The sketch-book of Geoffrey Crayon, gent[pseud.] together with Abbotsford and other selections from the writings of Washington Irving .. . of the hour and the company. No ones concerns,no ones thoughts, no ones opinions, no ones tastes andpleasures seemed beneath him. He made himself so thor-oughly the companion of those with whom he happened to be,that they forgot for a time his vast superiority, and onlyrecollected and wondered, when all was over, that it was Scottwith whom they had been on such familiar terms, and inwhose society they had felt so perfectly at their ease. 176. It was delight
The sketch-book of Geoffrey Crayon, gent[pseud.] together with Abbotsford and other selections from the writings of Washington Irving .. . of the hour and the company. No ones concerns,no ones thoughts, no ones opinions, no ones tastes andpleasures seemed beneath him. He made himself so thor-oughly the companion of those with whom he happened to be,that they forgot for a time his vast superiority, and onlyrecollected and wondered, when all was over, that it was Scottwith whom they had been on such familiar terms, and inwhose society they had felt so perfectly at their ease. 176. It was delightful to observe the generous spirit inwhich he spoke of all his literary contemporaries, quotingthe beauties of their works, and this, too, with respect to per-sons with whom he might have been supposed to be at vari- ABBOTSFORD 255 ance in literature or politics. Jeffrey, it was thought, hadruffled his plumes in one of his reviews, yet Scott spoke of himin terms of high and warm eulogy, both as an author and asa man. 177. His humor in conversation, as in his works, was genialand free from all causticity. He had a quick perception of. The Abbotsford Family in 1817After the painting by Sir David Wilkie faults and foibles, but he looked upon poor human nature withan indulgent eye, relishing what was good and pleasant, tol-erating what was frail, and pitying what was evil. It is thisbeneficent spirit which gives such an air of bonhommie toScotts humor throughout all his works. He played with thefoibles and errors of his fellow-beings, and presented them ina thousand whimsical and characteristic lights, but the kind-ness and generosity of his nature would not allow him to be asatirist. I do not recollect a sneer throughout his conver-sation any more than there is throughout his works. 256 THE SKETCH-BOOK 178. Such is a rough sketch of Scott, as I saw him in privatelife, not merely at the time of the visit here narrated, but inthe casual intercourse of subsequent years. Of his public
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