long articles, within thirty days of the decision of the committee. The latter part of the plan is not essential, and may or not be adopted without affecting the residue. The objections against it deserve serious consideration. Communications thus furnished to the authors, may be sent to foreign societies, and published abroad, before the appearance of our volumes.

Arguments in Favour of this Plan.

Much of the usefulness and reputation of a philosophical society depend on its publications. The more frequent they are, provided a rigorous scrutiny be observed as to the merits of the communications, the more useful the society, and the higher its reputation.

The more frequent the publication, the stronger the inducement to authors to contribute their lucubrations.

The system of management heretofore pursued, has been admirably calculated to repress the ambition of authors to exclude their writings from the transactions of this society-and to diminish the interest and usefulness of the transactions.

The Society originated in 1769. Fifty-five years have since elapsed-and only seven volumes have been published, averaging one volume to about eight years-a degree of torpor probably without example, and discreditable to the talent of Pennsylvania. This could not have arisen from dearth of talents, considering the number of eminent men who have flourished here during the existence of the society-and also, that for a considerable time there was scarcely any similar society in the country.

The following is the Order of Publication.

Vol. I. 1771-Vol. II. 1786 Vol. III. 1793—Vol. IV. 1799. -Vol. V. 1802—Vol. VI. 1804 and 1809—Vol. VII. 1818— and the eighth Vol. will appear in 1824.*

*

July, 1830.-This volume was not published till December 31st, 1825, Since which time (four years and a half) a volume has been in progress, and is at present nearly ready for publication. Thus the whole number of volumes, in sixty-one years, is nine-or one in rather less than seven years. The ninth volume, still in quarto, has been issued in five livraisons—one of 63 pages, in 1826—one of 187, in 1827-two of 132, in 1828-and the fifth, which will close the volume, will appear in a few days. The present plan is, doubtless, superior to the former one; the authors receive for their friends, twenty or twenty-five copies of their communications, as soon as they are printed. But the quarto form is a dead weight that hangs like a mill-stone

Thus in twenty years, from the year 1804 to the present time, the society has published but a volume and a half, containing 760 pages, or 38 pages per annum!!! If this do not prove the necessity of a radical change of system, no point ever was or ever will be proved.

The following table will show the length to which the "hope deferred" of the authors has been carried. The numbers on the left hand, denote the order of arrangement in the respective volumes.

Vol. VI. Part II. published July 1, 1809. || Vol. VII. published Feb. 1818.
No. 32. read Oct. 5, 1804.
No. 2. read Nov. 14, 1810!

33.

July 20, 1804.

5.

March 15, 1811!

34.

Nov. 16, 1804.

6.

Feb. 1812!

35.

Nov. 16, 1804.

36.

Nov. 16, 1804.

37.

Sundry times, 1805.

9.

May 20, 1814.

38.

Oct. 18, 1805.

10.

July 15, 1814.

39.

Feb. 7, 1806.

11.

April 21, 1815.

40.

June 20, 1806.

12.

Nov. 3, 1815.

41.

Aug 1, 1806.

13.

Feb. 16, 1816.

42.

Aug. 15, 1806.

14.

May 3, 1816.

43.

Aug. 15, 1806.

15.

May 17, 1816.

44.

March 6, 1807.

20.

June, 1814.

45.

Aug. 15, 1806.

21.

April 19, 1811.

46.

Feb. 10, 1807.

22.

Oct. 4, 1816.

47.

April 17, 1807.

48. April 25, 1807.

49.

Aug. 25, 1807.

29.

July, 1795!!!!

50.

Nov. 6, 1807.

30.

Nov. 4, 1814.

32.

Dec. 1814.

34.

Nov. 15, 1816.

Had it been intended to discourage communications, what better mode could have been adopted? An author who sends an essay to this society, even if it receive their approbation, and be ever so well calculated to be useful, may have to wait 3, 4, 5 or 6 years, before it makes its appearance and all the honour he hoped to derive from it, and which it is calculated to confer, may be transferred to another, who, seizing his ideas from the recital of his communication before the society, or from conversation, may send a furtive essay to some other society, in which parturition is not so very tedious a process. By the very long delay, moreover, the world is deprived of the benefit of such communications as are calculated to extend the bounds of science, and advance the progress of the arts. Under such circumstances, it is not wonderful so few communications about the neck of the Society. It is remarkable, that eight or ten years before I offered this proposition, a resolution was passed to publish in octavo, and not rescinded when the subsequent volume went to press in quarto.

are made to the society the wonder is, that any authors are to be found to submit to such delays. It is no exaggeration to say, that there is more temptation to an American author to send his communications to London, Dublin, or Edinburgh, (and some members of the society have actually pursued this plan) or even to Stockholm, Petersburgh, or Calcutta, than to the American Philosophical Society. In six months he might have a copy of his essay from any one of the three first places -in twelve from the fourth or fifth-and in eighteen from Calcutta. Whereas, I repeat, he may have to wait thrice eighteen months for a copy in the city where his domicil lies!-Four years are a tolerably fair average for the appearance of a communication in our transactions.

To the quarto form, to which some of the members appear to be devotedly attached, the objections are powerful, and far outweigh all the arguments in its favour.

1. It requires twice as long to furnish matter for a quarto as for an octavo.

2. It is twice as expensive-and the difficulty of procuring an adequate subscription is at least three times as great. Three or four persons would subscribe for an octavo number, of the proposed extent, at 125 or 150 cents, for one who would subscribe for a quarto at five dollars. Published in numbers at those prices, a subscription might be filled without difficulty in a week. In fact, it would not be beyond the resources of the society, to publish at its own expense, without any subscription.

3. Quartos are inconvenient, unpopular, and unsaleable. During between thirty and forty years that I have carried on business as a bookseller, a considerable portion of the time on as extensive a scale at least, as any man in this country, I have not sold forty quarto volumes, except Bibles-and have no recollection of having ever sold a copy of the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. Whereas, in the 8vo. form, they would be an object with the booksellers-and would probably be generally ordered by public libraries, and frequently by private gentlemen. Copies of valuable quartos have remained on my shelves for two or three years-whereas, of the same works, when subsequently published in 8vo., I have sold 50, 100, or 150 copies.

Against the proposed alteration of the size, I have heard but three objections, which appear as dust in the balance.

1. That, as we receive quarto volumes from so many societies, we ought to send quartos in return!!

2. That having lately begun a new series, it is improper to make a change so soon.

3. That it is disadvantageous to fold plates in 8vo.

Were the value of books to be decided by weight or size, the first objection might deserve some attention. But as the value depends on the contents, the objection falls to the ground. And it is invalid, even were Philosophical Societies collections of huckstering traders, resolved to lose nothing of weight or measure. For if the proposed plan be adopted, there cannot be a doubt that there will be abundance of matter, to publish probably two volumes in a year, or, at all events, three in two years; and thus the societies with which we exchange, will receive three or four times the quantity they have received heretofore.

The second objection has little weight. If the disadvantages of the quarto form, and the superiority of the octavo, are only half as great as I have stated-and I feel confident, that on a candid examination, they will not be at all controverted-a change cannot be too soon made. That it will take place ultimately, cannot be doubted. The only subject of regret is, that the mania of copying European examples, led to the adoption of the quarto form originally, so very ill suited to the circumstances of the country; and has prevented the change for such a length of time. Twelve or fifteen years have elapsed, since a large number of the members were persuaded of the superiority of the proposed size, and were extremely desirous of a change-but their efforts were baffled by the tenacity with which, as at present, a small number of influential members ardently supported the old system.

In reply to the third objection it may be observed that large plates accompany octavos in every part of Europe, and most of our plates may, without any disadvantage, be generally contracted. Or if the plates be too large, and not susceptible of contraction, they may be bound separately in the atlas form.

Some members, opposed to the 8vo. form, offer a sort of compromise, that is, to publish in quarto numbers. This mode, it is true, would lessen the objections to the present plan. But it would be a miserable palliative. Quarto pamphlets are still more inconvenient than quarto books. For usefulness, which ought to be the primary object of the society, the quarto

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HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

form is liable to insuperable objections. Were books published for parade and show, the folio would be preferable. Your obedient, humble servant,

Philadelphia, April 4, 1824.

MATHEW CAREY.

Octavo Transactions in the Library of the American Philosophical Society.

Of the Bath and West of England Society, 14 vols. in 31 years.

Of the Economical Society of Berne, 17 vols. in 11 years.

Of the Dublin Society, 8 vols. in 11 years.

Of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, 7 vols. in 13 years.

Of the Royal Antiquarian Society of France, 3 vols. in 4 years.

Of the Swedish Royal Academy, 43 vols. in 43 years.

Of the Academy of Sciences at Turin, 6 vols. in 16 years.
Journal of the Sciences and Arts, 15 vols. in 7 years.

Asiatic Researches republished in London in 8vo.

Of the Batavian Literary Society.

Of the Dutch Philosophical Society at Haerlem, 30 vols. in 39 years. Of the London Society for the promotion of arts, manufactures, and com merce, 40 vols. in 40 years.

(CIRCULAR.)

To the Members of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

GENTLEMEN,

Permit me to congratulate you on the publication of the Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, a work which reflects credit on the writers, by its contents, and on the Society, by the promptitude of its completion, and the handsome manner in which it is presented to the public.

This publication recalls to mind a plan which I formed when a bookseller, many years since, (when I contemplated making an effort to establish an historical society) but which, like many other of my plans, has never been carried into operation -a plan by which all that is valuable respecting the antiquities of this country, may, in a few years, be preserved and handed down to remote posterity. Its great recommendation is, that although eminently beneficial, it is simple and perfectly practicable, with moderate exertions, and with little or no pecuniary sacrifice on the part of the Society.