With the sixth number of the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine had appeared a notice stating that “this work is now discontinued, this being the last number of it;” but in the following month, with an alteration in the title, it arose, Phœnix-like, from the ashes, and, as Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, No. 7, created a sensation which has never perhaps been equalled. There was, to commence with, a monstrous list of all possible and impossible articles, chiefly threatened attacks upon the Edinburgh, then a violent attack upon their former defence of the Edinburgh Reviewer’s onslaught upon Burns and Wordsworth; but the great feature in No. 7 (No. 1 in reality of Blackwood) was the “Translation from an Ancient Caldee Manuscript,” in which the circumstances of the late feud, and Constable’s endeavours to repair the fortunes of his old magazine, and the resuscitation of “Maga”—the birth, that is, of the genuine “Maga”—are thrown into an allegorical burlesque.
“The two beasts (the two late editors), the lamb and the bear, came unto the man who was clothed in plain apparel, and stood in the door of his house; and his name was as if it had been the colour of ebony (Blackwood), and his number was the number of a maiden when the days of her virginity have expired (No. 17, Prince’s Street), ... and they said unto him, Give us of thy wealth, that we may eat and live, and thou shalt enjoy the fruits of our labour for a time, times or half a time.
“And he answered and said unto them, What will ye unto me whereunto I may employ you?
“And they proffered unto him a Book, and they said unto him, Take thou this, and give us a piece of money, that we may eat and drink and our souls may live.
“And we will put words into thy Book that shall astonish the children of thy people. And it shall be a light unto thy feet and a lamp unto thy path; it shall also bring bread to thy household, and a portion to thy maidens.
“And the man hearkened unto their voice, and he took their Book, and he gave them a piece of money, and they went away rejoicing in heart. And I heard a great noise, as if it had been the noise of many chariots, and of horsemen prancing upon their horses.
“But after many days they put no words in the Book, and the man was astonied, and waxed wroth, and said unto them, What is this that ye have done unto me, and how shall I answer those to whom I am engaged? And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.
“And the man wist not what for to do; and he called together the friends of his youth, and all those whose heart was as his heart, and he entreated them, and they put words into the Book; and it went abroad, and all the world wondered after the Book, and after the two beasts that had put such amazing words into the Book.
“Then the man who was crafty in counsel and cunning in all manner of work (Constable), when this man saw the Book, and beheld the things which were in the Book, he was troubled in spirit and much cast down.
“And he hated the Book and the two beasts that put words into the Book, for he judged according to the reports of men; nevertheless, the man was crafty in counsel, and more cunning than his fellows.