LITERATURE. BLACKWOOD^ MAGAZINE. 197 



that I really cannot consent either to ask or accept of favors from 

 any one who is aiding or assisting in such a publication. 



" I have not the least idea that you had any concern in the com- 

 position of that particular paper, and perhaps I have been misin- 

 formed as to the nature and extent of your connection with the 

 work in general. But if it be as I supposed, and if you still profess 

 to take the same interest in that Magazine, I do not see that we can 

 possibly co-operate in any other publication. 



" I have no right, certainly, and I am sure I have no intention to 

 rebuke you for any opinions you may entertain, or any views you 

 may have formed of the proper way of expressing them ; but if 

 you think the scope and strain of the paper to which I allude in any 

 degree justifiable, I can only say that your notions differ so widely 

 from mine, that it is better that we should have no occasion to dis- 

 cuss them. To me, I confess, it appears that the imputations it 

 contains are as malignant as they are false; and having openly 

 applied these epithets to them, whenever I have had occasion to 

 speak on the subject, I flatter myself that I do not violate the 

 courtesy which I unfeignedly wish to observe towards you, or act 

 unsuitably with the regard which I hope always to entertain for you, 

 if I plainly repeat them here, as the grounds of a statement with 

 which no light considerations could have induced me to trouble you. 



"I say, then, that it is false that it is one of the principal objects, 

 or any object at all, of the Edinburgh Review to discredit religion, 

 or promote the cause of infidelity. I who have conducted the work 

 for nearly fifteen years should know something of its objects, and 

 I declare to you, upon my honor, that nothing with that tendency 

 has ever been inserted without its being followed with sincere 

 regret, both on my part and on that of all who have any permanent 

 connection with the work. That expressions of a light and indec- 

 orous nature have sometimes escaped us in the hurry of composi- 

 tion, and that, in exposing the excesses of bigotry and intolerance, 

 a tone of too great levity has been sometimes employed, I am most 

 ready with all humility to acknowledge ; but that any thing was 

 ever bespoken or written by the regular supporters of the work, 

 or admitted, except by inadvertence, with a view to discredit the 

 truth of religion, I most positively deny, and that it is no part of 

 its object to do so, I think must be felt by every one of its candid 

 readers. 



