430 OBSERVATIONS ON BLIGHT. 



mend your correspondent, before he puts pen to paper, to 

 consider whether he has anything to write about or not ; and 

 should he find that he is only writing for the sake of seeing 

 his assumed name in print, I would advise him to wait till he 

 has a worthier object ; perhaps it is my excessive dulness, but 

 for the life of me I can't make out what he means, it is for 

 all the world like a young walnut — all bitter husk; yet his 

 reader is always buoyed up by reference or promise ; he 



" Never is, but always to be blest." 



Your correspondent has no present tense ; the burden of his 

 song is ever the same, of the all he has done, or the all he is 

 going to do. Now I don't say that your correspondent makes 

 too much of his labours ; the all he has done I dare say is 

 stupendous! folios and quartos innumerable! the all he is 

 going to do, incredible! there must be quite a stir in the 

 manufactories of paper, steel-pens, and ink, in consequence of 

 his announcements. I do not pretend to say your corre- 

 spondent overrates his labours, but I wish to remind him that 

 this crabbed ill-natured world never takes a man at his own 

 valuation ; 'tis very perplexing, sour, ill-judged, and stupid of 

 the world, I own; but in reply to all our boastings, the old 

 lady sticks her arms a-kimbo, and laughs in our faces, allow- 

 ing us to trumpet away as much as we please, and delight 

 ourselves with sounds of our own making. I know your cor- 

 respondent will take my remarks in good part, as I do his. 

 " Nous devons de la reconnoissance a tons ceux que nous 

 disent nos verites." 



Thirdly. I have observed that Mr. Loudon, Vol. VI. 

 p. 261, has given you a most friendly jog of the elbow about 

 the line which is left blank between each of your " Varieties:" 

 — " widely enough detached as to typography,'' says Mr. 

 Loudon, thereby implying, — oh, the facetious fellow ! — that we, 

 your readers, are entitled to have letter-press instead of a 

 blank space : he is very right in thus insisting on a reader's 

 having as much as possible for his money, and 1 recommend 

 you forthwith to adopt the course he points out of printing 

 close. Mr. Loudon's remark, at first reading, perhaps appears 

 a little too pungent; but editors are sad hands at screwing 

 their readers out of a little bit wherever they can ; even Mr. 

 Loudon himself has slipped, quite unintentionally, no doubt, 



