Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

MINGLED SENTIMENTS. 51
same time showing him the confidence you had in
me and the friendship you showed me. All this
acts for our mutual interest."
There are few writers in the literary world now, or
at any time, whose works excite the general mind,
and above all the mind of a publisher, as Byron and
Scott did in their time ; . neither, so far as we are
aware, in these days when literature is w^eighed by
the thousand words like a packet of tea, would any
publishers, scarcely perhaps the heads of the traditionary
houses, rouse each other's enthusiasm, and
fish for one man of genius with the celestial bait
of a primeuT of the productions of another. Murray
and Blackwood were both careful business men, calcu-
lating the effects of such a coup, and with many solid
and serious meanings under the social triumph and
literary enthusiasm of such a party as that in the
Salisbury Road. But shrewd and astute as they
were, they had also a true literary enthusiasm, and
were perfectly sincere in the conviction that this same
genius, though so excellent a slave and so apt to draw
their chariots to the heights of fortune, was at the
same time the finest thing in the world, made to be
adored and applauded for its own sake. There was
true delight and admiration, as well as high policy,
in the pocket-book with its two crisp new notes
which John Murray tendered to the jesting dis-
dainful lordship whom still, notwithstanding several
refusals, he did not despair of persuading to accept
it in the end ; and honest enthusiasm in William
Blackwood for the great northern minstrel and magi-
cian, already the pride of Scotland, whom he made such
eager efforts to attract and convince that he himself,