Scottish writer Samuel Smiles’ birth has been covered. He died on April 16th, 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."…’
