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SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

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PERIODICAL LITERATURE.


Periodical Literature--how sweet is the name! 'Tis a type of many of the
most beautiful things and events in nature; or say, rather, that _they_
are types of _it_--both the flowers and the stars. As to flowers, they
are the prettiest periodicals ever published in folio--the leaves are
wire-wove and hot-pressed by Nature's self; their circulation is wide
over all the land; from castle to cottage they are regularly taken in;
as old age bends over them, his youth is renewed; and you see childhood
poring upon them, prest close to its very bosom. Some of them are
ephemeral, and their contents are exhaled between the rising and the
setting sun. Once a-week others break through their green, pink, or
crimson cover; and how delightful, on the seventh day, smiles in the
sunshine the Sabbath flower--the only Sunday publication perused without
blame by the most religious--even before morning prayer. Each month,
indeed, throughout the whole year, has its own flower-periodical. Some
are annual, some biennial, some triennial, and there are perennials that
seem to live for ever--and yet are still periodical--though our love
will not allow us to know when they die, and phoenix-like re-appear from