510 A Chapter on Editors. [Nov. 



does himself, he thinks to arrive at the satne end by hindering others 

 from doing their best. The " dog-in-the-manger" principle comes into 

 full play. If an article has nothing to recommend it, is one of no mark 

 or likelihood, it goes in ; there is no offence in it. If it is likely to 

 strike, to draw attention, to make a noise, then every syllable is scanned, 

 every objection is weighed : if grave, it is too grave ; if witty, it is too 

 witty. One way or other, it might be better ; and while this nice point is 

 pending, it gives place, as a matter of course, to something that there is no 

 question about. 



The responsibility, the delicacy, the nervous apprehension of the Edi- 

 tor, naturally increase with the probable effect and popularity of the con- 

 tributions on which he has to pass judgment ; and the nearer an effusion 

 approaches to perfection, the more fatal is a single flaw, or its falling 

 short of that superhuman standard by a hair's-breadth difference, to its 

 final reception. If people are likely to ask, " Who wrote a certain 



paper in the last number of ?" the Editor is bound, as a point 



of honour, to baulk that impertinent curiosity on the part of the public. 

 He would have it understood that all the articles are equally good, and 

 may be equally his own. If he inserts a paper of more than the allowed 

 average merit, his next care is to spoil by revising it. The sting, with 

 the honey, is sure to be left out. If there is any thing that pleased you 

 in the writing, you look in vain for it in the proof. What might elec- 

 trify the reader, startles the Editor. With a paternal regard for the 

 interests of the public, he takes care that their tastes should not be 

 pampered, and their expectations raised too high, by a succession of fine 

 passages, of which it is impossible to continue a supply. He interposes 

 between the town and their vicious appetite for the piquant and high- 

 seasoned, as we forbid children to indulge in sweetmeats. The trite and 

 superficial are always to be had to order, and present a beautiful unifor- 

 mity of appearance. There is no unexpected relief, no unwelcome ine- 

 quality of style, to disorder the nerves or perplex the understanding : 

 the reader may read, and smile, and sleep, without meeting a single 

 idea to break his repose ! 



Some Editors, moreover, have a way of altering the first paragraph : 

 they have then exercised their privileges, and let you alone for the 

 rest of the chapter. This is like paying " a pepper-corn rent/' 

 or making one's bow on entering a room: it is being let off cheap. 

 Others add a pointless conclusion of their own : it is like signing their 

 names to the article. Some have a passion for sticking in the word 

 however at every opportunity, in order to impede the march of the style; 

 and others are contented and take great pains (with Lindley Murray's 

 Grammar lying open before them) to alter " if it is" into " if it be." An 

 Editor abhors an ellipsis. If you fling your thoughts into continued pas- 

 sages, they set to work to cut them up into short paragraphs : if you 

 make frequent breaks, they turn the tables on you that way, and throw 

 the whole composition into masses. Any thing to preserve the form and 

 appearance of power, to make the work their own by mental stratagem, 

 to stamp it by some fiction of criticism with their personal identity, to 

 enable them to run away with the credit, and look upon themselves as 

 the master-spirits of the work and of the age ! If there is any point they 

 do not understand, they are sure to meddle with it, and mar the sense ; 

 for it piques their self-love, and they think they are bound ex-officio to 

 know better than the writer. Thus they substitute (at a venture, and 

 merely for the sake of altering) one epithet for another, when perhaps 



