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Indiana Unrtrsity Studies 



as well as Scott's. But, as has been said, the paper was 

 doomed. There is something dramatic in the fact that it died 

 on the anniversary of its birth. Just one year of life was all 

 that befell The Spy. And there is much that is pathetic in 

 the shepherd's earnest, withal dignified, farewell to his read- 

 ers. He was no longer anxious to conceal his secret and he 

 talked plainly of his defeat in manly terms. No edition of 

 Hogg's works should be published without including, at least, 

 the last number of The Spii: and, as all but the name of this 

 publication seems to have escaped the interest of editors and 

 biographers alike, the present memoir will present a few addi- 

 tional extracts : 



His [T]ie Spy's] efforts have, without doubt, met with at least as 

 much encouragement as they deserved; he frankly acknowledges that 

 the encouragement has not been much to boast of; as his name became 

 known the number of his subscribers diminished. The learned, the en- 

 lightened, and polite circles of this flourishing metropolis, disdained 

 either to be amused or instructed by the ebullitions of humble genius; 

 enemies, swelling with the most rancorous spite, grunted in every cor- 

 ner; and from none has TJie Spy suffered so much injury and blame, 

 as from some pretended friends, who were indeed liberal in their ad- 

 vices, and ardent in their professions of friendship, yet took every 

 method in their power to lessen the work in the esteem of others, by 

 branding its author with designs the most subversive of all civility and 

 decorum, and which, of all others, were the most distant from his 

 lieart. , . . 



There have still, however, been a feAv, and not a very few either, 

 who have stood The Spij's most strenuous advocates through good re- 

 port, and through bad report. Of these he has been careful to pre- 

 serve the names, and these names he Avill ever cherish with the most 

 grateful remembrance; and were he certain they would regret the dis- 

 continuation of The Spy, and feel the same disappointment on missing- 

 it on a Saturday evening, that they would do on being deprived of an 

 old friend or dependent, whose conversation, though not without faults, 

 was become familiar and dear to them, he would, in his turn, experi- 

 ence sensations such as none save an enthusiast in the pursuits of lit- 

 erature can enjoy; and he may surely be allowed to indulge the hope 

 so congenial to the soul of every candidate for literary honours, that 

 the awards of posterity will in part justify that cause Avhich his friends 

 have maintained against such odds. They have had, at all events, the 

 honour of patronising an undertaking, ciuite new in the records of litera- 

 ture; for that a common shepherd that never v\'as at school, who went 

 to service at seven years of age, and could neither read nor write with 

 accuracy when twenty, yet who, smitten with an unconquerable thirst 

 after knowledge, should run away from his master, leave his native 

 mountains, and his flocks to wander where they chose, come to the 

 metropolis with his plaid wrapped about his shoulders, and all at once 



