Smiles Passes

Scottish writer Samuel Smiles’ birth has been covered.  He died on April 16^th, 1904. Among other publications, Smiles was famous for his work “Self Help”.  Smiles had something to say about Walter Scott in that work.

‘Literary life affords abundant illustrations of the same power of

perseverance; and perhaps no career is more instructive, viewed in

this light, than that of Sir Walter Scott.  His admirable working

qualities were trained in a lawyer's office, where he pursued for

many years a sort of drudgery scarcely above that of a copying

clerk.  His daily dull routine made his evenings, which were his

own, all the more sweet; and he generally devoted them to reading

and study.  He himself attributed to his prosaic office discipline

that habit of steady, sober diligence, in which mere literary men

are so often found wanting.  As a copying clerk he was allowed 3d.

for every page containing a certain number of words; and he

sometimes, by extra work, was able to copy as many as 120 pages in

twenty-four hours, thus earning some 30s.; out of which he would

occasionally purchase an odd volume, otherwise beyond his means.

During his after-life Scott was wont to pride himself upon being a

man of business, and he averred, in contradiction to what he called

the cant of sonneteers, that there was no necessary connection

between genius and an aversion or contempt for the common duties of

life.  On the contrary, he was of opinion that to spend some fair

portion of every day in any matter-of-fact occupation was good for

the higher faculties themselves in the upshot.  While afterwards

acting as clerk to the Court of Session in Edinburgh, he performed

his literary work chiefly before breakfast, attending the court

during the day, where he authenticated registered deeds and

writings of various kinds.  On the whole, says Lockhart, "it forms

one of the most remarkable features in his history, that throughout

the most active period of his literary career, he must have devoted

a large proportion of his hours, during half at least of every

year, to the conscientious discharge of professional duties."  It

was a principle of action which he laid down for himself, that he

must earn his living by business, and not by literature.  On one

occasion he said, "I determined that literature should be my staff,

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."

His punctuality was one of the most carefully cultivated of his

habits, otherwise it had not been possible for him to get through

so enormous an amount of literary labour.  He made it a rule to

answer every letter received by him on the same day, except where

inquiry and deliberation were requisite.  Nothing else could have

enabled him to keep abreast with the flood of communications that

poured in upon him and sometimes put his good nature to the

severest test.  It was his practice to rise by five o'clock, and

light his own fire.  He shaved and dressed with deliberation, and

was seated at his desk by six o'clock, with his papers arranged

before him in the most accurate order, his works of reference

marshalled round him on the floor, while at least one favourite dog

lay watching his eye, outside the line of books.  Thus by the time

the family assembled for breakfast, between nine and ten, he had

done enough--to use his own words--to break the neck of the day's

work.  But with all his diligent and indefatigable industry, and

his immense knowledge, the result of many years' patient labour,

Scott always spoke with the greatest diffidence of his own powers.

On one occasion he said, "Throughout every part of my career I have

felt pinched and hampered by my own ignorance."…’