Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

456 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD.
idea in what the merit of the articles consist. I only know that
I take no more pains with those that give most satisfaction
than with their brethren who give none; and you will very
much oblige me whenever you say that a piece does not please,
for really that is a point which I never will again undertake to
controvert.
Notwithstanding this confession as to his own
powers in criticism, he could be critical on occasion,
and does not hesitate to say (sheer blasphemy in
Princes Street), "Upon the whole I do not like the
number."
It is abundantly clever, but it wants substance. Eely upon
it that your sale is not to be extended unless you get articles of
sober knowledge. You have already all the range you can hope
for among the fun and frolic gentry. You must aim to content
another class, whom hitherto you have done little to conciliate.
Mere criticism and learning will not do. You must bring
something home to men's business and bosoms, or you will
stand still if you do not fall back.
It was not, however, from Mr Blackwood alone that
this mild member of a profession not generally held to
be wanting in self-esteem received the trenchant criti-
cism which he accepted so meekly. While he was
engaged in the composition of another of his works,
the ' Last of the Lairds,' he gives an account of his
own docility and openness to advice, v^^hich is cer-
tainly very rare, if not unique, in the confessions of
literary men :
—
27Mi! March '26.
I have been in a state of the greatest excitement and irritation
by the pressure of various public and private affairs. On
Thursday last, before sending you, as I had intended, a portion
of the * Laird,' I read a part of it to a literary friend, and the
effect on him made me throw the whole into the fire. This is