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To Mr URBAN, on compleating the Twenty Fifth Volume of bis Magazine.n

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anoinigTILL through the Changes of the circling Year, mo
With Time's fwift Footfleps, Urban, thine appear
With Peace, now buy in the farming Mart, dost
The Guide of Commerce, and the Friend of Art:
Now with Bellona, on the hoftile Plain,

-LV SA 2000167

19
31 qd You mark the Battle, and embalm the Slain s

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And now o'er Fields of golden Harvests rove,
lass Or teach our Hinds to plant th' exotic Grove.
Anon, with Looks aghaft, you fowly fray.
Where falling Tow'rs aftruct the treach'rous Way;
Old Ocean's deep deferted Caves explore,
And trace his Inroads on the frighted Shore:
Again the Mufe invites, in happier Hours,
To Laurel Shades, and Amaranthine Bow'rs;
Or Hift'ry leads you to the fecret Cell,
Where antient Truth and Retrospection dwell.
The fifting Scenes you catch, and e'er they fly
Your Page reflects them to the diftant Eye;
There future Times the prefent shall behold,
And learn the Precept by Example told.

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Ab I like thy Work, would TIME our Lives improve,
And not one changing Scene in vain remove,
From each fome Gain derive for future Days,
That ev'ry Eve may claim To-morrow's Praife!

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EXPLANATION of the FRONTISPIECE.

TH

HE Scene is the great Arch of St John's Gate, under which is an Altar facred to Industry, as appears by the Device, Bees gathering Honey from various Flowers, to which a little Genius is pointing. The Figure next to the Genius, between the Altar and the Pillar of the Arch, reprefents the Editor of the Magazine, who is receiving from Minerva, the Emblem of Literature, a Scroll, containing feveral felect Articles in the laft Year's Collection. Behind Minerva appears Tragedy, and at her Right Hand Comedy, alluding to our Account of Plays. Mercury, the emblem of Trade, Commerce, manual Arts, and publick Intelligence, appears in the Air with a Paper relative to the Hiftorica Chronicle, Behind the Figure of Tragedy appears an old Man, intended to reprefent Experience, who is reading, and fuppofed to be making Extracts from various Authors.

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PREFACE.

S another Volume of our Wason we must again acknowledge our obliis now compleated, another Preface is be

come neceffary; upon

gations to our correfpondents, whofe contributions have enabled us to excel our imitators, and given our Mifcellany the merit of an original work. To thefe we think we than afford fome amufement, by exhibiting the various opinions. of different claffes among our numerous readers concerning their respective contributions; and each will probably obferve with fome pleasure, that his particular part is confidered by many as that which alone gives value to the whole. The various opinions and advice which we fhall infert, are recollected parts of various converfations concerning our work, and as far as we have been able the manner of the speakers is preferved, whofe characters will be fufficiently known, by the names we have given them gyroll motor *.

the value of your work, in the opinion of all fenfible and fober men: As to the other articles, tho' I do not much relish your antiquities, or your accounts of fhells and mushrooms, and old towns, yet as there are some speculative perfons among the clergy, and others, to whom they may afford an innocent amusement, I am content they should remain,, P

JACK DACTYL.ftate pamphleteers, it would greatly encreafe PShaw!-Prithee Urban-why what the de vil-thou'rt a good fenfible fellow in fome things, but d-n it why doft fill four or pages of thy book every month with the dreams of thofe old wizards the antiquarians ? What the devil have we to do with old fcraps of ftone, which fome of our Gothic ancestors fcratched a face upon that would difgrace a barber's block? What are we the better for finding out that fome bald pated drone of a monk laid up his ufelefs trotters in the corner of his Abbey, about 500 years ago? Or that an old woman in the 13th century did hot 80 the fame way to a country market that her great great grand children of the tenth gene ratio do now ?-Upon my word it is very ill judged of you, and those that are your friends will tell you fo. Then there is your confounded politics. Why who doft think regards po litics, but the queer old puts that no body regards? Prithee clear away this rubbish, and give us 4 or 5 more pages of poetry, enlarge your account of plays, add fome obfervations upon the opera, give a few more entertaining Lories, and don't be fo fparing of your smart criticifms on new pieces. Do, prithee Urban,wondered by what ftrange fatality it happens

be advised, thy book's a pretty book in the main, but fome of it was always d—n'd dry, and its pity,-d-me if it en't.

Mr TRADE WELL.

MI URBAN,

Am very forry that any part of your useful and entertaining work fhould be facrificed to vain and trifling fubjects. I always find ot 4 pages of paltry rhimes, which fome amotous or idle coxcomb has thrown away his time upon: I have alio been offended at the frothy merryment of your Connoiffeurs, and the unit proving tattle of the World, which you now but I think not with your ufual fugacity, part of your work; you have likewife of Inter fquandered away 4 or 5 pages more, in a Count of every new play, which can only tickle the fancy of idle and voluptuous youth; If you would entirely omit the fe articles, and their ftead give us a la ger and more particular account or publick affairs, the general topics of debare in the great affembly of the nation, a far state of fuch political questions as relate to cur publick conduct in this remarkable crifis, asi tome feaionable animadverfions on our

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Mr JONATHAN VERTU, Am extreamly pleafed, Mr Urban, to fee that you are fludious in fome measure to ledge not of words, but of things. You have improve true fcience, and propagate the knowof late published many curious pieces of natural hiftory, and fome papers on certain unTeftimable value, but I am furprized that you noticed remains of antiquity, which are of inadmit diflertations which are merely philological; difputes about the propriety of subs and

bich, when both equally convey the meaning of the writer; conjectures whether a maker of plays invented or borrowed his plot; ftories thar are profeffedly without truth, and verses that are altogether without use. I have alfo

that you, and others who have adopted your plan, fhould always fill fo many pages with fubjects of political difpute, with questions that your readers cannot influence, and about which therefore it is manifeftly lofs of time to think. Pray, Mr Urban, let thefe ufelefs and ridiculous articles be abridged, and enlarge thofe that will fupport your work without difgracing

your readers.

Mr SYLVESTER POLYGLOT.
Mr URBAN,

AT a time when every other thing is polith

guage futely fhould not be neglected. The are ed into elegance and refinement, our lanof expreffing the vaft variety of ideas that arife in the human mind, with all their different modes and combinations, by mere diversity of found, hath with great reafon been fuppofed of divine origin, at deaft the art of exciting the ideas of all thefe founds by the combination of a few fimple characters is fuppofed to have been firft imparted to Mojes upon the mount; what then is to worthy an object of our ftudy as language; efpecially as truth itself dependeth upon the perfpicuity of language, and as no

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PREFACE.

thing is of equal importance with truth. You have, indeed, generally allotted fome pages of your work to Philology, but the importance of the subject certainly requireth that you should allot more; and, in favour of this, I think your mechanical, meteorological, and aftronomical articles might well be fpared; for of what ufe, but to gratify a vain curiofity, is it to calculate the time when a comet will again become visible, or fome remote planet fuifer an eclipfe? To determine whether electricity be the caule of thunder and lightening, or what is the caufe of electricity? And why should the claffic fcholar be denied a more refined entertainment, while you inftru&a handicraftíman in the application of a mechanical power? I nope, My Urban, that there hints. will not be neglected as it is manifeftly your intereft to perfue them.

Mr JACOB LEMMA. Mr URBAN.

Ertainly there is no part of your periodical miscellany, whence refultech fo great utility, as from that which treateth on mechanis, aftronomy, and other branches of the mathematics. To this fcience do we manifertly qwe almost all that we poffefs more than do the wild Indians in America, or the Hottents on the Cape of Good Hope. Upon the mathematics do depend navigation and manufacture, the two great fprings whence iffuc national opulence, private emolument, and whatever diftinguisheth and adorneth civil life. Howbeit, on thefe fubjects you are more parfimonious than on those which do much leis deferve your attention. Why should not your medical article be wholly fuppreffed, fince in medicine there is fuch uncertainty, that it deferveth not the name of a fcience. There are other topics upon which I could animadvert, but I truft it is unneceflary, fince the thing peaketh itself.

Dr PULSE.

Here is no part of the Gentleman's Maga

A, to which I was one of the earlicft contributors, that is calculated to be more generally ferviceable to mankind, than the Wicteorological Diary, connected with a judi

ous account of the difeafes that happen to predominate as the weather changes in this uncertain climate; and I think, Mr Urban, that if you could procure fuch accounts from every confiderable town in the kingdom, you' might fill eight or ten pages of your work to much more advantage than at prefent. In my opinion, the lives that you have given from time to time can have very little practical influence upon the reader: What is it to us how a man who has been dead long enough to be forgotten, spent his time when he was alive; or in what manner a strolling actrefs evaded the diligence of a bailiff, or raifed contributions on her friends? Your ac count of books too, I think, should be contracted to a mcer catalogue, for if a book has ment it should be all read, if it has not merit, it is a waste of time to write or even read an extract or an epitome.

Mr R US.

Blography, my good friend, is at once fo ufe

ful and fo entertaining, that I think no part of literature more deferves our attention, and I take this opportunity to declare how glad I am to fee it introduced into a work which goes into fo many hands as the Gentleman's Magazine. You know that a very great genius has told us,

The proper ftudy of mankind is man,

his faults, his excellencies, his paffions and their effects, and where can we learn this fo well, as in well written accounts of particular perfons, which reflect the image of life as from a mirrour, and by fhewing us what others have been, inftruct us what we are or may be. Your account of books, whether in your catalogue, or a feparate article, is a very valuable, and to me a very enter taining part of your collection. We that live at a distance are guarded against the fallacy of fpecious titles, and directed what books to purchafe and what to neglect: Thus you at once affift the ftudent, reward the genius, and difcourage the dunce. I read many of your other articles with pleature, but there is not one that I would not give up upon condition. that these should be enlarged.

Such is the various advice which the Editor of the GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE perpetually receives; from the whole tenor of which he thinks he may fairly inter, funt his prefent plan ought to be purfued without the leaft alteration; he has aho reafon to conclude, that the feveral articles in his mifcellany are excellent in their kind, as they are approved of by thofe to whofe particular studies they relate, and flighted only by thote whofe ftudies have been confined to other fub jects. As this is an excellence which one mind could never give to any work, we mult once more contels that we owe it to our friends, and once more entreat, that their favours may be continued.

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