THE MIRROR
OF
LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.
| Vol. XIX. No. 555.] | SUPPLEMENT TO VOL. XIX. | [PRICE 2d. |
ORIGINAL ESSAYS;
FROM
THE SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS;
DISCOVERIES IN THE ARTS AND SCIENCES;
USEFUL DOMESTIC HINTS;
&c. &c. &c.
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VOL. XIX.
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LONDON:
(Near Somerset House)
1832.
EARL GREY, K.G.,
PREFACE.
Here we are with our Nineteenth Volume complete. We do not carry it toCourt to gain patronage, neither do we preface it with a costly dedicationto a purse-proud patron; but we present it at the levee of the people, asa production in which the information and amusement of one and all areequally kept in view. We know that instances have occurred of authorstiring out their patrons. A pleasant story is told of Spencer, who sentthe manuscript of his Faery Queen to the Earl of Southampton, the Mecaenasof those days; when the earl reading a few pages, ordered the poet to bepaid twenty pounds; reading further, another twenty pounds; and proceedingstill, 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 effectall that can be accomplished in our economical form to follow as well asdirect the public taste.
Experience has taught us in the conduct of nineteen volumes ofthis 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 smatteringof principles is too often found in the place of practice. How canthis order of things be improved but by setting forth duties as innocentpleasures, sweetening utility with entertainment, and garnishing factwith fancy. A man need not study Adam Smith's Wealth of Nationsto become rich, nor seek the glories of nature in artificial Systems.But the contrary notion has probably given rise to the observation, that,"what the present generation have gained in head, they have lost inheart." It should not, however, be so, with the abundance of materialswe have for social improvement.
We hope the reader has recogn