Thomas Scott

“ God worked powerfully upon my soul by that excellent treatise.' The celebrated Thomas Scott, of Aston Sandford, with the confidence of his school, dates the beginning of his spiritual life from the hour when he 'carelessly,' as he says, 'took up Mr. Law's Serious Call, a book I had hitherto treated with contempt.' When we remember how Newman in his Apologia speaks of Thomas Scott as the writer 'to whom, humanly speaking, I almost owe my soul,' we be [Pg 57] come lost amidst a mazy dance of strange, spectral influences which flit about the centuries and make us what we are. ”

“ SCOTT, WILLIAM (1813–1872) , divine, born in London on 2 May 1813, was the second son of Thomas Scott, merchant, of Clement's Lane and Newington, Surrey. In October 1827 he was entered at Merchant Taylors' School, and on 14 June 1831 he matriculated at Queen's College, Oxford, as Michel exhibitioner. ”

“ I must not leave this banner unguarded in darkness; by daylight the look of the Lions will alone defend it. Here, Thomas of Gilsland, I give thee the charge of the standard—watch over the honour of England.”
“Her safety is yet more dear to me,” said De Vaux, “and the life of Richard is the safety of England. I must have your Highness back to your tent, and that without further tarriance.”
“Thou art a rough and peremptory nurse, De Vaux,” said the king, smiling; and then added, addressing Sir Kenneth, “Valiant Scot, I owe thee a boon, and I will pay it richly. ”

“ I allude to a report which ascribed a great part, or the whole, of these Novels to the late Thomas Scott, Esq., of the 70th Regiment, then stationed in Canada. Those who remember that gentleman will readily grant that, with general talents at least equal to those of his elder brother, he added a power of social humour and a deep insight into human character which rendered him an universally delightful member of society, and that the habit of composition alone was wanting to render him equally successful as a writer. ”

“ He was twice married,—first to his near relation, a daughter of Raeburn; and secondly to Miss Rutherford of Know-South, the estate of which respectable family is now possessed by his son Charles Scott, an amiable and high-spirited (p. 063) gentleman, who was always a special favorite with his eminent kinsman. The death of Thomas Scott is thus recorded in one of the MS. notes on his nephew's own copy of the Haliburton Memorials:—"The said Thomas Scott died at Monklaw, near Jedburgh, at two of the clock, 27th January, 1823, in the 90th year of his life, and fully possessed of all his faculties. ”

“ Among his friends was Mary Ann Evans (“George Eliot”) , who accompanied Mr. and Mrs. Bray to Italy. His works on The Philosophy of Necessity (1841) and Cerebral Psychology (1875) give the key to all his thought. He wrote a number of Thomas Scott’s series of tracts: Illusion and Delusion, The Reign of Law in Mind as in Matter, Toleration with remarks on Professor Tyndall’s “Address,” and a little book, Christianity in the Light of our Present Knowledge and Moral Sense (1876) . He also wrote A Manual of Anthropology and similar works. ”

“ There was a belief, more or less vague, among the Tories and the wealthier class generally, that the working men were hostile to the Constitution. Altogether the feelings of loyal men, young and old, were strongly excited. In spring of 1794 Scott wrote to friends in Roxburghshire exulting in the 'good spirit' shown by the upper classes in Edinburgh. He was much excited over the enrolment of a regiment of volunteers, in which his brother Thomas was a grenadier, and from which he himself was excluded by his lameness. ”

“ There was a Bluegown, or Bedesman, like Edie Ochiltree, who had a son at Edinburgh College. Scott was kind to the son, the Bluegown asked him to dinner, and at this meal the old man made the remark about the pulpit and the pow.’ A similar tale is told by Scott in the Introduction to “The Antiquary” (1830) . As for the good Dominie, Scott remarks that, for “certain particular reasons,” he must say what he has to say about his prototype “very generally.” Mr. Chambers’ finds the prototype in a Mr. James Sanson, tutor in the house of Mr. Thomas Scott, Sir Walter’s uncle. ”

“ In Scott the various lines of 18th-century conservatism and 19th-century romantic revival most wonderfully converge. His intense feeling for Long Ago made him a romantic almost from his cradle. The master faculties of history and humour made a strong conservative of him; but his Toryism was of a very different spring from that of Coleridge or Wordsworth. ”

“ The portrait was of course begun immediately, and the head was finished before (p. 148) Scott left town. Sir Thomas has caught and fixed with admirable skill one of the loftiest expressions of Scott's countenance at the proudest period of his life: to the perfect truth of the representation, every one who ever surprised him in the act of composition at his desk, will bear witness. The expression, however, was one with which many who had seen the man often were not familiar; and it was extremely unfortunate that Sir Thomas filled in the figure from a separate sketch after he had quitted London. ”

“ Scott, Michael, a sage with the reputation of a wizard, who lived about the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th centuries, of whose art as a magician many legends are related.
Scott, Thomas, commentator, born in Lincolnshire; became rector of Aston Sandford, Bucks; was a Calvinist in theology, author of the "Force of Truth" and "Essays on Religion," the work by which he is best known being his "Commentary on the Bible," a scholarly exposition (1747-1821) .
Scott, Sir Walter, the great romancer, born in Edinburgh, through both father and mother of Scottish Border blood ”

“ Walter Scott, as an evangelist, pastor, author and editor, had come into contact with tens of thousands, and had influenced countless lives. His followers were called by the unsympathetic, "Scottites," just as those of Alexander Campbell were nicknamed "Campbellites." Thomas and Alexander Campbell and Walter Scott, the triumvirate of the dawning "Reformation," did not come, however, to found denominations, but, so far as they could, to do away with them.
They believed that it was possible for the church of New Testament days to exist in the [42] modern world, just as it had existed then. ”

“ Yet his genial human insight made him a reformer against his will. He who makes man better known to man takes the first steps toward healing the wounds which man inflicts on man. The permanent value of Scott's novels lies in his pictures of the Scotch peasantry. He popularised the work which the Lake poets had begun, of re-opening the primary springs of human passion. ”

“ Ye’se bear the tongue that can never lie.
‘Gin ere ye want to see me again,
Gang to the bonny banks o Farnalie.’ ‘Thomas the Rhymer,’ “Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,” No 97, Abbotsford; communicated to Sir Walter Scott by Mrs Christiana Greenwood, London, May 27, 1806 (Letters, I, 189) , from the recitation of her mother and of her aunt, both then above sixty, who learned it in their childhood from Kirstan Scot, a very old woman, at Longnewton, near Jedburgh. ”

“ Scott of Raeburn, a Quaker, his children ordered to be separated from him, ii. 311. Scott, Sir Walter, of Branxholm, Laird of Buccleuch, celebrated exploit of, i. 269-271. Scott, Thomas, hanged for murder of Robert Donaldson, ii. 329. Scott, Walter, of Harden, married to the Flower of Yarrow, i. 46. Sea-monsters, various appearances of; superstitions regarding, i. 64-66. Seaton, Thomas, his religions dissimulation, ii. 301. Semple, Lord, and his son, ii. 336. ——, Robert, his writings, i. 49. Service-book or Liturgy introduced into Scottish church ”

“ Station, power, wealth, beauty, and genius, strove with each other in every demonstration of respect and worship, and—a few political fanatics and envious poetasters apart—wherever he appeared in town or country, whoever had Scotch blood in him, "gentle or simple," felt it move more rapidly through his veins when he was in the presence of Scott.' But in the midst of this blaze of glory, and while he was dreaming dreams of fortune and family pride, what was it that struck the most keen-eyed of critics when he first saw his hero? ”

“ Scott's sympathetic reproduction of the national characteristics was of course combined with the power, which distinguished his novels from all previous works, of giving life to history and to the picturesque and vanishing forms of society. His ‘feudalism’ and toryism were other aspects of his intense interest in the old order broken down by the revolution. He was also pouring out the stores of anecdote and legend and the vivid impressions of the scenery which he had been imbibing from his early childhood while rambling through the country in close and friendly intercourse with all classes. ”

“ The years at Lasswade were marked by one of the most momentous decisions of Scott's life. He had reached the parting of the ways; one leading to the practice of the law; the other—and the more alluring one—to literature as a profession. Had his father been alive, it is probable that a high sense of duty and loyalty would have determined him to continue in the law, for the old gentleman had set his heart upon that, and Scott would have submitted to almost any irksome requirement rather than wound the feelings of his parent. ”

“ The lady entered into his agitation with tact, and on her departure, he told his mother that he liked their visitor, because "she was a virtuoso, like himself." To her amused inquiry as to what a virtuoso might be, he replied: "Don't ye know? why, 'tis one who wishes to and will know everything."
As a boy at school in Edinburgh and in Kelso, and afterwards as a student at the University and apprentice in his father's law office, Scott took his own way to become a "virtuoso" ”

“ Historical sentiment, the glamour of romance and the tradition of great names, made him prefer the Tory side. That was all. But he retained his independence complete and unsullied. Whenever at any time he took an active part in militant politics, it was not to curry favour and gain the spoils, but because his whole heart and soul were with the cause.
Scott certainly started life with the idea of making his career in the law. Work gradually came to him. ”

“ Fed upon such food daily, what will the mind of a nation be? I say that there is no flame at which we can light the Lamp of Fiction purer or brighter than the genius of him in honour to whose memory we are assembled here to-day. Scott does not moralize. Heaven be praised that he does not. He does not set a moral object before him, nor lay down moral rules. But his heart, brave, pure and true, is a law to itself; and by studying what he does we may find the law for all who follow his calling. If seven lamps have been lighted for architecture, Scott will light as many for fiction. ”

“ I have skill enough to know that the law is mightier than any lord in Britain—I have learned so much at the Temple, if I have learned nothing else. And see that you trifle not with it, lest it make your long ears an inch shorter, Master Skurliewhitter.”
“Nay, gentlemen, if you threaten me,” said the scrivener, “I cannot resist compulsion.”
“No threats—no threats at all, my little Andrew,” said Lowestoffe; “a little friendly advice only—forget not, honest Andrew, I have seen you in Alsatia.” ”

“ John Scott’s year of grace closed without any college living falling vacant; and with his fellowship he gave up the church and turned to the study of law. He became a student at the Middle Temple in January 1773. In 1776 he was called to the bar, intending at first to establish himself as an advocate in his native town, a scheme which his early success led him to abandon, and he soon settled to the practice of his profession in London, and on the northern circuit. ”

“ From this time till the close of 1825—a space of eight years—prosperity reigned unchecked over the life of Scott. His novels of The Heart of Mid-Lothian, The Bride of Lammermoor, The Legend of Montrose, Ivanhoe, The Monastery, The Abbot, The Pirate, Kenilworth, The Fortunes of Nigel, Peveril of the Peak, Quentin Durward, St Ronan’s Well, Redgauntlet, and the Tales of the Crusaders, streamed from his pen with a rapidity as wonderful as their general merits were great. The public read with delight, and Scott was happy to pipe to a dance which led to such solid results for his own benefit. ”

“ A most flourishing House of Peers, I confess, and would find Westminster Hall something too narrow for them.”
“Hush, De Vaux,” said Richard, “I command thee.—Noble Saladin,” he said, “suspicion and thou cannot exist on the same ground. Seest thou,” pointing to the litters, “I too have brought some champions with me, though armed, perhaps, in breach of agreement; for bright eyes and fair features are weapons which cannot be left behind.”
The Soldan, turning to the litters, made an obeisance as lowly as if looking towards Mecca, and kissed the sand in token of respect. ”

“ The artist or the philosopher should perhaps be superior to the ambition of owning land and having "a stake in the country," but the ambition is a very human one and has its good side. In Scott the desire was more social than personal. It was not that title and territory were feathers in his cap, but that they bound him more closely to the dear soil of Scotland and to the national, historic past.
The only deep passion in Scott's poetry is patriotism, the passion of place. ”

“ XX. Impatient of the silent horn, Now on the gale her voice was borne:— 'Father!' she cried; the rocks around Loved to prolong the gentle sound. Awhile she paused, no answer came;— 'Malcolm, was thine the blast?' the name Less resolutely uttered fell, The echoes could not catch the swell. 'A stranger I,' the Huntsman said, Advancing from the hazel shade. The maid, alarmed, with hasty oar Pushed her light shallop from the shore, And when a space was gained between, Closer she drew her bosom's screen;— So forth the startled swan would swing, So turn to prune his ruffled wing. ”