Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

'DON JUAN.' 381
from him for some months. Hte sent me copies of the book per
mail, without either letter or invoice, so that when I received
them I was not disposed to read it with a favourable eye. I
did read it, and I declare solemnly to you, much as I admired
the talent and genius displayed in it, I never in my life was so
filled with utter disgust. It was not the grossness or blackguardism
which struck, me, but it was the vile, heartless, and
cold-blooded way in which this fiend attempted to degrade
every tender and sacred feeling of the human heart. I felt
such a revolting at the whole book after I had finished it, that
I was glad of the excuse I had, from Mr Murray not writing
me, for refusing to sell it. I was terribly laughed at by my
friends here, and I daresay you will laugh as much still at my
prudery and pique.
The following letters show that Mr Blackwood's
advice as to Irish articles was occasionally taken ; and
as the details, by dint of being so old, will be new to
many readers, we quote them, at the risk even of
giving too much of Maginn :
B. T. S. to W. Blackwood.
—
May 9, 1821.
You may have seen in the last literary Gazette an advertisement
extracted from a Cork paper, announcing a course of
lectures from Carter, the pugilist, who, with Sutton and Eey-
nolds, is campaigning in Cork. It does not require much tact
to perceive that the whole affair is a quiz, got up for the annoy-
ance of our Scientific Society, which usually supplies us with
butts. The gentleman who last year supplied you with Dowden's
speech for the Luctus is writing an opening lecture on
Antemundane pugilism, which I believe eventually goes to you.
But by publishing a letter of mine in which I mentioned a
paper of his on Dowden's madness, which by the way he
actually wrote, you have sadly frightened him, for he is one of
the thin-skinned generation.
I do not like to write anti- Catholic articles for you ; but you
are wrong in taking the other side : it obliges none of your
friends, and disobliges us. The question, in fact, ought to be