“And I turned my eyes, and behold two beasts came from the lands of the borders of the South; and when I saw them I wondered with great admiration.... And they came unto the man ... and they said unto him, Give us of thy wealth, that we may eat and live ... and they proffered him a Book; and they said unto him, Take Thou this and give us a sum of money, ... and we will put words into the Book that will astonish the children of thy people.... And the man hearkened unto their voice, and he took the Book and gave them a piece of money, and they went away rejoicing in their hearts.... But after many days they put no words in the Book; and the man was astonished and waxed wroth, and he said unto them, What is this that ye have done unto me, and how shall I answer those to whom I am engaged? And they said, what is that to us? See thou to that.”[68] [68] Mrs. Oliphant: _Annals of a Publishing House_, V. i, p. 119-20 All this seems innocent tomfoolery enough--pure parody on our friend Ebony, and the two beasts Pringle and Cleghorn who “put no words in the Book”. But that was not all, Constable and the _Edinburgh Review_ figured prominently; and Sir Walter Scott who, we are told, “almost choked with laughter”, and Wilson and Lockhart and Hogg. “There lived also a man that was _crafty_ in council ... and he had a notable horn in his forehead with which he ruled the nations. And I saw the horn that it had eyes, and a mouth speaking great things, and it magnified itself ... and it cast down the truth to the ground and it practised and prospered.”[69] [69] Ibid., V. i, p. 121 Constable never outlived this name of the Crafty and the reputation of the _Edinburgh Review_ for “magnifying itself” lives to the present day. “The beautiful leopard from the valley of the palm-trees” (meaning Wilson) “called from a far country the Scorpion which delighted to sting the faces of men”, (Lockhart, of course) “that he might sting sorely the countenance of the man that is crafty, and of the two beasts.