At the outset we must confess frankly that Scott’s poetry is not artistic, in the highest sense, and that it lacks the deeply imaginative and suggestive qualities which make a poem the noblest and most enduring work of humanity.  We read it now, not for its poetic excellence, but for its absorbing story interest.  Even so, it serves an admirable purpose. Marmion and The Lady of the Lake, which are often the first long poems read by the beginner in literature, almost invariably lead to a deeper interest in the subject; and many readers owe to these poems an introduction to the delights of poetry.  They are an excellent beginning, therefore, for young readers, since they are almost certain to hold the attention, and to lead indirectly to an interest in other and better poems.  Aside from this, Scott’s poetry is marked by vigor and youthful abandon; its interest lies in its vivid pictures, its heroic characters, and especially in its rapid action and succession of adventures, which hold and delight us still, as they held and delighted the first wondering readers.  And one finds here and there terse descriptions, or snatches of song and ballad, like the “Boat Song” and “Lochinvar,” which are among the best known in our literature.

In his novels Scott plainly wrote too rapidly and too much.  While a genius of the first magnitude, the definition of genius as “the infinite capacity for taking pains” hardly belongs to him.  For details of life and history, for finely drawn characters, and for tracing the logical consequences of human action, he has usually no inclination.  He sketches a character roughly, plunges him into the midst of stirring incidents, and the action of the story carries us on breathlessly to the end.  So his stories are largely adventure stories, at the best; and it is this element of adventure and glorious action, rather than the study of character, which makes Scott a perennial favorite of the young.  The same element of excitement is what causes mature readers to turn from Scott to better novelists, who have more power to delineate human character, and to create, or discover, a romantic interest in the incidents of everyday life rather than in stirring adventure.[225]

Notwithstanding these limitations, it is well—­especially in these days, when we hear that Scott is outgrown—­to emphasize four noteworthy things that he accomplished.

(1) He created the historical novel[226]; and all novelists of the last century who draw upon history for their characters and events are followers of Scott and acknowledge his mastery.