Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

Hogg's thought of excelling burns. 319
consciousness that I should yet live to be compared
with Burns ; and though I might never equal him in
some things, I thought I might excel him in others."
The friend " reprobated the idea " ; but yet, when
Hogg's first poem was made known to the world, the
assumption did not pethaps seem so audacious, for
there are passages in ' The Queen's Wake ' which
are of a delicate and visionary beauty, such as Burns
never attempted. The poem of " Bonnie Kilmeny,"
for instance, in my own case one of the objects of a
child's adoration, has still to my ear an exquisite
sweetness and purity, a feeling which I think most
readers must share.
Mr Blackwood's first connection with the Shepherd
was, as we have seen, on the occasion of the failure
of the publisher, an Edinburgh man, unknown
except locally, who published ' The Queen's Wake.'
Blackwood had acted as trustee in the bankruptcy of
Goldie, and did his best to secure the amount of his
just remuneration to Hogg, who seems even at that
period to have already been an acquaintance at least,
and who was also known to Constable, to whom he took
his first volume. He himself reports a conversation
of his with Constable on the subject, which shows
something of the mingled familiarity and rudeness for
which the Shepherd was afterwards distinguished.
Constable very naturally asked to see the manuscript
which he was requested to publish. "What skill
have you about the merits of a book ? " asked Hogg.
" It may be so, Hogg," said he ; " but I know as well
how to sell a book as any man, which should be some
concern of yours ; and I know how to buy one, too !
Hogg, on the whole, made not a bad thing of ' The
"