Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

310 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD.
John Wilson to W, Blackwood.
27 Oct. 183L
To prevent any misunderstanding about Mr Aird's poem,
I will mention what passed between him and me about it and
the Magazine.
I said to him that in my opinion a Magazine was little
the better or the worse for short copies of verses good or bad,
and that a new feature in a magazine and a good feature would
be the occasional introduction of a long poem, three or four
times a-year. I think it would. Some months ago I read
his poem and thought it possessed great power, as all his poems
do : also much beauty.
A few days ago Mr Aird reminded me of what I said about
long poems for the Magazine, and told me he had shown it
to you, with a view of its being inserted if you liked it. I
told him he had done right. With regard to prose contri-
butions I told Mr Aird that I generally agreed with your
judgment, so much so that I never thought of giving an opinion
about them, except when asked to do so in a doubtful case
but that in poetry it was different: for that I held that no
one could judge perfectly well of poetry but those who could
write it : this is my opinion. I told him, therefore, that in
cases of poetry, I considered myself to be a better judge than
you, and that I had no objection to advise poetry to be inserted
in the Magazine, even if it should not appear to you so good
as it appeared to me, which I would not do in the case of
prose.
I said this to him. I told him so in the belief that you
might object to his poem on account of its peculiarities or
other causes, more than I should do, although I did not doubt
that you would appreciate its merits.
This is the cast and substance of our conversation, and I
added that I would on the first opportunity speak to you about
the poem. With regard to that poem or any other which
Mr Aird will write, it will have strongly marked upon it
certain peculiarities, and the question will be simply this,
whether they are such as to exclude it or not from insertion
in the Magazine.
In my opinion the merits are far greater than the defects :
;