ll._
You allude, sir, I presume, to my review.

_Mr Escot._
Pardon me, sir. You will be convinced it is impossible I can allude to
your review, when I assure you that I have never read a single page of
it.

_Mr Gall, Mr Treacle, Mr Nightshade, and Mr Mac Laurel._
Never read our review! ! ! !

_Mr Escot._
Never. I look on periodical criticism in general to be a species of
shop, where panegyric and defamation are sold, wholesale, retail, and
for exportation. I am not inclined to be a purchaser of these
commodities, or to encourage a trade which I consider pregnant with
mischief.

_Mr Mac Laurel._
I can readily conceive, sir, ye wou'd na wullingly encoorage ony
dealer in panegeeric: but, frae the manner in which ye speak o' the
first creetics an' scholars o' the age, I shou'd think ye wou'd hae a
leetle mair predilaction for deefamation.

_Mr Escot._
I have no predilection, sir, for defamation. I make a point of
speaking the truth on all occasions; and it seldom happens that the
truth can be spoken without some stricken deer pronouncing it a libel.

_Mr Nightshade._
You are perhaps, sir, an enemy to literature in general?

_Mr Escot._
If I were, sir, I should be a better friend to periodical critics.

_Squire Headlong._
Buz!

_Mr Treacle._
May I simply take the liberty to inquire into the basis of your
objection?

_Mr Escot._
I conceive that periodical criticism disseminates superficial
knowledge, and its perpetual adjunct, vanity; that it checks in the
youthful mind the habit of thinking for itself; that it delivers
partial opinions, and thereby misleads the judgment; that it is never
conducted with a view to the general interests of literature, but to
serve the interested ends of individuals, and the miserable purposes
of party.

_Mr Mac Laurel._
Ye ken, sir, a mon mun leeve.

_Mr Escot._
While he can live honourably, naturally, justly, certainly: no longer.

_Mr Mac Laurel._
Every mon, sir, leeves according to his ain notions of honour an'
justice: there is a wee defference amang the learned wi' respact to
the defineetion o' the terms.

_Mr Escot._
I believe it is generally admitted that one of the ingredients of
justice is disinterestedness.

_Mr Mac Laurel._
It is na admetted, sir, amang the pheelosophers of Edinbroo', that
there is ony sic thing as desenterestedness in the warld, or that a
mon can care for onything sae much as