THE DIRECTOR; A LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL. TO BE PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY, DURING THE WINTER SEASON. THE OBJECT OF THIS PAPER IS, THE CIRCULATION PARTS OF THE EMPIRE. AND OTHER LONDON: PUBLISHED BY LONGMAN, HURST, REES, AND ORME, PATERNOSTER ROW; WILLIAM MILLER, PRINTED BY WILLIAM SAVAGE, BEDFORD BURY. Price One Shilling. THE DIRECTOR. No. I. SATURDAY, JAN. 24, 1807. Sortiti ingenium, divinorumque capaces, Juv. Sat. 15. Gifted with superior powers, And capable of things divine, 'tis ours, And from high Heaven deduce that better part, THE MORAL SENSE Gifford's Juvenal. THE boundary between savage and civilized man, between the most abject and the most elevated of our species, is marked and defined by the progress of the ARTS and SCIENCES. Their influence in cultivating and civilizing the human mind, the inventions and improvements to which they have given birth, and the domestic habits and affections which insensibly entwine themselves with their growth and cultivation, and acquire strength and power by their increase and prevalence, have produced, and for ever will produce, the most beneficial and important effects on the happiness and well being, the character and capacity, of man. But it is not merely in the civilization of savage man, and in the supply of the advantages of social life, that the arts and sciences are of important benefit. It is not merely in the infancy of society, but in its maturity and progress of existence, that they are eminently useful. Against the prevalence of that sensuality, which has corrupted and destroyed a succession of great empires where the arts and sciences have not been duly cultivated, they offer a delightful and efficacious remedy; protracting the period of decay and dissolution, and supplying from intellectual sources the rich gift of immortality. IMPRESSED with these considerations, deeply and fervently as the Knight of La Mancha was filled with that enthusiasm which spurred him on to glory, I am resolved that my countrymen shall be indebted to me, for the chivalrous attempt to promote, improve, and refine, the arts and sciences in the British empire. For this purpose I have opened a correspondence with members of the Royal Society, and of the Royal Academy; of the Societies of Antiquaries and of Arts, and of the Royal, London, and British Institutions. Some account of the Lectures of the two first Institutions, a statement of the progress of the British Gallery, and minutes of the proceedings of these and of the other learned bodies above mentioned, will form a kind of supplement to each paper. The arts of building and music, so singularly united in the person of Amphion, will not be neglected. I once had the honour of being a scraper, and when occasion may serve, shall take the liberty, though not clothed with a musical degree, to offer my opinion on the powers |