Yet, in a sense, the _Atlantic_, by the time Page succeeded to the editorship, had become the victim of its dazzling past.

Its recent editors had lived too exclusively in their back numbers.

They had conducted the magazine too much for the restricted audience of Boston and New England.

There was a time, indeed, when the business office arranged the subscribers in two classes--"Boston" and "foreign"; "Boston" representing their local adherents, and "foreign" the loyal readers who lived in the more benighted parts of the United States.

One of its editors had been heard to boast that he never solicited a contribution; it was not his business to be a literary drummer! Let the truth be fairly spoken: when Page made his first appearance in the _Atlantic_ office, the magazine was unquestionably on the decline.