for October 1773, vol. i. p. 92. That review was drawn up by the late worthy and ingenious Dr BLACKLOCK. No. LXXVI. The Rev A. GILLIES to Mr WILLIAM SMellie. MY DEAR SIR, No date. NOTHING was ever more happily descriptive. You have hit off our ancient falconer inculpably well. I see him in the back apartment, rejoicing at his prospect of appearing as an author. Alas! the world is plenteous in disappointments, and amazingly bountiful too in bestowing them. He imagined his work, luckless wight! among the necessaries of life. How can it but grieve him, to see people set at least an equal value upon bread and butter? He is now convinced that the half is, on some occasions, greater than the whole. The agonies of his balked avarice wring his heart; and, to complete his distress, his vanity is also stabbed. It would go to your very soul to survey his prolix melancholy countenance. You would A imagine he had been just bereft by lightning" of a wife and nine small children; sad calamity! I am naturally compassionate, and offer him consolation now and then, as thus: "Sir, let not this misfortune prey upon your vitals. The affair is not so deplorable as you fancy. Consider, I beseech you, that the honour of being called an author is a cheap acquisition, at the trifling loss in which that title has involved you. Never was there a greater author. You are the only man in the realm who can boast of a library of above five hundred volumes, all of your own composition! Think of that, Sir, and be happy." He growls, "Sink the honour! I want profit," and so refuses to be comforted. I HAVE seen your proposals for a new Magazine; and, as you are concerned in it, my hopes of its success are very sanguine. The effusions of your own humour, if you have leisure to write, will afford matter of endless laughter. Such a Magazine is a right thing in our country. The Scotch have sense enough to instruct, and wit enough to divert one another and you give them a creditable way of shewing both. Thus the flimsy, frivolous things that come from Lon-don, to steal our money and vitiate our taste, will remain in the land of their nativity. THE stated period of publishing such compilements is, perhaps, hurtful to their reputation. You may not always be fortunate enough to furnish a monthly collection of clever original pieces. When necessity compels you to give your readers dull things, they lose all patience, and the character of your work sinks. What if you advertised you should publish sooner or later just as you have exquisite materials? The idea is full of respect for the public, and therefore catching. There is one way, but I dare not recommend it, of making the three kingdoms your customers. The undertakers of the Town and Country Magazine discovered much knowledge of human degeneracy, when they fell upon the idea of their tête-a-têtes. Your general invectives against vice excite no curiosity; nor is the matter much mended by conjuring up profligate phantoms, such as Damons and Celias. My Lord K—Ã, or my Lady Ps: Actual, existing, industrious sinners: That is the thing! This sort of biography is wonderfully taking. 'Tis true, all the world will call you a confounded slanderous fellow; but, mind me, all the world will buy your slanders. You may look grave, and allege the reformation of individuals is your design. Ah, ha, ha! If I have any thing candid for your use, you shall have it. Yours, &c. A. GILLIES. In consequence of the virulent severity of attack upon the Origin and Progress of Language, great offence, as has been already observed, was taken by many respectable persons at the manner in which the Review connected with the Edinburgh Magazine was carried on. Of this we have a specimen in the following correspondence on the subject, which took place between Mr SMELLIE and JOHN MACLAURIN, Esq. of Dreghorn, the son of the celebrated mathematician, COLIN MACLAURIN, who was elected to the Mathematical Professorship in the University of Edinburgh on the recommendation of the immortal NEWTON. Mr JOHN MACLAURIN was an excellent lawyer, and became respectable Judge in the Court of Session, under the title of Lord Dreghorn. No. LXXVII. From JOHN MACLAURIN, Esq. to Mr WILLIAM SMELLie. Edinburgh, 17th November 1776. MR MACLAURINS compliments to Mr SMELLIE, has just now paid his account for the Edinburgh Review from No. xv. to No. xxxiii. but desires that no more numbers be sent to him, for a reason which he imagines will be easily guessed by Mr Smellie, 2 No. LXXVIII. From Mr WILLIAM SMELLIE to JOHN SIR, Edinburgh, 18th November 1776. As I have a very high respect for your opinion, the card you were pleased to write |