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PREFACE.


Here we are with our Nineteenth Volume complete. We do not carry it to
Court to gain patronage, neither do we preface it with a costly dedication
to a purse-proud patron; but we present it at the levee of the people, as
a production in which the information and amusement of one and all are
equally kept in view. We know that instances have occurred of authors
tiring out their patrons. A pleasant story is told of Spencer, who sent
the manuscript of his Faery Queen to the Earl of Southampton, the Mecaenas
of those days; when the earl reading a few pages, ordered the poet to be
paid twenty pounds; reading further, another twenty pounds; and proceeding
still, twenty pounds more; till losing all patience, his lordship cried,
"Go turn that fellow out of the house, for if I read on I shall be ruined."
We have no fear this will be our fate; especially as we strive to effect
all that can be accomplished in our economical form to follow as well as
direct the public taste.

Experience has taught us in the conduct of nineteen volumes of
this Miscellany, that the most effectual method of conveying instruction,
or aiding the progress of knowledge, is by combining it with amusement;
or, in other words by at once aiming at the head and heart.
The world is already too full of precept upon precept; and a smattering
of principles is too often found in the place of practice. How can
this order of things be improved but by setting forth duties as innocent
pleasures, sweetening utility with entertainment, and garnishing fact