[376] A friend of Scott's once wrote to him, "You are the only author I ever yet knew to whom one might speak plain about the faults found with his works." (Familiar Letters, Vol. I, p. 282.) He took great pains, contrary to his usual custom, in revising and correcting the Malachi Malagrowther papers, but these were argumentative and in an altogether different class from his poems and novels; and besides he felt a special responsibility in writing upon a public matter "far more important than anything referring to [his] fame or fortune alone." (Lockhart, Vol. IV, p. 460.)
[377] Lockhart, Vol. III, p. 379.
[378] Introduction to the Pirate.
[379] Journal, Vol. II, p. 250.
[380] This was, of course, an effect of overwork and disease. Irving quotes Scott as saying: "It is all nonsense to tell a man that his mind is not affected, when his body is in this state." (Irving's Life, Vol. II, p. 459.)
[381] Journal, Vol. I, p. 181.
[382] See Lockhart, Vol. II, pp. 265-6.
[383] Journal, Vol. I, pp. 212-13; Lockhart, Vol. V, p. 13.
[384] See Familiar Letters, Vol. II, p. 309; Lockhart, Vol. I, p. 216; Vol. IV, pp. 128 and 498; Vol. V, pp. 128, 412, 448.
[385] Correspondence of C.K. Sharpe, Vol. I, p. 352.