HYPOCRISY UNVEILED, AND CALUMNY DETECTED: IN A REVIEW OF Blackwood's Magazine. "There is nothing so detestable in the eyes of all good men as "defamation, or satire aimed at particular persons. It deserves the "utmost detestation and discouragement of all who have either the "love of their country or the honour of their religion at heart. I "have not scrupled to rank those who deal in these pernicious arts "of writing, with the murderer and assassin. Every honest man "sets as high a value upon his good name as upon life itself; and I "cannot but think that those who privily assault the one, could de**stroy the other, might they do it with the same security and impu"nity." -ADDISON. EDINBURGH PRINTED FOR FRANCIS PILLANS, 13, HANOVER STREET. 1818. HYPOCRISY UNVEILED, AND CALUMNY DETECTED, &c. A SET of mischievous boys, who station themselves in a gutter for the purpose of throwing dirt on all who pass them, are often tolerated much longer than is right or prudent. They are allowed to go on, annoying all, but more especially the well-dressed and respectable part of society,, solely because no one can approach without being bespattered by them. Those who have had their dress soiled are not greatly dissatisfied to see others bedaubed in a similar manner, and the lookers-on are amused with the knavish dexterity of the dirt-throwers, and are for some time curious to see who 2 is to be attacked next; but forbearance, which breeds temerity on the one side, is sure to be worn out on the other, and a necessity arises at last for applying a corrective. The first resorted to in such cases is generally that of thrusting the noses of the urchins into the filth which they had been so liberal in distributing to others; and if that do not answer the purpose, recourse is had to a more effectual mode of chastisement. The forbearance hitherto shown to the VEILED EDITOR of this Magazine,—a worthy descendant of the Veiled Prophet of Khorassan,*-and his associates, may be accounted for upon a similar principle. It is not that the public has been blind, or altogether unobservant. The aberrations of intellect, and perver * Our readers will all be aware that we allude here to the hero of one of the poems lately published by Mr Moore under the title of Lalla Rookh. They will also remember that the veiled Prophet was one of the most abominable impostors, a villain who, under the cover of religion, sought only the punishment and destruction of his species, and whose features, when unveiled, were so foul, fierce, and demoniacal, as to be enough to blast all who looked upon them. sity of heart, now so visible in the articles published in this Magazine, were seen from the beginning; but no one imagined that the writers would continue to court infamy from year to year, or remain reckless or blind to the consequences of persisting in their unseemly work of defamation and detraction. When a nest of hornets are expected to die within a short period, of their own venom, nobody thinks of smothering them at the risk of being stung by them; but when their lives are protracted beyond expectation, and when their molestations, instead of ceasing, become more troublesome and pestiferous, the unpleasant task of annihilation becomes a duty. In the same manner, as each succeeding number of this work distils a more deadly poison, and betrays a more demoniacal spirit than its precursor, it would manifestly disgrace the public, and amount to an acknowledgment that society is bereft of all right feeling, if it were suffered longer to escape with impunity. It has now earned to itself a character of sheer blackguardism, and is unquestionably the vilest production that ever disfigured and soiled the |