style.  Scott appreciated the originality force of Swift, even when it was used in the service of satire.  Sometimes, he says, “the intensity of his satire gives to his poetry a character of emphatic violence which borders upon grandeur."[195] The editor’s discussion of Gulliver’s Travels an acute and illuminating little essay, contains one comment that gives an amusing revelation of his point of view.  He says in regard to the fourth part of the story:  “It is some consolation to remark that the fiction on which this libel on human nature rests is in every respect gross and improbable, and, far from being entitled to the praise due to the management of the first two parts, is inferior in plan even to the third."[196] This is a sound verdict, even if it does contain an extra-literary element.  Scott surpassed most of his contemporaries, except the younger Romantic writers, in his ability to eliminate irrelevant considerations in estimating any literary work; and if occasionally his strong moral feeling appears in his criticism, it serves to remind us how much less often this happens than a knowledge of his temperament would lead us to expect.  In spite of the qualities in his subject that might naturally bias Scott’s judgment, his criticism throughout this edition of Swift seems on the whole very judicious.  It defines the literary importance and brings out plainly the power of a man whose work presents unusual perplexities to the critic.

The Somers Tracts

    Character of the collection and of Scott’s work on it—­Occasional
    carelessness—­Purpose of the notes—­Scott’s attitude towards these
    studies.

While Scott was working on his Dryden and before he began the Swift he undertook to edit the great collection which had been published fifty years before as Somers’ Tracts.  His task was to arrange, revise, and annotate pamphlets which represented every reign from Elizabeth to George I. He grouped them chronologically by reigns, and separated them further into sections under the headings,—­Ecclesiastical, Historical, Civil, Military, Miscellaneous; he also added eighty-one pamphlets, all written before the time of James II.  The largest number of additions in any one section was historical and had reference to Stafford.  Among the miscellaneous tracts that he incorporated were Derrick’s Image of Ireland from a copy in the Advocates’ Library, and Gosson’s School of Abuse.  Scott’s statement in the Advertisement as to why he did not omit any of the original collection shows his unpedantic attitude toward the kind of studies which he was encouraging by the republication of this series.  He says:  “When the variety of literary pursuits, and the fluctuation of fashionable study is considered, it may seem rash to pass a hasty sentence of exclusion, even upon the dullest and most despised of the essays which this ample collection offers to the public.  There may be among the learned, even now, individuals to whom the rabbinical lore of Hugh Broughton presents more charms than the verses of Homer; and a future day may arise when tracts on chronology will bear as high a value among antiquaries as ‘Greene’s Groats’ Worth of Wit,’ or ’George Peele’s Jests,’ the present respectable objects of research and reverence.”