever, and received her troth +in return. The whole passed so suddenly, and arose so much out of the +immediate impulse of the moment, that ere the Master of Ravenswood +could reflect upon the consequences of the step which he had taken, +their lips, as well as their hands, had pledged the sincerity of their +affection." + +But Lucy's mother, the ambitious Lady Ashton, endeavored to force +her daughter to marry another. Lady Ashton was proud and vindictive, +and she hated the Ravenswood family with such intensity that she +did not scruple at any means to deceive Lucy into believing her love +unfaithful. Lucy, on the other hand, was gentle and timid. Her mother +called her, in derision, the "Lammermoor Shepherdess," to show that she +considered Lucy plebeian in her tastes. + +In the struggle, Lucy went mad. Ravenswood, thinking himself rejected, +came to an untimely end. + +"The Bride of Lammermoor" is in that group of the Waverley novels +called "Tales of My Landlord." The plot was suggested by an incident in +the family of the Earls of Stair. The scene is laid on the east coast +of Scotland, in the year 1700. Though somber and depressing, "The Bride +of Lammermoor" was very popular. The plot was used by Donizetti, the +Italian composer, for his opera Lucia di Lammermoor. + + + + +WALTER SCOTT + +By HAMILTON W. MABIE + +_Author and Editor_ + + +_MENTOR GRAVURES_ + + LUCY AND THE MASTER + "_The Bride of Lammermoor_" + + THE BLACK KNIGHT AT THE HERMITAGE + "_Ivanhoe_" + + VARNEY, LEICESTER AND AMY ROBSART + "_Kenilworth_" + + FLORA MacIVOR + "_Waverley_" + + MEG MERRILIES DIRECTS BERTRAM TO THE CAVE + "_Guy Mannering_" + + EFFIE DEANS AND GEORDIE + "_Heart of Midlothian_" + +Entered as second-class matter March 10, 1913, at the postoffice at New +York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. Copyright, 1916, by The +Mentor Association, Inc. + + [Illustration: Bust of Sir Walter Scott + By Sir Francis Chantrey] + + + THE MENTOR · DEPARTMENT OF LITERATURE + SEPTEMBER 15, 1916 + + +A noted English critic said that he never sat down to write about +Sir Walter Scott without a sense of elation and happiness; and he +might have added without a sense of satisfaction. For the author of +the Waverley Novels was a clean, wholesome, loyal human soul. The +out-of-door vigor of the Highlands found in him not only a chronicler +but an incarnation. At the end, when his strength was failing, his +brain becoming darkened, the battle apparently going against him, his +struggle against disaster became a moral victory and his character took +on heroic proportions. At a time when so much writing is impaired by +egotism, and mental and moral disease give prose and verse the odor of +the hospitals, Scott brings a tonic atmosphere with him. + +He was a fortunate man; he was born in a country which he understood, +at a time when the men, women, and events he wrote about were in the +past but not too far in the past; and he was well born in the best +sense. He came at the right time, in the right place, and of the right +ancestry. In a word, he was in harmony with the conditions of his life, +and he was spared the antagonism which often bends and sometimes breaks +a promising talent and distorts a wholesome nature. Like Goethe he had +a methodical father, of orderly habit, and a mother of generous heart, +a vivid memory and the gift of pictorial talk. He said of her that if +he had been able to paint past times it was largely because of "the +studies with which she presented me." She had talked with a man who +remembered the battle of Dunbar; and the day before her last illness +she told, with great accuracy of detail, the real story of the Bride +of Lammermoor, and indicated the points in which it differed from her +son's famous novel. To his father Scott owed his steadiness of aim and +his indomitable industry; to his mother he owed his vivid energy of +mind, his tireless curiosity. + + [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF SCOTT + By Sir Henry Raeburn] + +To Scotland his debt was even greater. Born in Edinburgh in 1771, four +years before the beginning of the American Revolution, an illness in +his second year sent him to reside with his grandfather in a country +of crags and in the neighborhood of a ruined tower. In fine weather +the shepherd took him to the places where the sheep were grazing +and laid him on the ground among them. He was forgotten one day, and +a thunderstorm broke on him. When he was found he was calling out, +"bonny! bonny!" at each flash of lightning. His illness made him lame +for life, but he was a boy of sweet temper and a winning disposition. +Lameness did not daunt him; he learned to climb with great agility +and to keep his saddle with the best of them. At the age of six he +was reciting ballads with zest and fire, and he showed very early the +spirit which made him a story-teller and a man of dauntless courage. + + +The Boyhood of Scott + +At school he was noted as a daring climber, a pertinacious fighter, +an irregular student, and a teller of fascinating tales. In the High +School he was "more distinguished in the yards than in the class." In +1783 he entered the Humanity and Greek classes in the University of +Edinburgh, but his education was directed by his genius rather than by +the school and college curriculum. He began on his grandfather's farm, +Sandy-Knowe, in a landscape that runs to the Cheviot Hills and the +slopes of Lammermoor, where he lay, a "puir lame laddie," on the turf +among the sheep. Out of a volume of Ramsay's "Tea Table Miscellany" he +was taught "Hardy Knute," long before he could read the ballad. "It was +the first poem I ever learned," he wrote years afterwards, "the last +I shall ever forget." His grandmother knew all the wild and romantic +stories of the Border and the eager boy listened with his heart and +imagination. He had only to look across the countryside to see many +of the places where these moving events had happened: the peaks of +Peebleshire, the crags of Hume, the landmarks of Ettrick and Yarrow; +the Brethren Stanes were among the objects that "painted the earliest +images on the eye of the last and greatest of the Border Minstrels." + +When he was thirteen years old he came upon one of those books that +open the world of imagination to boys and girls of genius. He was +visiting his aunt in Kelso, which he describes as the most beautiful if +not the most romantic village in Scotland. The house stood in a garden +in which there was a great platanus tree (plane tree), and under its +branches, one summer afternoon, he opened "Percy's Reliques," which +had appeared nineteen years before, and the magic of the old, stirring +ballads which Bishop Percy had piously brought together, laid a spell +upon him which was never broken. "The summer day sped onward so fast," +he wrote long afterwards, "that notwithstanding the sharp appetite of +thirteen, I forgot the hour of dinner, was sought for with anxiety, and +was still found entranced in my intellectual banquet." As soon as he +could "scrape five shillings together" he bought the volumes and read +no other books so often or with such enthusiasm. + + [Illustration: ABBOTSFORD, SCOTLAND + The home of Walter Scott] + +This vital education for the work he was to do was not interrupted +by his studies at the University. Hosts of Americans have climbed +Arthur's Seat and picked bluebells and looked down on one of the +most picturesque cities in Europe. Scott climbed this famous hill +and Salisbury Crags or Blackford Hill on Saturdays and in vacation, +carrying a bundle of books from a circulating library; and, overlooking +one of the most enchanting landscapes in Scotland, read Spenser, +Ariosto and other masters of romance. He learned to read Italian +and Spanish so as to get direct access to "Don Quixote" and the +"Decameron"; and Froissart he came to know almost by heart. + + +Edinburgh and the Highlands + +Edinburgh was an illustrated edition of a great deal of Scotch history, +and Scott left no part of the old town unvisited. He spent so much +time exploring the country within reach that his father protested +that he was becoming a strolling peddler. "Show me an old castle or a +battlefield," he wrote, "and I was at home at once, filled it with its +combatants in their proper costume, and overwhelmed my hearers by the +enthusiasm of my description." So he came to know not only the spirit +but the "form and presence" of feudalism and the ideals and code of +manners of chivalry. + + [Illustration: SIR WALTER SCOTT + From the painting by J. P. Knight] + + [Illustration: ABBOTSFORD + A near view] + +His education went a step farther when he saw the Highlands for the +first time in 1787. The traditions of 1715 and 1745, when the Highland +chiefs had engaged in brave but futile attempts to restore the exiled +Stuarts to the throne which those ill-starred Kings had forfeited by +their inability to understand the English people, were still fresh on +the Border. Men who had taken part in the rising of 1745 were still +living, and Scott was fortunate enough to be the guest of one of them. +He was to write the stories of wild Scotland as no historian had or +could write them, and on this memorable visit he was to hear the tales +of stirring and romantic deeds from one who had played a part in them, +and he was to see with the eyes of youth the landscape on which they +had been enacted. It was a happy hour in which the boy who was to +write "Waverley" and "Rob Roy" heard from a veteran the stories of +battle, of dashing foray, of daring deeds and hairbreadth escapes. "To +know men who had known Rob Roy, to hear the story of the two risings +which had shaken Scotland like an earthquake, to be a guest in remote +and lonely castles, to be guided through wild defiles and over vast +mountain ranges by kilted clansmen whose speech was only Gaelic and +whose claymores were still at the service of their chiefs--this was the +real education of the writer who was to be the scribe of his country, +the truest of her historians." + +This first-hand education in romantic history was supplemented by the +eager reading of military exploits, of medieval romance and legend, of +the songs of the Border, of Ariosto and Cervantes. The author of "Don +Quixote," he said later, "first inspired him with the ambition to excel +in fiction." He was also fortunate in the possession of a memory which +held tenaciously everything that contributed to his future work and let +unrelated things slip through its meshes. + + [Illustration: THE LIBRARY, ABBOTSFORD] + +He studied law and practised at the bar in a desultory way for +fourteen years. He was appointed "Sheriff of the Court" of Ettrick, +a position to which a comfortable salary was attached, and for five +years he acted, without salary, as a Clerk of Sessions in the court in +Edinburgh. He was recognized as an able man, and he was interested in +the historical aspects of Scotch law, in its "quips and quiddities," +and his knowledge of its processes was shown in his novels; but he was +an impatient and uninterested practitioner, and long before he formally +gave up the profession he was writing poetry. While poetry and law have +often been on good terms they have never been happy partners. + + [Illustration: THE STUDY, ABBOTSFORD + This room is lined with Scott's favorite books and works of reference. + The bedroom that he used opens directly into the study.] + + [Illustration: SIR WALTER SCOTT + From the painting by C. R. Leslie, R. A.] + + +Marriage + +During this period Scott's affections were deeply engaged, and but +for the interference of parents he would probably have married a +young woman of singularly beautiful nature. His love had a very deep +influence on his character, and it remained to the end the great +passion of his life. In 1797 he married the daughter of a French +royalist who, after her brother's death, came to England. She was +described as a "lively beauty," of no great depth of nature, but she +had humor and high spirits and she was true-hearted. He protected her +from care, and their life together was a happy one. She was not a mate +for her husband, but she basked in the sunshine of his prosperity, and +she was brave in adversity. + + [Illustration: SIR WALTER SCOTT AND HIS FRIENDS AT ABBOTSFORD + +From the painting by Thomas Faed. Those in the picture, reading from +left to right, are, sitting: Sir Walter Scott; Henry Mackenzie, the +Scottish novelist; George Crabbe, the English poet; John Gibson +Lockhart, the son-in-law of Scott, and his biographer; William +Wordsworth, the English Poet Laureate from 1843 to 1850; Francis, Lord +Jeffrey, the Scottish critic, essayist, and jurist; Adam Ferguson, the +Scottish philosopher and historian; John Moore, the Scottish physician +and writer; Thomas Campbell, the writer, and Lord Rector of the +University of Glasgow from 1826 to 1829; Archibald Constable, Scott's +publisher from 1805 to 1826; standing: John Wilson, who wrote under the +pseudonym of Christopher North; John Allen, the British political and +historical writer; Sir David Wilkie, the Scottish painter.] + + +Entrance Into Literature + +Scott made the transition from law to literature gradually. He +published a translation of Burger's "Lenore" in 1795. While he was +at the University he began to collect the materials which made up the +three volumes of "The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," a collection +of ballads old and new in which the "old, simple, violent world" lived +again in song and story. The making of these books was congenial work, +and carried still further Scott's education in the spirit and temper of +the Scotland of clans and feuds, of reckless border warfare, dashing +foray, fierce revenge and superstition. The various introductions and +notes which accompanied the ballads show Scott's painstaking care for +fact and detail; he combined in rare degree the romantic spirit, the +antiquarian's zeal for the small details of history, and the methodical +habits of the literary drudge. + +In 1805, in his thirty-fourth year, "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" +appeared and secured a popular success of unprecedented proportions. +The picturesque or pictorial quality of the poem and its unqualified +romanticisms gave it a very broad appeal. It was popular in the good +sense of the word. Mountains and wild landscapes generally, which had +been shunned for generations, were coming into fashion, so to speak. +They have been "in fashion" ever since, and today their appeal to +city folk, to tired people, to men and women of imagination and active +temperament, is irresistible. To Dr. Johnson Scotland was a wild and +dreary waste, to Scott it was a wonderland; and a wonderland it has +remained ever since. In the confusion of an age when every sort of +opinion gets into print the "call of the wild" has a trumpet tone. +"I am sensible," wrote Scott, "that if there be anything good about +my poetry or prose either, it is a hurried frankness of composition +which pleases soldiers, sailors, and young people of bold and active +dispositions." + + [Illustration: THE LADY OF THE LAKE + From the group by J. Adams Acton] + + [Illustration: EFFIE DEANS AND HER SISTER, JEANIE, IN PRISON + This picture, illustrating Jeanie Deans' visit to her accused sister, + as related in "Heart of Midlothian," is from the painting by R. + Herdman] + +Three years later the strongest and most stirring of the poems, +"Marmion," appeared. It is a poem of scenery as well as of action, its +descriptions are both exact and living; it tells a story with clear +and compelling vigor, and it shows at their best two of Scott's really +great qualities: simplicity and energy. It lacked the delicate shading +of the verbal music which gave some later English poetry a magical +charm; but it had a fine strength of outline, a noble ruggedness. He +said later that he loved the sternness and bold nakedness of the Border +landscape, and that if he did not see the heather at least once a year +he believed he would die. "The Lady of the Lake," "The Lay of the Last +Minstrel," "The Lord of the Isles," were less effective, but the fresh +vitality of the Highlands was in them all. + + +The Crash of His Fortunes + +The Waverley Novels have so long stood in the forefront of Scott's +literary achievements that it is difficult to put them out of view +and remember that in 1814, when Scott was forty-four years old, he was +known to the world as a poet who had laid a spell on the imagination of +his generation. He had "broken the record" so far as monetary returns +for poetry were concerned. Milton received about one hundred dollars +for "Paradise Lost" and Dr. Johnson was paid about seventy-five dollars +for "The Vanity of Human Wishes," while "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" +brought Scott nearly four thousand dollars; for "Marmion" he received +five thousand dollars in advance of publication, and for one-half the +copyright of "The Lord of the Isles" he was paid over seven thousand +five hundred dollars. He was unaware of the enormous earning powers +which he was later to develop; he had given up his profession, and +he longed for an income which would support his family on the scale +which his tastes and natural generosity dictated. To secure financial +independence he brought James Ballantyne, a former school-mate and +editor of a local newspaper, to Edinburgh and lent him money enough +to start a printing business. This was in 1802; three years later he +became a silent partner with Ballantyne and his brother. In 1809 he +took a still more venturesome step and started the publishing house of +John Ballantyne & Company. The two brothers were men of small ability, +and entirely without knowledge of the business on which they embarked; +they knew something about printing but nothing about publishing. Scott +was equally ignorant of business methods; he was a man of generous +nature and lavish tastes, and between the recklessness of his partners, +for which he was largely responsible, and his lavish use of money, he +was soon in financial difficulties and a crash would have come early if +the phenomenal popularity of the novels had not postponed the evil day. + + [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF SCOTT + By Sir Thomas Lawrence] + +In 1812 he bought the farm at Abbotsford, to the ownership of which he +had long looked forward. The country was lovely, the four acres grew +into a great estate, the farm cottage became a stately mansion, as all +traveled Americans know, and the owner lived like a Scotch laird but +without a laird's steady income. He entertained lavishly and lived in +feudal state, happy in his friends, his tenants, his horses and dogs. +But the land alone cost more than a hundred and fifty thousand dollars! + + [Illustration: A GLIMPSE OF ABBOTSFORD] + +In 1805 Scott was the most popular poet in Great Britain. He had opened +a fresh field, he had command of the magic of romance which always has +and always will, in spite of temporary changes of taste, cast a spell +over the imagination of men; his style was simple and his method plain; +all classes of readers could understand him. During the next ten years +he published six or seven long poems of varying merit. When the last of +these, "The Lord of the Isles," appeared in 1815, the popular interest +had diminished in volume and intensity, and the poet was in serious +financial difficulties as the result of his lavish scale of living and +the mismanagement of his business enterprises. + + +The Waverley Novels + +At the moment when ruin faced him he found himself suddenly in the +possession of a great income from an unexpected source. In 1805 he had +written, almost at a sitting, an instalment of a story of the uprising +of 1745 in a futile attempt to restore the exiled Stuart, Charles +Edward, to the throne. In 1814 he completed the story and published +it anonymously under the title of "Waverley." The novel was written in +what the oarsmen call a "spurt"; not because the novelist was writing +carelessly at breakneck speed for immediate income, but because he +was a tremendous worker and more concerned with the general movement +and human interest of the story in hand than with the details of its +workmanship. To immense energy of mind and body Scott united patience +and methodical habits of work, as he added to a romantic imagination +keen interest in the business of life and in the smallest detail of +practical affairs. His appetite for facts was as marked as his capacity +for sentiment. Scott had breadth and vigor rather than delicacy of +imagination; that is one reason why he is out of fashion at a time +when men want to know not only what people do but why and how they do +it. He saw men and events in the rough; he was interested in striking +historical incidents and events, in strongly-marked characters, in +actions rather than in moods. In a word, Scott was a writer who took +the world as he found it, and described it as he saw it, without +any strong desire to reform it. He was a Tory in politics, a strong +adherent of an ordered society; a good, sound man not haunted by +misgiving and questioning about the general order of things. + +Scott's novels were literally poured out during fifteen wonderful +years; and even then the broken man could still apply the whip to his +exhausted and crippled brain. The popular success of the novels was +unprecedented in the history of literature. It is estimated that Scott +earned with his pen not less than three-quarters of a million dollars. +The earlier stories were the best: "The Antiquary," "Old Mortality," +"Rob Roy," "Heart of Midlothian," "Guy Mannering." These were followed +by the series of semi-historical novels with their brilliant historical +portraits: "Ivanhoe," the most popular though by no means the best of +Scott's stories, "The Monastery," "The Abbot," "Kenilworth," "Quentin +Durward," "The Bride of Lammermoor," "The Talisman." + + [Illustration: THE EMPTY CHAIR, ABBOTSFORD + From the painting by Sir W. Allan, R. A., in the Royal Collection] + +The defects of these novels and those which came later have been +clearly pointed out since the analytical novel and the novel of purpose +have come into vogue. Scott did not command the constructive skill of +even the second-rate novelist of today; he was often an awkward builder +and clumsy in putting his materials together in a coherent whole; his +style is often loose and diffuse; he dealt largely with the outside +of the spectacle of living; his women have no magic of loveliness, +no mystery of temperament, though they sometimes stand out with great +distinctness; his heroes are rarely heroic, they are often commonplace. + +Scott was the chronicler of feudalism, the primitive social order of +the clan, of an aristocratic society. He was as little interested +in Democracy as was Shakespeare; and largely for the same reason: +his age was not anti-democratic, it had not reached the democratic +stage. Bagehot, the famous English critic, put his limitations under +two heads: he gives us the stir of the world but not its soul, and he +leaves the abstract intellect unreported. + +His vital interest in the moving spectacle of life has given us an +almost unrivalled report of that world, and of a great group of men and +women whose careers, as Scott reports them, have the reality of fact +and the dramatic interest of fiction. Jeanie Deans, Madge Wildfire, +Diana Vernon, Meg Merrilies, Wandering Willie, Andrew Fairservice, +and a crowd of their companions, are more alive today, after a century +has passed, than most of the people whose names are in the telephone +directories. + +Scott was a man of the kind men love to remember. His faults of nature +are as obvious as his faults of art; but his splendid vitality makes +them trivial. He was large hearted, frank, generous, honorable; he made +life seem more noble by the richness of his nature and his splendid +courage. His career was as romantic in achievement and vicissitude as +his most striking novel. In 1826, when he was fifty-five years old, the +two business houses in which he was a partner failed, with obligations +amounting to nearly six hundred thousand dollars. Scott had recently +spent large sums on the enlargement of Abbotsford, in settling his sons +in life, and for other people; and he held the bills of Constable for +four novels to be written in the future; the novels were written, but +the bills were not honored. Four months after the failure Lady Scott +died, and Scott's health was breaking. Two days after the failure he +resumed work on "Woodstock," and set himself to pay the debt of half +a million dollars. In two years he earned for his creditors nearly two +hundred thousand dollars, the major part of which came from the sales +of "Woodstock" and "The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte." If his brain had +not given out he would have discharged the entire indebtedness in a +few years. Working with a disabled brain but with heroic resolution, +he wrote "Count Robert of Paris" and "Castle Dangerous." In five years +more than three hundred thousand dollars had been paid; meantime he had +had a stroke of paralysis. After a second stroke, when "Count Robert" +was practically finished, the publishers objected to the work in the +last volume. "The blow is a stunning one," wrote the broken man. "God +knows I am at sea in the dark, and the vessel leaky.... I often wish I +could lie down and sleep without waking. But I will fight it out if I +can." And he fought it out; he died on July 12, 1832, and on February +21, 1833, the creditors were paid in full. Never was a heroic fight +more nobly won. + +On his death-bed Scott called his son-in-law Lockhart, who was to tell +the story of his life in one of the great biographies, to his bedside. +"I have but a minute to speak to you," he said. "My dear, be a good +man.... Nothing else will give you any comfort when you come to lie +here." + + [Illustration: THE GRAVE OF SCOTT + At Dryburgh Abbey, Scotland] + + +SUPPLEMENTARY READING + + LIFE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT (In "Everyman's Library") + _By J. G. Lockhart_ + + SIR WALTER SCOTT + _By R. H. Hutton_ + + SIR WALTER SCOTT + _By William Winter_ + + Chapter in "Gray Days and Gold" + + DICTIONARY OF THE CHARACTERS IN THE WAVERLEY NOVELS OF SIR + WALTER SCOTT + _By M. F. A. Husband_ + + SIR WALTER SCOTT STUDIED IN EIGHT NOVELS + _By A. S. G. Channing_ + + THE SCOTT COUNTRY + _By W. S. Crockett_ + + +*** Information concerning the above books may be had on application to +the Editor of The Mentor. + + + + +THE OPEN LETTER + + [Illustration: SIR WALTER SCOTT + From the painting by Sir Henry Raeburn] + + +What sort of a person was he; what did he look like--this Scottish +bard, novelist, historian, essayist, and landed baronet? + +"There he goes," said Dr. Maginn, a contemporary of Scott's, +"sauntering about his grounds, with his Lowland bonnet in his hand, +dressed in his old green shooting-jacket, telling stories of every +stone and bush, and tree and stream in sight--tales of battles and +raids--or ghosts and fairies, as the case may be, of the days of yore." + +"Sauntering" is hardly the word with which to describe Scott's gait. +"Limping" would be better, for he was lame from boyhood, and he +supported himself in walking with a staff so heavy that it looked like +a cudgel. Washington Irving visited Abbotsford in 1816, and described +Scott as "limping up the gravel walk, aiding himself by a stout +walking-stick, but moving rapidly and with vigor." + + * * * * * + +His lameness, was no serious handicap to Sir Walter. He was a man of +extraordinary strength, six feet tall, and of a large and powerful +frame, with great breadth across the chest. The muscles of his arms +were like iron. He was an exceptional and powerful wielder of an ax, +and could bring down a tree with the best of the younger men. He was +a master of the horse, and a bold rider. He climbed the hills till he +wearied all but his faithful dogs, and he was proficient in sport and +hunting. The latter, however, he did not like. "I was never at ease," +he said, "when I had knocked down my bird and, going to pick him up, +he cast back his dying eye with a look of reproach. I am not ashamed +to say that no practice ever reconciled me fully to the cruelty of the +affair." + + * * * * * + +The conversation of Scott was frank, hearty, picturesque, and dramatic. +He had a great sense of humor, and a rare gift for story telling. +He was an accomplished mimic, and he lighted up his narratives and +anecdotes with appropriate dialect and graphic description. And, as +a near friend once observed, "The chief charm of his conversation, he +being a man of such eminence, was its perfect simplicity and the entire +absence of vanity and love of display." + + * * * * * + +He was a good listener, too--but he did not enjoy listening to classic +music. He allowed that he "had a reasonable good ear for a jig," but +confessed that "sonatas gave him the spleen." But he would rouse up +at the sound of "The Blue Bells of Scotland" or "Bonnie Dundee," and +his eye would flash an enthusiastic response to any song or verse that +celebrated the romance, chivalry, and heroism of his native land. + + * * * * * + +Sir Walter was a strange combination of simplicity and strength. His +personal appearance was strikingly odd. Once seen, he could never +be forgotten. "Although forty-eight years have passed since I met +him," wrote an acquaintance, "his personality is as present to me now +as it was then in the flesh. His light blue waggish eye, sheltered, +almost screened, by overhanging straw-colored bushy brows, his scanty, +sandy-colored hair, the length of his upper lip, his towering forehead, +his abrupt movements, and the mingled humor, urbanity and benevolence +of his smile." His usual costume consisted of a green cutaway coat, +with short skirts and brass buttons; drab trousers, vest and gaiters; +a single seal and watch-key attached to a watered black ribbon dangling +from his fob; a loose, soft linen collar; a black silk neckerchief; and +a low-crowned, deep-brimmed hat. + + [Illustration: W. D. Moffat, EDITOR] + + + + +THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION + +ESTABLISHED FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A POPULAR INTEREST IN ART, +LITERATURE, SCIENCE, HISTORY, NATURE, AND TRAVEL + +CONTRIBUTORS--PROF. JOHN C. VAN DYKE, HAMILTON W. MABIE, PROF. ALBERT +BUSHNELL HART, REAR ADMIRAL ROBERT E. PEARY, WILLIAM T. HORNADAY, +DWIGHT L. ELMENDORF, HENRY T. FINCK, WILLIAM WINTER, ESTHER SINGLETON, +PROF. G. W. BOTSFORD, IDA M. TARBELL, GUSTAV KOBBÉ, DEAN C. WORCESTER, +JOHN K. MUMFORD, W. J. HOLLAND, LORADO TAFT, KENYON COX, E. H. FORBUSH, +H. E. KREHBIEL, SAMUEL ISHAM, BURGES JOHNSON, STEPHEN BONSAL, JAMES +HUNEKER, W. J. HENDERSON, AND OTHERS. + +The purpose of The Mentor Association is to give its members, in an +interesting and attractive way, the information in various fields of +knowledge which everybody wants to have. The information is imparted +by interesting reading matter, prepared under the direction of leading +authorities, and by beautiful pictures, produced by the most highly +perfected modern processes. + +THE MENTOR IS PUBLISHED TWICE A MONTH + +BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC., AT 52 EAST NINETEENTH STREET, NEW +YORK, N. Y. SUBSCRIPTION, THREE DOLLARS A YEAR. FOREIGN POSTAGE 75 +CENTS EXTRA. CANADIAN POSTAGE 50 CENTS EXTRA. SINGLE COPIES FIFTEEN +CENTS. PRESIDENT, THOMAS H. BECK; VICE-PRESIDENT, WALTER P. TEN EYCK; +SECRETARY W. D. MOFFAT; TREASURER, ROBERT M. DONALDSON; ASST. TREASURER +AND ASST. SECRETARY, J. S. CAMPBELL + + +COMPLETE YOUR MENTOR LIBRARY + +Subscriptions always begin with the current issue. The following +numbers of The Mentor Course, already issued, will be sent postpaid at +the rate of fifteen cents each. + + Serial No. + 1. Beautiful Children in Art + 2. Makers of American Poetry + 3. Washington, the Capital + 4. Beautiful Women in Art + 5. Romantic Ireland + 6. Masters of Music + 7. Natural Wonders of America + 8. Pictures We Love to Live With + 9. The Conquest of the Peaks + 10. Scotland, the Land of Song and Scenery + 11. Cherubs in Art + 12. Statues With a Story + 13. Story of America in Pictures: The Discoverers + 14. London + 15. The Story of Panama + 16. American Birds of Beauty + 17. Dutch Masterpieces + 18. Paris, the Incomparable + 19. Flowers of Decoration + 20. Makers of American Humor + 21. American Sea Painters + 22. Story of America in Pictures: The Explorers + 23. Sporting Vacations + 24. Switzerland: The Land of Scenic Splendors + 25. American Novelists + 26. American Landscape Painters + 27. Venice, the Island City + 28. The Wife in Art + 29. Great American Inventors + 30. Furniture and Its Makers + 31. Spain and Gibraltar + 32. Historic Spots of America + 33. Beautiful Buildings of the World + 34. Game Birds of America + 35. Story of America in Pictures: The Contest for North + America + 36. Famous American Sculptors + 37. The Conquest of the Poles + 38. Napoleon + 39. The Mediterranean + 40. Angels in Art + 41. Famous Composers + 42. Egypt, the Land of Mystery + 43. Story of America in Pictures: The Revolution + 44. Famous English Poets + 45. Makers of American Art + 46. The Ruins of Rome + 47. Makers of Modern Opera + 48. Dürer and Holbein + 49. Vienna, the Queen City + 50. Ancient Athens + 51. The Barbizon Painters + 52. Abraham Lincoln + 53. George Washington + 54. Mexico + 55. Famous American Women Painters + 56. The Conquest of the Air + 57. Court Painters of France + 58. Holland + 59. Our Feathered Friends + 60. Glacier National Park + 61. Michelangelo + 62. American Colonial Furniture + 63. American Wild Flowers + 64. Gothic Architecture + 65. The Story of the Rhine + 66. Shakespeare + 67. American Mural Painters + 68. Celebrated Animal Characters + 69. Japan + 70. The Story of the French Revolution + 71. Rugs and Rug Making + 72. Alaska + 73. Charles Dickens + 74. Grecian Masterpieces + 75. Fathers of the Constitution + 76. Masters of the Piano + 77. American Historic Homes + 78. Beauty Spots of India + 79. Etchers and Etching + 80. Oliver Cromwell + 81. China + 82. Favorite Trees + 83. Yellowstone National Park + 84. Famous Women Writers of England + 85. Painters of Western Life + 86. China and Pottery of Our Forefathers + 87. The Story of The American Railroad + 88. Butterflies + 89. The Philippines + 90. Great Galleries of The World: The Louvre + 91. William M. Thackeray + 92. Grand Canyon of Arizona + 93. Architecture in American Country Homes + 94. The Story of The Danube + 95. Animals in Art + 96. The Holy Land + 97. John Milton + 98. Joan Of Arc + 99. Furniture of the Revolutionary Period + 100. The Ring of the Nibelung + 101. The Golden Age of Greece + 102. Chinese Rugs + 103. The War of 1812 + 104. Great Galleries of the World: The National Gallery, + London + 105. Masters of the Violin + 106. American Pioneer Prose Writers + 107. Old Silver + 108. Shakespeare's Country + 109. Historic Gardens of New England + 110. The Weather + 111. American Poets of the Soil + 112. Argentina + 113. Game Animals of America + 114. Raphael + + +NUMBERS TO FOLLOW + + October 2. THE YOSEMITE VALLEY. _By Dwight L. Elmendorf, + Lecturer and Traveler._ + + October 16. JOHN PAUL JONES. _By Professor Albert Bushnell + Hart, Harvard University._ + + +THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC. + +52 EAST 19th STREET, NEW YORK, N. Y. + + + + +The Mentor Service + + +This service covers the needs of those who want to gain knowledge by an +easy and agreeable method. + +Send for our booklet descriptive of The Mentor Club Service. It +presents many varied Mentor courses specially planned for the use of +reading clubs. + +The Mentor Association will supply to its members supplementary reading +courses dealing with any or all of the subjects in The Mentor Courses. +These courses of reading are prepared under the direction of the +Advisory Board of The Mentor--all of them prominent educators. + +The Mentor Association will also secure books for members, supplying +them postpaid at publishers' prices. + +The Mentor Inquiry Department gives to its members a full and +intelligent service in answering inquiries concerning books, reading, +and all matters of general information having a bearing on The Mentor +Courses. + +MANY READERS HAVE COME TO KNOW THE VALUE OF THE MENTOR SERVICE. IN THE +FULLEST SENSE IT SUPPLEMENTS AND ROUNDS OUT THE PLAN OF THE MENTOR. +ALL MEMBERS OF THE ASSOCIATION ARE INVITED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS +SERVICE. + + +THE MENTOR BINDER + +Every page of The Mentor, cover included, contains matter that readers +want to keep. The Mentor Association is now supplying to its members +a binder which holds twelve or thirteen Mentors and has proved +satisfactory in every way. This binder has been arranged so as to +hold The Mentor complete and it has tapes to which the pictures are +attached, so that they swing freely in their place and the pictures can +be enjoyed as well as the text on the back. + +The price of these binders is One Dollar each. + + +MAKE THE SPARE MOMENT COUNT + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mentor: Walter Scott, Vol. 4, Num. +15, Serial No. 115, September 15, 1916, by Hamilton W. Mabie + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44367 *** |