COMPRISING A REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS; BIOGRAPHY; ESSAYS ON SKETCHES OF SOCIETY; HISTORICAL NARRATIVES; EMBELLISHED WITH ENGRAVINGS. Say, should the philosophic mind disdain That good which makes each humbler bosom vain; Let school-taught pride dissemble all it can, These little things are great to little man.-GOLDSMITH. VOL. I. LONDON: PRINTED BY AND FOR HODGSON AND CO. 1824. PREFACE. "KNOWLEDGE IS POWER," said the Philosopher, and it is an axiom few will venture to dispute: it was decidedly during those periods when Literature and Science reached an acme, beyond which they could scarcely soar, that Greece and Rome, and, indeed, all the nations which preceded them, arrived at, and acquired their greatest glory; when, however, they ceased to take pride in the cultivation of the mind, and to consider intellectual acquirements an unnecessary part of their duty, the moral feeling declined, the bonds of integrity were loosened, they became slaves, and quickly lost their rank among nations; in proportion as their illiteracy accumulated, their conduct became debased, their propensities grew vicious in a ratio with their ignorance, and they sunk into the state of degradation and insignificance in which we now find them. We cannot flatter ourselves that in completing our First Volume of SATURDAY NIGHT, we have done much towards that which should be the actuating motive of all publications-the dissemination of knowledge-and we are quite aware that we have offered but little in the way of novelty, yet we have honestly endeavoured to contribute our mite to the Stock Purse-and we can with great truth aver, that in our selections we have zealously striven to avoid inserting any thing that could by possibility be found offensive to modesty. We, therefore, trust we shall not have altogether failed in contributing to the instruction and amusement of our readers; if indeed the patronage with which our pages have been honoured be any criterion by which to judge of public approbation, we have ample cause for exultation-a sure stimulus to future excrtion. Our correspondents have our sincere thanks for their kind assistance, our friends have our gratitude for past favours, and we take our leave for the present, with an assurance, that we shall unceasingly labour to merit a continuance of their good opinion, and that all our future efforts will be guided by a desire to claim for our motto, "Palmam qui meruit ferat." Let him bear the palm who has deserved it. 1 |