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“The reader will at once perceive that the subject, the characters and the
scenes of action, could not have been better selected for the display of the various
and unequalled powers of the author. All that is glorious in arts and splendid
in arms—the glitter of armor, the pomp of war, and the splendor of chivalry
—the gorgeous scenery of the Bosphorus—the ruins of Byzantium—the magnificence
of the Grecian capital, and the richness and voluptuousness of the imperial
court, will rise before the reader in a succession of beautiful and dazzling
images.”

“The History of Scotland, by Sir Walter Scott, we do not hesitate to declare,
will be, if possible, more extensively read, than the most popular work of fiction,
by the same prolific author, and for this obvious reason: it combines much of the
brilliant coloring of the Ivanhoe pictures of by-gone manners, and all the graceful
facility of style and picturesqueness of description of his other charming romances,
with a minute fidelity to the facts of history, and a searching scrutiny
into their authenticity and relative value, which might put to the blush Mr.
Hume and other professed historians. Such is the magic charm of Sir Walter
Scott's pen, it has only to touch the simplest incident of every-day life, and it starts
up invested with all the interest of a scene of romance; and yet such is his fidelity
to the text of nature, that the knights, and serfs, and collared fools with whom
his inventive genius has peopled so many volumes, are regarded by us as not
mere creations of fancy, but as real flesh and blood existences, with all the virtues,
feelings and errors of common-place humanity.”