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Indiana University Studies 



he will clear up a bit of literary history that has hitherto been 

 obscure; by which he means that he will indicate what parts 

 of the Chaldee MS were written by Hogg. 



One who is interested in the Ettrick Shepherd is more con- 

 cerned with his relation to the paper than with the question 

 as to what parts written by his hand actually remained in the 

 finished draft as it was published. This composition was di- 

 vided into chapter and verse, and written thruout in Biblical 

 style. Hogg, as we have seen from The Poetic Mirror, was 

 a master of literary forgery, and his imitation of the Bible 

 was so accurate and spent upon such an unworthy quarrel that 

 most people were out and out offended at it as a piece of 

 sacrilege. But this profanity was not its only offense. In 

 form it was like the Bible; in substance, a biting satire di- 

 rected against all the Edinburgh writers and publishers who 

 were in any way opposed to Mr. Blackwood and his friends. 



Doubtless Hogg conceived the notion and wrote the first 

 draft. He certainly did not know how good it was and neither 

 expected it to receive such favor from Blackwood and his set, 

 or such disfavor from the public. Before it appeared in print 

 it was revised and enlarged to such an extent that the portions 

 indicated by Mr. Ferrier as having been written by Hogg are 

 by no means the greater part of the composition. The Chaldee 

 MS. created such a storm, and to live it down required such 

 a struggle on the part of Blackwood and his men, that they, 

 including Hogg, were bound all the closer by the ties of ad- 

 versity. (The article was withdrawn from subsequent issues 

 and apologized for by the editors. It is now very rare except 

 in reprints.)^ 



Between 1822 and 1835 a series of articles, the Nodes 

 Amhrosianae (not all, however, by Wilson), was contributed 

 to Blackivood's Magazine. They are too well known to need 

 description. It is only fair to say that the most brilliant 

 creation in this group of brilliants, who goes by the name of 



^ It is interesting to note the following paragraph that is in the 1832 edition of the 

 Autobiography, but which is omitted from subsequent editions : 



"So little had I intended giving offence by what appeared in the magazine, that I 

 had written out a long continuation, of the manuscript, which I have by me till this 

 day, in which I go over the painters, poets, lawyers, booksellers, magistrates, and minis- 

 ters of Edinburgh, all in the same style ; and with leference to the first part that was 

 published^ I might say of the latter as King Rehoboam said to the Elders of Israel, 

 *My little finger was thicker than my father's loins.' It took all the energy of Mr. 

 Wilson and his friends, and some sharp remembrances from Sir Walter Scott, as well 

 as. a great deal of controversy and battling with Mr. Grieve, to prevent me from pub- 

 lishing the whole work as a large pamphlet, and putting my name to it." 



