網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small]

154854

LONDON: J. B. NICHOLS AND SON, PRINTERS, 25, PARLIAMENT STREET.

PREFACE.

PERHAPS the office of a Magazine like ours may be said to be twofold; the one to point out the constant progress of Literature and the Arts, by the exertions of others; and the other to contribute itself to their improvement. The former duty is performed by due notices of the works published, by accounts of the most remarkable and valuable discussions in Literary and Scientific Societies, and by records of discoveries made known through other channels of information. The second duty we are enabled to execute through the friendly assistance of our Correspondents, who each contribute something to improve their own branches of study, and thus, by the judicious combination of individual effort, is the general structure of literature elevated and enlarged.

Again, while each one has some favourite walk in literature, which he prefers to all others, and which he delights in improving, and on which the great attention of his mind is concentrated; yet, by a natural curiosity, as well as by the intimate alliance of the different branches of learning with each other, he is not willing to be unacquainted with the progress of other minds, and the conquests that are making on those realms of knowledge which are more or less adjacent to his own. To effect this, however, by the perusal of all the original works, would be a labour impossible to undėrgo; and, as a general survey of the map of knowledge is all that is required, the Magazine offers the most ready and available means of supplying what is wanted, not only by pointing out the progress and direction of the stream, but by marking the objects most worthy of attention that are reflected in its bosom. Much time is saved, and labour spared, by our curiosity being at once rightly directed to the prominent and proper objects, and by having some faithful and attentive guide in our intellectual pursuits. The more authors that arise, the more critics will follow in their train; if new Magazines and Reviews start up, as they

« 上一頁繼續 »