Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

I
A CRITIC CRITICISED. 271
wrong with it. What he says of the minister's widow is most
execrable,—
" never indulges it beyond civility and attention to
her friends " ! ! ! ! Oh
Moses !
The
Covenanter's marriage -day
nearly happened ; that is, a young man betrothed to a young
woman was dragged out of his concealment in her father's house
and shot by soldiers. It is not German, but intensely Scottish.
The circumstances of the' soldiers are misstated by Mackenzie.
In sixth paragraph he says the scenery, though professedly
Scots, is not always true to this profession of its locality. I
say it is. Where is it not ? It seems " some passages " are
an exception to this condemnation. That is lucky. In paragraph
seventh he indulges in a lie, and it is a lie that
ought to be pointed out to the old critic. He says, "We
are sorry that the concluding stroke of the author's pencil should
have spoiled this solemn picture." That is the picture of a
wild, furious, snow - stormy night. And then he quotes a
passage about diamonds and dew - drops. Now, would you
believe it, the said passage of the milliner is not there at all.
It occurs at the top of page 116, and is the finishing stroke
to a description of youth, beauty, and happiness. Indeed had
it been otherwise I must have lost my senses. I request you
to read the passages 115 and 116 in the snow-storm, and you
will see that the old captious body has been playing a trick
to make a criticism. The passage as I have written it is
beyond the literary power of any milliner's girl, and the old
dotard should be told that he has grossly and falsely misquoted
it, for a despicable purpose. He then says that this passage
of the milliner is copied and spoiled from Thomson; for he
cannot swear that the snow-storm in general is. Now, I lay
my ears nothing like it can be in Thomson. Nor is there,
except the snow, and even that is very different, one single
point of resemblance, but all points of utter dissimilitude,
between my child saved from death and his farmer family
wrapt up in a greatcoat. This is foolish and false and dis-
gusting. Lastly, my abhorrence of " lace and embroideries " is
as great and far greater than ever his was. In short, the
whole article is loathsome, and gives me and Mrs W. the
utmost disgust. It is sickening to see it in the Magazine,
and utterly destroys the pleasure which Mr L.'s article would