Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

482 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD.
absolute oblivion. A reader who knew * Salathiel
would be more hard to find nowadays than one who
had studied the poets of Persia, or the most ancient
mysteries of human knowledge. It had, however, its
success in its day.
Not uncongenial to this mystic romance was another
work which Croly, without any suggestion that he
should publish it, describes in the unintentionally
amusing note which follows to his friendly publisher
— " the volume on the Apocalypse," of which he begs
his acceptance, and respecting which, as the proper
study of his profession, he had no desire to take shelter
in anonymity :
—
JDr Croly to W. Blackwood.
March 31, 1827.
The subject is treated in an entirely new way, and you may
rely upon it that way is the true one: however, of this the
world must make up its mind for itself. It has been published
a few days, and I have received some very civil testimonies
from some of the Bishops of their opinion. None of them, however,
had gone further than a few pages, as indeed their acknowledgments
were so immediate that they had no time to have
read more.
Scotland reads a great deal on this subject, and I should be
glad to have the work introduced into the hands of such a man
as Chalmers, whose deserved reputation would give some degree
of value to anything of which he thought well.
It is curious that so acute an Irish mind should not
have seen through the well-known trick of the much-
tried critics whose acknowledgments are " so immediate"
that it is impossible they can have read more
than a few pages ; but humour and perception are
extraordinarily apt to fail us in our own case.
'