Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

"quite in the right spirit." 39
The next letter of the series is written in the first
person, and shows that the veil had been removed,
and that Blackwood was now aware who his corre-
spondent was. His admiration goes on increasing,
and his desire—for which he is "quite impatient"
to " have it in my power to let others enjoy what I
have enjoyed so much myself." "You are quite in
the right spirit at present," he says ; "I entreat you
to go on, and to have no advisers but your own heart
and feelings." There is in some of these remarks a
curious resemblance to the style in which his son, fifty
years after, executed the ofiice of the genial critic and
encouraging friend. "You are quite in the right
spirit," dans une honne vote, as the French painters
say. Those of us, and the number is fast decreasing,
to whom John Blackwood wrote on similar subjects
in the fifties and sixties, will recognise with a smile
and a sigh the accents of the son in those of the
father.
'Marriage' was published in the beginning of the
next year.
I am almost sorry [Blackwood writes], when I ought to be
glad, now that I send you the end. I have had more enjoyment
and pleasure in the progress of your work for the last
twelve months than I have ever had in any that have passed
through my hands. I am now as impatient to have it fairly
afloat as I was to have it concluded, being confident that there
will only be one opinion of its merits.
The copyright of the book, or rather I think of the
first edition, would seem to have been bought for £150
—which was a very reasonable price for the new work
of an unknown writer, of which the publisher had good
hopes.
—