Note {136a} — Chapter VIII

A greater genius than my aunt shared with her the imputation of being commonplace. Lockhart, speaking of the low estimation in which Scott’s conversational powers were held in the literary and scientific society of Edinburgh, says: ‘I think the epithet most in vogue concerning it was “commonplace.”’ He adds, however, that one of the most eminent of that society was of a different opinion, who, when some glib youth chanced to echo in his hearing the consolatory tenet of local mediocrity, answered quietly, “I have the misfortune to think differently from you—in my humble opinion Walter Scott’s sense is a still more wonderful thing than his genius.”—Lockhart’s Life of Scott, vol. iv. chap. v.