While plenty round its spacious waves bestow,
Still it flows on, and shall for ever flow.





THE NEWSPAPER



E quibus, hi vacuas implent sermonibus aures:
Hi narrata ferunt alio; mensuraque ficti
Crescit, et auditis aliquid novus adjicit auctor:
Illic Credulitas, illic temerarius Error,
Vanaque Laetitia est, consternatique Timores,
Seditioque repens, dubioque auctore Susurri.
OVID, Metamorphoses


THE ARGUMENT

This not a Time favourable to Poetical Composition: and why--
Newspapers enemies to Literature, and their general Influence--Their
Numbers--The Sunday Monitor--Their general Character--Their Effect
upon Individuals--upon Society--in the Country--The Village
Freeholder--What Kind of Composition a Newspaper is; and the
Amusement it affords--Of what Parts it is chiefly composed--Articles
of Intelligence: Advertisements: The Stage: Quacks: Puffing--The
Correspondents to a Newspaper, political and poetical--Advice to the