Among other eighteenth century writers, Addison is distinguished by high praise in a few casual references,[226] but Scott once admitted that he did not like Addison so much as he felt to be proper.[227] A collection of Prior's poems Scott calls "an English classic of the first order."[228] He speaks of Parnell as "an admirable man and elegant poet,"[229] and mentions "the ponderous, persevering, and laborious dullness of Sir Richard Blackmore."[230] But these observations are of little importance except as they indicate that Scott had read the authors of the eighteenth century and acquiesced in the conventional judgments upon them. It is seldom in his brief and casual comments that Scott is particularly interesting as a critic, except when he is speaking of living writers, for he lacked the gift of conciseness. When he has a large canvas he is at his best, and this he has in the principal works described in this chapter:--_The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_, the _Works of Dryden_, the _Works of Swift_, and the _Lives of the Novelists_. CHAPTER IV SCOTT'S CRITICISM OF HIS CONTEMPORARIES Scott's freedom from literary jealousy--His disapproval of the typical reviewer's attitude--Jeffrey, Gifford, and Lockhart--His own practice in regard to reviewing--His informal critical remarks--Opportunity for favorable judgments afforded by the number of important writers in his period. Poets--Burns--Coleridge--Relation of _Christabel_ to Scott's work--Scott's dislike for extreme Romanticism--Wordsworth--Southey--Scott's review of _Kehama_--Byron--Scott's opinion of Byron's character--Campbell--Moore--Allan Cunningham--Hogg--Crabbe--Joanna Baillie--Matthew Lewis--Scott's judgment on his early taste for poetry--Absence of comment on the work of Lamb, Landor, Hunt, Hazlitt, and DeQuincey. Novelists--Jane Austen--Maria Edgeworth--Cooper--Personal relations between Scott and Cooper--Scott's verdict on Americans in general--Washington Irving--Goethe--Fouque--Scott's interest in men of action.