Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

THE PULSE OF THE PUBLIC. 403
to my taste, that I do not perceive the wretchedness till it is
too late.
I feel much indebted to you for what you say about the
articles we ought to avoid or leave for ' Maga.' It is in this
way that you can be of the most invaluable service to me.
You are on the spot, and know how the pulse of the public
beats. All depends upon catching the thing at the right
moment. Here I am out of the world almost ; and at times I
am sick to death, not knowing which hand to turn to, from dis-
appointments or botherations as to whether I should print or
reject articles good enough in themselves, but not the kind of
thing they ought to be.
I may add here, though a little out of date, the
special charm which Blackwood and his contributors
found in Maginn's style, which is whimsical enough,
considering that both Wilson and Lockhart were no
inconsiderable masters of language :
There is one peculiar excellence in this writer which strikes
us Scotsmen, his easy idiomatic English. No Scotsman, how-
ever joradised as a writer, is master of the English tongue so
as to he able to write in this way. Sir Walter in his novels
writes the Scotch with the, most delightful naivete. But I am
attempting the small critic myself, which is very foreign to my
mMier.
" Yours," he says to another anonymous contributor,
" was the only striking article in the last number, and
gave great satisfaction to our Scotch readers, being in
fact written with that elegance and simplicity which
Scotsmen can admire without being able to imitate."
No amount of good counsel, however, had any
effect on Maginn. He went on, after many years'
experience, in the same reckless way, and even led
Lockhart astray, as has been seen, into a return to
the wild fun of the ' Noctes,' after both should have
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