Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

198 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD,
now and then, among the many who took part in the
production of these amusing monologues or dialogues.
Such light summer divertisements ended in the in-
stitution of the Evenings at Ambrose's, where, inde-
pendent of wind or weather, the beauties of nature or
the attractions of sport, a certain merry circle were
supposed to assemble, and carry on the same discus-
sions, with a continuity which made of the ' Noctes
one of the most admirable mediums for the " criticism
of life " that was ever known—as well as, perhaps, the
most popular and living series of periodical literary
sketches ever given to the world.
There are few ideas in literature more attractive
than that of the ' Noctes '—especially in that periodi-
cal literature which is never so powerful as when it
can manage to prolong the interest of the reader from
publication to publication, giving him as it were him-
self a part to play in the discussions which are there
carried on. This continual commentary, putting public
events and books, and all the undertakings of the
period, to the test of reason or of imagination, discuss-
ing the people and the things of common life for us
and with us, in the freedom of literary irresponsibility
yet authority: or with the light and rapid survey of
a still easier tribunal, at which the ludicrous side of
life is the favourite aspect—has a never-failing charm.
It is delightful for the writer and the reader alike,
and when well done is the most effectual criticism
that can be of the varied drama of existence which
goes on around us, and is our chief interest. The
writers of ' Blackwood's Magazine ' added a new at-
traction to this lively review of life by producing
themselves in their own differing individualities in
'