You have given me great pleasure in your communication of yesterday, that the Editorship of the Q. R. is at length finally adjusted.
Unquestionably, on this occasion, you have proceeded, step by step, with all the prudence and consideration such an important event, I may say to the world, as well as to yourself, has painfully required. A better choice, perhaps, it is impossible to make—that it is an excellent one, you have many reasons to infer.
The present Editor, we may imagine, has had the advantage of a gradual initiation—and his mind warmed by the same principles, is fully impressed by the character which marked out his celebrated predecessor. The particular excellences of Mr. Gifford are the new Editor’s inheritance, and to preserve this entire, would be sufficient to secure superiority.
But of a periodical work, whose prosperity mainly depends on the movable nature of the age, it may well deserve consideration, whether it be not absolutely necessary to improve an old inheritance by new possessions. What may have been sometimes left undone in the former Quarterlies, may yet be accomplished in the new ones; and it is in human nature that a successor has certain advantages over his predecessor.
The mantle has been caught, and comes instinct with
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