( 25 ) 

 GENIUS OF GALT. * 



IF we were asked who, since the death of Sir Walter Scott, stands 

 at the head of our light literature, we should have some difficulty in 

 answering the question. The claims of several of our writers of fic- 

 tion to the distinction are so nicely balanced, that he must have 

 greater powers of discernment than we can pretend to who would 

 undertake to adjudicate between them. Were the question, indeed, 

 to be decided by the mere quantity of such writing, or by quantity 

 and quality combined, there would not be room for two opinions: the 

 palm would, by universal acclaim, be in that case at once awarded to 

 Mr. Gait. It is certain that no living author has written so volumi- 

 nously on the subject of light literature as he : it is no less certain 

 that no other author can boast of an equal quantity of good not 

 meaning by the term the best writing. But if the question is to be 

 decided by mere quality alone, it becomes much more difficult of 

 solution. Were a jury of twelve intelligent men to sit in judgment 

 on it, the probability is that no two of them would be agreed on the 

 verdict which should be returned ; at all events, there would be 

 nothing approaching to unanimity among them. 



But if Mr. Gait be not, any more than any of his rivals in the field 

 of fame, placed, by universal consent, at the head of our light litera- 

 ture, there is a very considerable portion of the public who assign 

 him that enviable distinction ; and no one, so far as we are aware, 

 will hesitate to recognize his right to be placed at least in the first 

 class of our present novelists. 



Any man who has written so copiously as the author of " The 

 Annals of the Parish," must of necessity have written unequally. 

 The human mind cannot sustain such unremitting efforts, as he has 

 made for so lengthened a period, without suffering exhaustion. The 

 matter for wonder is, that a man who has written so much should 

 have made so few failures j and even such of his works as are 

 admittedly failures, are only so in a relative sense, that is to say, as 

 compared with his own happier efforts. What would be considered 

 a failure in him would regarded as a work of merit in an author less 

 known to fame. 



Of the merits or defects of Mr. Gait's different novels, it were 

 superfluous in us to speak. The public mind has long since come 

 to a decision on the subject. What that decision is, has been already 

 indicated. 



One of the most striking attributes of his genius is its versatility. 

 Mr. Gait does not only shine in one or two of the walks of fiction ; he 

 shines in all. He has studied human nature in its endless ramifica- 

 tions and varied manifestations; and, by the force and fidelity of his 

 descriptions, has exhibited it to his readers in precisely the same 

 light as that in which it has appeared to himself. Of him it may be 



* Stories of the Study. By John Gait, Esq , 3 vols. 8vo. London: Coch- 

 rane and M'Crone. 



M.M. No. 97- E 



