Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

A MOMENTARY PIQUE. 485
they would not be acceptable, it is better both for you and me
that they are suppressed.
I am tired of the sight of " The Smuggler," and feel more than
half disposed to put it in the fire. It was originally written under
a severe fit of indisposition, and every time I see it the blessed
recollection of that fit comes upon me. I return it, having for
the last time still further ' shortened it, by which it will at least
not suffer.
You wish me to make my stories short. I have no more in
hand except one, and that is full as long as the present. What
is more, too, I cannot shorten it ; but if I do any more I shall
attend to your hint.
I had intended to send you a grave article this month, but I
fear that I have lost the art of writing for ' Maga,' and therefore
detain it. I like your number much. " The Cottager " is de-
lightful—Wilson of course ;
heavy ; and the rest all capital in their way.
You have taken no notice of some verses which I sent you
two months ago. They are not mine ; but if you mean to make
no use of them, I should be glad to have them returned.
On looking over your letter I perceive that one of your
agriculture good, though somewhat
objections to the paper returned originates in the idea that it
supports Arminianism. Now, the truth is it pretends to do
no such thing. It speaks in praise of the Confession of the
Armenian Church, not because that Confession is opposed to
Calvinism, but because in that Church no man, even when going
into orders, is called upon to subscribe that Confession. The
Confession consequently stands as a pattern merely, not as a
thing obligatory on the consciences of the clergy ; on that
account alone is the Armenian Confession lauded.
This will show, even under the influence of a
temporary pique, the universal character of the work,
which, whatever it was, came " convenient " to the
equally universal purveyor of literary matter, all good
in its way—honest, useful, and often entertaining,
though without any claim to permanence, or to special
inspiration of any kind. Gleig's stories, except ' The