_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 his ain sel: for ye mun observe, sir, every mon has his ain parteecular feelings of what is gude, an' beautifu', an' consentaneous to his ain indiveedual nature, an' desires to see every thing aboot him in that parteecular state which is maist conformable to his ain notions o' the moral an' poleetical fetness o' things. Twa men, sir, shall purchase a piece o' grund atween 'em, and ae mon shall cover his half wi' a park---- _Mr Milestone._ Beautifully laid out in lawns and clumps, with a belt of trees at the circumference, and an artificial lake in the centre.