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over the tedious and wild romances of our early literature, 

 the genuine Works of Fiction may be said to be confined to 

 the last century and a half. The novel that is strictly and 

 properly called modern, is only half a century old, and of this 

 Sir Walter Scott was avowedly the father. The Waverley 

 Series followed the Works of Miss Edgeworth in point of time, 

 in which there is an attempt to represent a greater number 

 of facts in fiction, and at the same time to interweave a few 

 moral lessons. It is stated by Scott himself, that his 

 original object was to do for his own countrymen what she 

 had done so ably for the Irish ; and it is well known how far 

 he surpassed his model. He made an acquaintance with 

 the leading Works of Fiction, almost as much sought after 

 as ordinary education. His writings, like a torrent, swept 

 away the stagnation and rubbish of many years, that the 

 stream might flow in future more pure and refreshing. They 

 reduced hundreds of volumes to the marketable value of 

 waste paper ; they showed that lessons on history, manners, 

 costume, language, and morality could be taught in fiction; 

 and they removed, as a whole, the objection to novel reading, 

 which was not confined to the religious classes in society. 



Two characteristics of the Waverley Novels it is 

 important to notice. The first was the relation which their 

 subjects bore to each other, and which the works themselves 

 bore to the author ; and the second, their happy introduc- 

 tion of dialectic peculiarities, as part of the dramatic effect. 

 Neither of these facts was exhibited for the first time, but the 

 latter appeared in a more striking manner than formerly, and in 

 consequence called forth many imitations. The imitation of 

 the former was the actual production of several works in the 

 magazines, where, instead of successive stories, we have suc- 

 cessive chapters of the same story, during a period of from 

 one to two years. The imitation of the latter was the pro- 

 duction of a large number of works, in which the dialectic 

 peculiarities formed the most striking characteristic, so that 



