Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

444 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD.
been pro tanto mutilations : as omitting something on the very
same scale of importance as all that was retained. And one
part which I had specially projected to strike out—viz., the
sketch of the Ottoman power in its growth and its decay
turned out to be too inconsiderable in extent to ofifer any com-
pensating benefit for the injury which its removal would do to
the completeness and orbicularity of the proportions : at all
events this seemed the one sole section of the article which
could be cancelled without absolutely dissolving the whole
Paper. Except, therefore, as regards very numerous corrections,
I confined my alterations to such completions and filling in of
lacunae as the case demanded. It is true that the Paper will
thus extend to 3 distinct articles ; but considering that it is a
history of a Revolution now completed, and of a war incapable
of renewal, I should presume that few readers would
complain on that score ; whilst the constant references to Mr
Gordon's opinions, and even to his very words, will necessarily
have the eff'ect of keeping him and his book before the public.
I have now to thank you for sending in advance a £5 note,
and to set myself right upon a point in my last letter which
you have misunderstood. I did not at all mean to say that it
could make no difference to you what time you made any par-
ticular pecuniary settlement with me, for I am aware that the
most extensive concerns have their periods of depression and
embarrassments; but that I presumed that an hour later or
earlier might have been a matter of indifference to you, whilst
from the peculiar circumstances I was then stating, even such
a difference might to me happen to be a matter of importance.
De Quincey, always an irregular contributor, ceased
his connection with Blackwood several years before
his death. But some of his finest pieces of composition
appeared in the Magazine, and his genius and
the beauty of his style were never more highly ap-
preciated than by its conductors and supporters.
It has always been a matter both of pleasure and
pride to preserve his name in the roll of those whose
tradition and legend are the glory of the house.
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