TO THE READER. We have brought to a close the first volume of the SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE under the most gratifying circumstances. We anticipated, from the extraordinary lowness of its price, a very large subscribtion to the work, but our most sanguine expectations have been surpassed. The SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE has a larger circulation than any similar periodical in the United States. A liberal patronage uniformly induces excellence. The extent of our present edition, and the prospect of a permanent large circulation, encourage the publisher to hope that the important improvements he is about to make in the Magazine, will add no less to his own profits than to the intrinsic value of the work. The first number of the second volume, and all succeeding numbers, will contain, without any addition to the price of the magazine, EIGHT ADDITIONAL PAGES; the enlargement will be produced by the adoption of a larger sheet; and the postage on each number will be thus reduced one third below the present rate. The SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE, for each month, hereafter, will contain FORTY-EIGHT PAGES of the size now given, printed on paper of the finest quality, and type of the most beautiful style and finish. Its contents, will be of a better description than hitherto, as the publisher has now increased facilities for obtaining every new work that appears in Great Britain, through a careful agent, residing expressly for that purpose in London, and has made many new engagements with distinguished writers, for original contributions to its pages. As heretofore, it will contain the best articles of the BOSTON NOTION, embracing the choicest tales, romances and poetry, published in all the American and foreign periodicals, together with many valuable reviews and elaborate original articles, of a literary, political and scientific character. It will also contain frequently entire novels and plays, and reprints of many valuable and entertaining English books, in advance of any other reprint in this country. The articles generally, will be from the pens of the most eminent writers of Europe and America, such as Bulwer, Knowles, James, Dickens, Cockton, Sergeant Talford, Moore, Marryat, Warren, T. K. Hervey, B. Simmons, Herbert, Simms, Inman, Irving, Cooper, Bryant, Halleck, Longfellow, Fay, Whittier, Tuckerman, McLellan, Holmes, Hoffman, Dewey, Channing, Neal, Ingraham, Mellen, Fields, Woodworth, Pierpont, Bancroft, Mrs. Norton, Mrs. Gore, Mrs. Sigourney, Miss Martineau, Miss Gould, Miss Sedgwick, Miss Leslie, &c., &c. All the best articles of the 'Blackwood,' 'Frazer,' 'Tait,' 'Colburn's New Monthly,''Metropolitan' and 'Dublin University' Magazines; also, the most interesting papers of the 'Southern Literary Messenger,' the 'Knickerbocker,' the 'Ladies' Companion,' the ‘Lady's Book,' 'The Dial,' and other American magazines, will be found in its pages. There fore, as specimens of the literature of the day, in a convenient form for preservation, it will be found highly valuable to all who desire to keep up with the current, without incurring too much expense. Of the English periodicals mentioned, a very large portion of the contents are useless and unin teresting, and it will be the object of the editor of the SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE, to winnow the wheat and throw the chaff away.' The work will occasionally be embellished with a FINE EN GRAVING. From what we have written above it will at once be perceived that the SEMI-Monthly MagaZINE will be decidedly the cheapest periodical in the world. For two dollars it will contain three times as much matter as any of the one dollar periodicals, and as much, and of as excellent a qual ity, as any of the five dollar magazines in the country. We look for a subscription list, during the present year, of from twenty to twenty-five thousand names, confident that the excellence of the work and its unparalleled cheapness will secure for it a circulation in nearly every town and village in the United States. CITY SUBSCRIBERз can have the Magazine left at their houses, on every morning of its publication. It will be for sale by all the agents of the Boston Notion, at eight cents per single copy All subscriptions to be paid for in advance — and no subscriptions received for less than one year. |