Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine has attained its thousandth issue, and an event s6 unique in the history of periodical literature has been celebrated by a double number of fascinating interest. The continued vitality of the fine octogenarian serial is one of the literary curiosities of the century. The "magazine was founded as a sort of chapel-of-ease to the Quarterly, which was itself an antidote to the militant Whiggism of the Edinburgh. While these antique and bulky predecessors still live on in the decorous repose of obscure corners and upper shelves, "Maga" is down in the very van of every fight, a living literary power. In intellectual force it holds its own with the best periodicals extant, and to be admitted into its corset-bound. columns (it still de-vides its page) is the highest ambition of many an able writer. No wonder! It is not too much to say that the editorial skill of the magazine illustrates the heredity of genius; editor and contributors admirably continue the style and attitude which have now become traditional.
Blackwood has a personality more pronounced, if less wise and genial, than Mr. Hutton's in the Spectator, than the Saturday in the days of its pristine glory, than the Furfi yhtly under honest John. It has'a piquancy of its very own, one too that would have made the fortune of a sauce had it been a high-priced condiment for epicures. Loyalty to the magazine and harmony with its spirit ar evident in every article that appears and we.often think that we see clear-intimate and friendly relations which ly between the lines proofs of the
three generations of Blackwoods have made it a point to secure with their collaborators. and other excellences in Ear While freely acknowledging these
have to confess that there ly the ointment of our satisfaction, a grudging or costive element in our admiration. We are cursed with a long historical memory and we cannot forget. its blasting influence on Keats and kindred souls. The magazine has had a giant's strength and has often used it as an ogre. Scott, the most tolerant of men, though in hearty sympathy with its political aims called it the "Mother of Mischief;" and Miss Mitford, one of the sweetest and sanest souls of our times, called it "a very libellous, wicked, story-telling entertaining work," a full example by the bye of the praise of faint damnation. "Considering the marked ability of the editing and writing, we have alway: wondered why there is such a quern lous alkaline vein in the magazine, rs It is what the: Scotch-call thrawn: it lacks and always has lacked toleration and magnanimity, qualities without which neither mind nor action are ever great. Had an angel come down from Heaven and marked Bentham and his Radicals with approving signet, old "George" would stil swear it was the mark of the Beast. No good can, in "Maga's" opinion, come out of the Nazareth of the edicial, and'seldom even fair. opposite camp; hence it is never Then again it takes itself far too seriously and grandiosely; we wholly admit that " is clever and good, nay, very clever and very good, but the incomparable qualities of -bene-valence and menace. It was part and parcel of the man and a factor of his influence. We are so often on " Maga's" side, and derive so much pleasure from its pages that we feel constrained to give expression to the faults which we think lessen its influence and our profit. May it live and flourish through another. thousand issues!
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.