Mr Blackwood, however, was too wise a man to build his faith solely upon two supporters, even so loyal and with such almost incredible power of production as that possessed by Lockhart and Wilson: indeed the record of these early years of the Magazine is one continued strain of effort on his part to collect around him, and to secure for his undertaking, the assistance of every man of note whom he happened to come across. It is a fact which a young writer finds it very difficult to understand, that publishers and editors, those dreaded dispensers of literary patronage, door-keepers of the temple of fame, are often just as anxiously on the outlook for new workmen as these workmen are for their favour. But Mr Black wood left no one in doubt on that subject. It was one of what we may call the family jests current in the saloon at Princes Street that the publisher asked everybody whom he encountered to contribute to “my Magazine.” Not a man who had ever strung two lines together escaped this genial invitation; and the delightful faith which made him believe that ‘Maga’ could not fail to inspire every one devoted to her service was in itself inspiring,—so much so, that many a first article enthusiastically received, appears under a name that may rarely occur again, the Founder's warm conviction that whatever was sent him must be good being combined with too much strong sense to survive the contact with practical mediocrity.