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

MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. xi
be prepared for the bar by an education as an
attorney. Accordingly, in May, 1786, Scott, then
nearly fifteen years old, was articled for five years
as an apprentice to his father, in whose chambers
he continued to discharge the humble duties of a
clerk, until, about the year 1790, he had, with his
father's approbation, finally resolved on coming to
the bar. Of the amount of the young poet's
professional industry during those years of servitude, we possess conflicting representations; but
many circumstances in his habits, many peculiarities in the knowledge he exhibits incidently in his
works, and perhaps even much of his resolute
literary industry, may be safely referred to the
period of his apprenticeship, and be admitted as
evidence that at all events he was not systematically negligent of his duties. Historical and
imaginative reading, however, continued to be
prosecuted with undiminished ardour; Tiiimer
excursions into the Highlands introduced him to
the scenes and to more than one of the characters,
which afterwards figured in his most successful
works; while in the law-classes of the university,
as well as in the juvenile debating societies he
formed, or renewed from his school-days, acquaintance with several who became in manhood his
cherished friends and his literary advisers. In
1791, the Speculative Society made him acquainted
with Mr. Jeffrey and those other young men whose
subsequent celebrity has reflected lustre on the
arena of their early training.