LITERATURE. BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE. 167 



age, whose name it was in vain to ask, and whose personality was 

 itself a mystery. On that point the public, which cannot rest satis- 

 fied without attributing specific powers to specific persons, refused 

 after a time to acknowledge the mystery, and insisted on recog- 

 nizing in John Wilson the real impersonation of Blackwood's 

 " veiled editor." The error has been often emphatically corrected : 

 let it once again be repeated, on the best authority, that the only 

 real editor Blackwood 's Magazine ever had was Blackwood him- 

 self. Of this fact I have abundant proofs. Suffice it that contribu- 

 tions from Wilson's own pen have been altered, cut down, and kept 

 back, in compliance with the strong will of the man whose name on 

 the title-page of the Magazine truly indicated with whom lay the 

 sole responsibility of the management. 



At what precise date my father came into personal communica- 

 tion with Mr. Blackwood does not appear. Before that, however, 

 he had been an anonymous contributor to the Magazine. In the 

 very first number is a poem entitled, " The Desolate Village, a Rev- 

 erie," with the initial N., which bears strong marks of his style. 

 Some others, similarly signed, and of similar qualities, occur in sub- 

 sequent numbers. In the Notices to Correspondents in ]STo. II., it is 

 stated that the "Letter on the proposed new translation of the 

 Psalms" was too late for insertion. That letter, which did not ap- 

 pear, is referred to in the following note, without date or signature, 

 in my father's handwriting : — 



" Sir : — I enclose a letter for your Magazine from the same 

 anonymous writer who sent you a communication relative to a new 

 translation of the Psalms. If these communications are inserted, 

 and I feel some confidence that they are fitted for a work like the 

 Edinburgh Magazine, I shall take care to send you some little trifle 

 every month. But I prefer remaining anonymous at present, till I 

 see how my communications are appreciated." 



How the monthly trifles were appreciated by Mr. Blackwood's 

 two editors, matters not ; that they were appreciated by that gen- 

 tleman himself soon became apparent. Probably enough, some of 

 the anonymous correspondent's contributions gave rise to those dif- 

 ferences of opinion between the publisher and the editors, which 

 ended in their separation. One cannot but suspect that the writer 



