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UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE.

NEW SERIES.

CONTAINING

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS

IN

HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, THE BELLES LETTRES,
POLITICS, AMUSEMENTS,

&c. &c.

VOL. IX.

JANUARY to JUNE, INCLUSIVE.

1808.

LONDON :

PRINTED FOR H. D. SYMONDS, NO. 20, PATERNOSTER-ROW;
By whom Communications (post paid) are received.

[Price 10s. 6d. Half Bound.]

Printed by C. Squire, Furnival's-Inn-Court.

BLO

PREFACE.

A PREFACE, a Prologue, and the King's Speech, are three such usual things, and so much alike, that ingenuity is often at a loss to compose them. Yet, what is generally expected must be performed; and it were better to be accused of inanity than of ingratitude. Eight volumes of our New Series are now before the public, in which will be found enough to place us upon an equality with any of our competitors, and some things that advance us above them. To specify, would be invidious: and every reader must be aware in what our Magazine differs essentially from all others.

The progress of the works of man is usually to reach a point of perfection, supported and encouraged by the applauses of the world, and having gained that point, to repose in false confidence upon past exertions without calling forth new ones to preserve or extend the patrimony they have acquired. They forget that it is easier to acquire fame than to keep it: a single lucky effort may exalt to celebrity; but then the world becomes fastidious, and looks for every new attempt to exceed the last. Negligent of this truth, they remain stationary for awhile, and finally fall into a deeper obscurity than that from which they sprung. Hence the many works that once enjoyed extensive popularity, but which now remain magnis nominis umbra.

With this error, however, we yet remain unaffected. From the very commencement of our New Series, the constant wish of the proprietors has been to give added perfection to the work. It was honoured with public patronage, and it became a duty

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