PREFACE.

To those, who concern themselves in the advancement of knowledge, and in the general success of literary merit, it cannot but be a matter of much regret to observe how great a proportion of that mass of information which is constantly issuing from the press, upon every topic of discussion, is consigned to undeserved oblivion by the mere vicissitude of daily occurrences. No sooner has any great political, or moral, or scientific question elicited from the collision of conflicting sentiments innumerable sparks of light branching out in all directions, and illustrating the subject

in every possible point of view, than another argument of equal importance arrests in its turn the public attention, and the many bright and valuable hints struck out in the course of its predecessor are disregarded; and, like meteors rather than stars, they cease to exist the moment they cease to shine.

In the metaphor here adopted, we have considered the better sort of those compositions, which, under the appellation of Pamphlets, burst forth upon the public, on every new object of inquiry, as stars; which, for the purpose of concentrating their rays into a more durable, as well as convenient, focus for observation, we propose to collect and combine together into distinct volumes, like so many constellations, by means of which these guides through the obscurity of transient opinions will be made mutually to reflect their light upon each other, and form a body of splendor not easily to be either dissipated or extinguished. The general assemblage of these groups;--the stellar sphere wherein those of any lustre will all find their place as they successively arise on the

horizon of literature, in allusion to their popular denomination, we style

THE PAMPHLETEER,

and we claim to ourselves the merit of originality in the production of a system calculated to exalt the erratic luminaries of the day into the consequence of fixed stars; and, without any change of their relative magnitudes, to give them the advantage of permanence. All that we propose is to project them upon a scale of typographical uniformity proportioned to their several longitudes; and thus to comprize our asterisms within due and nearly equable limits, as well for the symmetry of the arrangement as the convenience of the observer. We may add that, although circumstances may compel them to describe equal areas in unequal times, the periods of their emersion shall be regularly adjusted to the existing masses of their component phænomena.

Such is the theory which we now offer to the curious and scientific part of the public; and we confidently flatter ourselves that, as we shall spare no

exertions, so we shall neither be found to fail in the practice, nor have reason to lament any deficiency of encouragement.

But, like all other new theories, our's, we are well aware, must expect at its outset to meet with many objections. Its novelty, however, we presume to think indisputable; its singularity also can hardly, with any propriety, be questioned, as it resembles none of the periodical productions of the press. From Magazines and Reviews it dif fers in all its essential features-neither imitating the miscellaneous and chaotic confusion of the first, nor the analytical and judiciary processes of the last. It will present all the most accredited and best written pamphlets upon all subjects, as they are published, but without compression or mutilation; and it will also open its repository to original compositions (under the exercise of our own judgment as to their merit) where circumstances of œconomy, or any other consideration, may induce a writer of competent skill to instruct or entertain his contemporaries without incurring the risk of loss on the publication; and, in this