The completion of the Twentieth Volume of this Miscellany presents us
with another cause for self-gratulation, and thankful acknowledgement
to the reading public. This continued and unimpaired success amidst
a myriad of new-born aspirants, is the best proof of our maintenance
of public esteem; and so long as our efforts are guided by the same
singleness of purpose that first directed them we shall hope for
a continuance of such favour. A multitude of contemporaries "whet
each other;" "thinking nurseth thinking;" and, in like manner,
reading nurseth reading, and awakens a spirit of inquiry, untiring
and exhaustless, among all concerned in pursuit and wholesome
gratification.

In a retrospect of the hundreds of competitors who have started
for the prize of public patronage since our outset, we shall not,
perhaps, be accused of vanity in placing to our own account the first
appropriation of such means as may have contributed to the partial
success of our contemporaries. We owe them nothing but good will;
for we rather regard things poetically than politically, and we are
anxious to inform and amuse the reader--not to perplex, by constantly
reminding him of his uncheery lot in life.

Ten years' establishment in periodical literature may give us a
sort of patriarchal feeling towards others; for, with one exception
THE MIRROR is the oldest weekly journal of the metropolis. In this
comparatively long career, our best energies have been directed to the
progressive improvement of each department of the work. The plan of
embellishment, which may be said to have originated with THE MIRROR,
has been extended and improved, until few subjects are incapable of
successful illustration in its pages; due regard being paid to nicety