512 A Chapter on Editors. [Nov. 



slumberous poison from its jaundiced leaves. They form a cordon, 

 an opake mass round the Editor, and persuade him that they are the 

 support, the prop, and pillar of his reputation. They get between 

 him and the public, and shut out the light, and set aside common-sense. 

 They pretend anxiety for the interest of some established organ of opi- 

 nion, while all they want is to make it the organ of their dogmas, pre- 

 judices, or party. They want to be the Magazine or the Review to 

 wield that power covertly, to warp that influence to their own purposes. 

 If they cannot do this, they care not if it sinks or swims. They pre- 

 judge every question fly-blow every writer who is not of their own 



set. A friend of theirs has three articles in the last number of ; 



they strain every nerve and make pressing instances to throw a slur on 

 a popular contribution by another hand, in order that he may write a 

 fourth in the next number. The short articles which are read by the 

 vulgar, are cut down to make room for the long ones, which are read by 

 nobody but the writers and their friends. If an opinion is expressed 

 contrary to the shibboleth of the party, it is represented as an outrage on 

 decency and public opinion, when in truth the public are delighted with 

 the candour and boldness displayed. They would convert a valuable 

 and spirited journal into a dull pamphleteer, stuffed with their own 

 lucubrations on certain heavy topics. The self-importance of these 

 people is in proportion to their insignificance ; and what they cannot 

 do by an appeal to argument or sound policy, they effect by importunity 

 and insinuation. They keep the Editor in continual alarm as to what 

 will be said of him by the public, when in fact the public will think (in 

 nine cases out often) just what he tells them. 



These people create much of the mischief. An Editor should have 

 no friends his only prompter should be the number of copies of the 

 work that sell. It is superfluous to strike off a large .impression of a 

 work for those few squeamish persons who prefer lead to tinsel. Prin- 

 ciple and good manners are barriers that are, in our estimate, invio- 

 lable: the rest is open to popular suffrage, and is not to be pre- 

 judged by a coterie with closed doors. Another difficulty lies here. An 

 Editor should, in one sense, be a respectable man a distinguished cha- 

 racter ; otherwise, he cannot lend his name and sanction to the work. 

 The conductor of a periodical production which is to circulate widely 

 and give the tone to taste and opinion, ought to be of high standing, 

 should have connections with society, should belong to some literary 

 institution, should be courted by the great, be run after by the obscure. 

 But tc here's the rub" that one so graced and gifted can neither have 

 his time nor thoughts to himself. Our obligations are mutual ; and 

 those who owe much to others, become the slaves of their good opinion 

 and good word. He who dines out loses his free agency. He may 

 improve in politeness ; he falls off in the pith and pungency of his 

 style. A poem is dedicated to the son of the Muses : can the critic 

 do otherwise than praise it ? A tragedy is brought out by a noble friend 

 and patron : the severe rules of the drama must yield in some measure 



to the amenities of private life. On the contrary, Mr. is a gar- 



retteer a person that nobody knows ; his work has nothing but the 

 contents to recommend it ; it sinks into obscurity, or addresses itself to 

 the canaille. An Editor, then, should be an abstraction a being in the 

 clouds a mind without a body reason without passion. But where 

 find such a one ? 



