Letter I”[137], earnestly setting forth the causes of discontent in

Germany, acknowledging into the bargain, that “the triumph of human intellect over the sway of despotism was never made more manifest than it has been within the last fifty years among the Germans”[138], and concluding with a paragraph from our modern point of view more than interesting: “If the Germans have a Revolution, it will, I hope and trust, be calm and rational, when compared with that of the French. Its precursors have not been, as in France, ridicule, raillery, derision, impiety; but sober reflection, Christian confidence, and manly resolutions, gathered and confirmed by the experience of many sorrowful years. The sentiment is so universally diffused--so seriously established--so irresistible in its unity,--that I confess I should be greatly delighted, but not very much astonished, to hear of the mighty work being accomplished almost without resistance, and entirely without outrage.”[139] This number likewise includes an article discussing the “Effect of Farm Overseers on the Morals of Farm Servants”[140], another called “Dialogues on Natural Religion”[141], and a “Hospital Scene in Portugal. (Extracted from the Journal of a British Officer, in a series of Letters to a Friend)”[142], a graphic description which spares no horrible detail or opportunity for the pathetic.

[136] Ibid., V. iii, p. 9

[137] Ibid., V. iii, p. 24

[138] Ibid., V. iii, p. 25

[139] Ibid., V. iii, p. 29

[140] Ibid., V. iii, p. 83

[141] Ibid., V. iii, p. 90

[142] Ibid., V. iii, p. 87

The first article in the number for May 1818 is a brief but strictly specific “Description of the Patent Kaleidoscope, Invented by Dr. Brewster”[143]. This issue too presented the first of a series entitled “The Craniologists Review”[144], No. I being a description of Napoleon’s head, supposedly by “a learned German”, a Doctor Ulric Sternstare, who may or may not have been a _bona fide_ personage. One is apt to suspect, however, that these articles are by our young friend Lockhart. “Maga” owed many a _nomme de plume_ to Lockhart’s German travels; the subject matter, craniology, is one of his own hobbies, as later revealed in _Peter’s Letters_; and the last sentence is more reminiscent of the young scamp than any “learned German”! The article concludes: “I think him a more amiable character than that vile toad Frederick of Prussia, who had no moral faculties on the top of his head; and he will stand a comparison with every conqueror, except Julius Caesar, who perhaps deserved better to be loved than any other person guilty of an equal proportion of mischief.”[145]

[143] Ibid., V. iii, p. 121

[144] Ibid., V. iii, p. 146

[145] Ibid., V. iii, p. 148

There is a gem of an article in _Blackwood’s_ for July 1818, the fourth of a series of “Letters of Timothy Tickler to Eminent Literary Characters. Letter IV--To the Editor of _Blackwood’s Magazine_”.[146] Timothy Tickler was an uncle of John Wilson’s, a Mr. Robert Sym; but it is doubtful whether Robert Sym was the author of many, if any, of the compositions laid at the door of the venerable Timothy. This Letter IV is professedly in answer to one from the editor of _Blackwood’s_. Obviously it is only another device, and a clever one, to discuss the merits of “Maga”, and make a stab at the Whigs and the _Edinburgh Review_. Old Timothy says, “You wish to have my free and candid opinion of your work in general, and I will now try to answer your queries in a satisfactory way. Your Magazine is far indeed from being a ‘faultless monster, which the world ne’er saw’; for it is full of faults, and most part of the world has seen it.... Just go on, gradually improving Number after Number, and you will make a fortune.”[147] Seeming criticism, then a sudden tooting of the Blackwood horn, seeming praise of Constable, then a flash and a dig, characterize the article throughout. He continues: “You go on to ask me what I think of Constable’s Magazine? Oh! my dear Editor, you are fishing for a compliment from old Timothy again!--I have seen nothing at all comparable to it during the last three score and ten years. Thank you, _en passant_, for the Numbers of it you have sent me. Almost anything does for our minister to read.”[148] He concludes thus: “I shall have an opportunity of writing you again soon ... when I hope to amuse you with certain old-fashioned whimsies of mine about the Whigs of Scotland, whom I see you like no more than myself.”[149]

[146] Ibid., V. iii, p. 461

[147] Same

[148] Ibid., V. iii, p. 461-2

This is followed by a very brief sketch of the “Important Discovery of Extensive Veins and Rocks of Chromate of Iron in the Shetland Islands”[149]; and this in turn by a “Notice of the Operations Undertaken to Determine the Figure of the Earth, by M. Biot, of the Academy of Sciences, Paris, 1818”,[150] eleven pages in length, and though decidedly statistical, discursive and meditative enough in tone to interest more than the merely scientific reader.

[149] Ibid., V. iii, p. 463

[150] Same

The less said about the poetry in _Blackwood’s Magazine_ the better. Most of it is pretty poor stuff. It is strange, with men like Wordsworth and Coleridge and Byron living, that “Maga” should print such feeble verse--all the more strange when those responsible for the periodical were such venerators of intellectual power and so ably appreciative. The Wordsworthian influence is largely reflected in much of the _Blackwood_ verse, in fact the Wordsworthian love for the simple and the commonplace is reflected to such an extent that it assumes the aspect of the commonplace run to seed. Of course, opposition to the Cockney School was pure principle on the part of the magazine; and no matter what fine poetry “the Shelley’s and the Keatses” produced, “Maga” must per necessity say nay! With the exception of some of the verse of James Hogg, and occasional bits like the anonymous “To My Dog”[151] in the issue for January 1818, there is practically nothing to hold one spellbound. There is a good deal of satiric verse on the order of that by “Ensign Odoherty”, already sampled. The first twelve volumes of the magazine contain much lengthy and serious verse bearing the signature Δ, whom we know to have been David M. Moir, “The amiable Delta” of the Blackwood group. His poetry takes no hold upon us of the present hour, but strangely enough, men like Tennyson, Jeffrey, Lockhart, found it praiseworthy, and even Wordsworth. It must be of some value if Wordsworth praised it who was not often known to show interest in any poetry but his own.

[151] Ibid., V. ii, p. 378

The number for March 1822 began the “Noctes Ambrosianae”[152], which continued till February 1835[153]. These papers are too well known to demand much mention here. Suffice it to say that during their career, they were the most popular and eagerly read feature of all periodical literature of the time.

[152] Ibid., V. xi, p. 369

[153] Ibid., V. xi-xxxvii

In July 1820, Lockhart reviewed Washington Irving’s “Knickerbocker’s History of New York”[154]. All mention of such papers as “Extracts from Mr. Wastle’s Diary”, which made its first appearance in March 1820[155], can scarcely be omitted. It is the Mr. Wastle of _Peter’s Letters_ whom Lockhart makes responsible for this series, which, like the compositions of Timothy Tickler, is but another device for merry making over local events and persons.

[154] Ibid., V. vii, p. 360

[155] Ibid., V. vi, p. 688

Interesting reviews of now famous books, wholesale massacre of now worshipped men, sweeping conclusions historical and political, among them at times such momentous verdicts as appeared in May 1819, that “no great man can have a small nose”[156]--such marked the progress and reputation of the magazine. Whether we feel we can exalt wholly and unreservedly _Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine_, we can at least heartily agree with Lockhart when he says: “I think the valuable part of The Materials is so great as to furnish no inconsiderable apology for the mixture of baser things.”[157] Moreover, it did more to counteract the influence of the _Edinburgh Review_ than any other periodical living or dead.[158]

[156] Ibid., V. v, p. 159

[157] J. G. Lockhart: _Peter’s Letters_, V. ii, p. 225

[158] This discussion makes no pretense at finality. Treatment herein has been cursory and suggestive, not exhaustive. A vast and fruitful field remains untouched.

_Bibliography_

Biography and Criticism

Cambridge History of English Literature, V. xii, 6. New York and Cambridge, 1916

Douglas, Sir George. The Blackwood Group. Edinburgh, 1897

Elton, Oliver. A Survey of English Literature, 1780-1830. V. i, 13. London, 1912

Encyclopedia Britannica, eleventh edition. Article on “The Periodical Press after 1800” by H. R. Tedder

Lang, Andrew. Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart. 2 vols. London, 1897

Lockhart, John Gibson. Life of Sir Walter Scott, V. v, Edinburgh, 1902-3

" " " . Peter’s Letters to His Kinsfolk. 3 vols. Edinburgh, 1819

Memorials of James Hogg, The Ettrick Shepherd, by his Daughter, Mrs. Garden. London, 1903

Millar, J. H. A Literary History of Scotland. New York, 1903

Oliphant, M. O. Annals of a Publishing House. William Blackwood and His Sons. V. i. Edinburgh and London, 1897-8

Saintsbury, G. Essays in English Literature, 1780-1860. New York, 1895

Works

Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine. Vols. i-xiv. Edinburgh and London, 1817-23

Hogg, James. The Works of The Ettrick Shepherd. Prose and Poetry. Ed. Rev. Thomas Thomson. London, 1869

Maginn, William. Miscellanies, Prose and Verse. 2 vols. London, 1885

Wilson, John. Works. Ed. Prof. Ferrier. 12 vols. Edinburgh, 1855-8

[Transcriber’s Note:

Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.]