The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott, with memoir of the author.

LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL. 15
theless, by his own exertions, in some shape or
other, attain the object on which it was founded,
namely, to secure the means of subsistence, without relying exclusively on literary talents. In
this respect, I determined thawtliterature should
be my staff, but not my crutch, and that the
profits of my literary labour, however convenient
otherwise, should not, if I could help it, become
necessary to my ordinary expenses. With this
purpose I resolved, if the interest of my friends
could so far favour me, to retire upon any of the
respectable offices of the law, in which persons of
that profession are glad to take refuge, when they
feel themselves, or are judged by others, incompetent to aspire to its higher honours. Upon
such a post an author might hope to retreat, without any perceptible -alteration of circumstances,
whenever the time should arrive that the public
grew weary of his endeavours to please, or he
himself should tire of the pen. At this period of
my life, I possessed so many friends capable of
assisting me in this object of ambition, that I
could hardly overrate my own prospects of obtaining the preferment to which I limited my
wishes; and, in fact, I obtained, in no long period,
the reversion of a situation which completely met
them.
Thus far all was well, and the Author had been
guilty, perhaps, of no great imprudence, when he
relinquished his forensic practice with the hope