Their crude but genuine merit suggests a regret that he did not in after days enrich the Edinburgh Review with a couple of articles on classical subjects, as a sample of that ripened scholarship which produced the Prophecy of Capys, and the episode relating to the Phalaris controversy in the Essay on Sir William Temple.
Rothley Temple: October 7, 1824.
My dear Father,--As to Knight's Magazine, I really do not think that, considering the circumstances under which it is conducted, it can be much censured.

Every magazine must contain a certain quantity of mere ballast, of no value but as it occupies space.

The general tone and spirit of the work will stand a comparison, in a moral point of view, with any periodical publication not professedly religious.

I will venture to say that nothing has appeared in it, at least since the first number, from the pen of any of my friends, which can offend the most fastidious.

Knight is absolutely in our hands, and most desirous to gratify us all, and me in particular.