Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/243

207 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD. 207 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. "And he said unto the two beasts, Come ye and put your trust under the shadow of my wings, and we will destroy the man whose name is as ebony and his Book. " And the two beasts gave ear unto him, and they came over to him, and bowed down before him with their faces to the earth. . . . " Then was the man whose name is as ebony ' sore dismayed/ and appealed to the great magician who dwelleth by the old fastness hard by the river Jordan which is by the Border (to Walter Scott}, and the magician opened his mouth and said, Lo ! my heart wisheth thy good, and let the thing prosper which is in thy hands to do it. " But thou seest that my hands are full of working, and my labour is great. For, lo ! I have to feed all the people of my land, and none knoweth whence his food cometh, but each man openeth his mouth and my hand filleth it with pleasant things. ( This is more than a shrewd guess a.t the authorship of the Waver ley Novels.) " Moreover, thine adversary also is of my familiars (Constable, his publisher}. " Yet be thou silent, peradventure will I help thee some little." Chapter II. shows us Blackwood gazing despon- dently from his inner chamber, when a veiled figure appears, who