Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

THE EDITORSHIP OF ' MAGA.' 185
believe, was at least " £300 or perhaps more," to the
young literary adventurer, for which he received a
translation of Schlegel's Lectures on the History of
Literature. The book seems to have done well
enough, and many years later, when its author was
well known, came to a second edition ; but this act of
liberality and confidence must have been a powerful
retaining fee.
Wilson had no such bond to the publisher's service
; but he was eager for work, and ready for any
adventure.
They both began to help a little in the original
series of the ' Edinburgh Monthly Magazine,' as
edited by Pringle and Cleghorn ; and no doubt it
was partly their brilliant talk and literary ambition,
and eager desire to find a fit medium of expression
for the opinions and ideas with which their minds
were overflowing, and especially for that " criticism of
life" which, whether in poetry or in prose, it is the
first mission and yearning of the young writer to get
into print, that sustained and inspired Mr Blackwood
in his determination to take the periodical, of which
he, still more than the young men, saw the pos-
sibilities, out of the incapable hands which were con-
ducting it into pure mediocrity.
The question whether there was or was not an
Editor, or rather a couple of Editors, to the new
series, in succession to the old, is one that has been
very much disputed. I do not think that the reader,
after the glimpses into the Blackwood correspondence
which I have been able to give, can have much doubt
that the Magazine was, as I have before said, in com-
mission, the committee of three occupying intermit-