THE OF Classic and Polite Literature. WITH ENGRAVINGS ILLUSTRATIVE OF "THE PLEASURES OF A View of the Royal Exchange, as Repaired and Beautified in 1821. VOLUME VIII. LONDON: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY JOHN ARLISS, M.DCCC.XXI, Preface. FOUR years have now elapsed since the Prospectus of the Pocket Magazine was submitted to the public. In that prospectus we gave cer tain pledges, all of which have, we trust, been redeemed. We promised that, in our work, we would endeavour " to avoid both dearness and dulness," and that it should certainly "neither wound the feelings, nor vitiate the morals," of those by whom it might be perused. When we affirm that, with respect to three out of four of these particulars, we have rigidly fulfilled the engagement into which we entered, we can dare even our enemies to contradict us. No one, who has any conscience, can pretend that the Pocket Magazine is dear; nor would it be easy to find one of its pages which is contaminated by slander or immorality, Is it, then, liable to the charge of being dull? Its extensive and increasing sale would, perhaps, afford a sufficient answer to this question. A word more must, however, be said upon the subject. Of his own exertions to render the work amusing, the Editor will say nothing; but he owes it to his correspondents to assert the solid worth of their contributions. He believes that very many of the articles, with which he has been supplied by their kindness, need not fear a comparison with the articles in magazines of the highest |