Sir Walter’s Warning.
Sir Walter Scott wrote the following interesting and appropriate letter to a poetically-minded school boy ‘ I must warn you against suffering yourself to suppose that the power of enjoying natural beauty and poetical description are necessarily connected with that of producing poetry. The former is really a gift of heaven, which conduces inestimably to the happiness of those who enjoy it. The second has much more of a knack in it than the pride of poets is always willing to admit; and, at any rate, is only valuable when combined with the first.
‘ I would also caution you against an enthusiasm which, while it argues an excellent disposition and feeling heart, requires to be watched and restrained, though not repressed. ‘lt is apt, if too much indulged, to engender a fastidious contempt for the ordinary business of the world, and gradually to render us unfit for the exercise of the useful and domestic virtues which depend greatly upon our not exalting our feelings above the temper of well-educated society. * No good man can ever be happy when he is unfit for the career of simple and commonplace duty.’
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Kaikoura Star, Volume XIV, Issue 677, 26 January 1894, Page 2
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191Sir Walter’s Warning. Kaikoura Star, Volume XIV, Issue 677, 26 January 1894, Page 2
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