in its minute details, be generally and successfully communicated, throughout the length and breadth of our land, except through the intervention of the periodical press? This is a mere exemplification, on an extended scale, of a thousand things, that occur in every day life, among the inhabitants of a civilized country. The ready communication of facts and feeling, from one part of the country to another, forms a distinguishing, and most important feature in the progress of civilization. It is, in fact, wrought into the very constitution of a free state. But this is not the place to pursue the subject.

But we may observe that this communication can only take place through the medium of some such channel, as is afforded by the Periodical press. No writings of private individuals could effect this. The enormous expense incurred, both in acquiring, and circulating the information, would serve as an insuperable barrier to every attempt of the kind, which could be made by the most energetic and persevering individuals to be found among us. It must be achieved by the agency of recognized Journals, having privileges afforded them, both as respects the acquisition of the information and the circulation of it when acquired.

Such a machinery is exhibited in the Newspaper press of this country. Ample opportunities are presented for obtaining the most authentic information, and almost unlimited freedom and facilities for its circulation through the country at large.

As a result of this we find enormous power and influence exercised by these publications. To use the words of the same authority before alluded to; The periodical press greatly contributes to form that public opinion which it undertakes to express; and exercises so much power that it has been called a fourth estate of the realm.'*

Various disadvantages must necessarily attend this system, and various evils result from it. We need only allude to a few of them. In so doing we shall again avail ourselves of the expressions of Mr. Aiken. He pays a meed of respect to the vast talent often exhibited in these publications, while he is fully alive to the evils attendant upon their constitution and the mode in which they are very generally conducted. His words are as follows: While the literary talent employed in the daily press, cultivated as it is by constant practice, is quite remarkable, the habit of discussing every subject on the spur of the moment must often lead to a method of writing which is striking and brilliant rather than just and profound; and mistaken opinions on important questions once adopted, may sometimes be defended with ingenuity and ability worthy of a better cause. We had need, however, to take care that the periodical writing of Newspapers and of the singularly able and spirited articles which appear in our reviews and magazines, be not allowed to provoke harsh and uncharitable sentiments, nor yet implicitly to guide our opinions on vitally important questions. Those articles must generally be hastily written, they are often highly seasoned, and even when there is no deliberate intention to misrepresent, such a habit of writing is very likely to lead to misrepresentation, not only of the characters and opinions of the parties opposed to the writer, but also of the party whose advocate he is.'+

These observations naturally lead us to the point at which we desired

*We are not certain whether this remark was intended by the Author to apply to England or America. Its general bearing seems applicable to both. † Aiken's Lectures p. 160.

to arrive. We have here forcibly placed before us both the advantages and disadvantages incident to Periodical Literature. The great question we design to ask, and which we propose an attempt to answer, is;-How may we most successfully gain the largest share of the former mingled with the smallest portion of the latter? How may we enjoy the benefits to be derived from the periodical press, while we avoid the evils incident to it? Being once thoroughly acquainted with the disease, we shall more successfully prosecute our research to obtain the remedy.

The two evils of hastiness in judgment and expression, and exhibition of party-spirit and feeling will necessarily be supposed to attach more to the productions of the daily press, than to publications issued under circumstances of more deliberation and less excitement. For example, weekly Newspapers (we allude not to country prints) may be naturally inferred to be more deliberate and less excitable in their articles, than the daily press. Monthly periodicals must, in these respects, have a great advantage over weekly publications; while those which are issued quarterly, would seem as if they might be almost entirely exempt from the operation of these incidental evils. But it must be observed that, in proportion as they gain by freedom from hastiness and excitement, they lose by the absence of novelty, and the energetic expression generated by the impulsive interest of events immediately passing around us.

Hence it will be obvious that the paths to be pursued by the different species of Periodicals are decidedly distinct. Many of the more ephemeral events, which may do very well for the columns of a Newspaper, would be quite out of place in the pages of a Magazine; and still more so amidst the Articles of a Review, unless, indeed, they might occasionally be required as illustrative of some general position there laid down, or some particular argument there sustained. On the other hand, much of the contents of the Magazine or Review would be equally out of place in the weekly much more in the daily Newspapers.

In this light we regard with considerable jealousy a somewhat new genus which has of late years sprung up, and which we may perhaps appropriately designate by the term of Newspaper Magazines. The object which these have in view seems to be, an attempt to combine the ephemeral nature of the Newspaper with the deliberation which should characterise the contents of the Magazine. Various modifications of these heterogeneous productions are now to be found in our country, and many of them have attained to a very considerable popularity. We more than doubt the beneficial effects supposed to result from such a mixture. We are inclined to regard the contents of the Newspaper-properly so called-as raised to an eminence which does not justly belong to it, while the Articles worthy of insertion in a Magazine, are injured and degraded by their position in the ephemeral columns of the Newspaper.

That peculiar circumstances may call for something of at least an apparent mixture, we are ready to allow ; but we can never recognise it as a practice which it is desirable should be generally followed. We might venture to ask what is the benefit expected from these mongrel species of periodicals? Is the matter contained in them of a kind that justly demands a periodical publication? Is there a necessity for haste in placing it before the public? Is it better treated in the pages of a Periodical than in works of another character? Is natural history any better in the columns of a Newspaper Magazine, than in the books whence it is

extracted? or do the works of art shine any brighter when inserted to illustrate the trifling contents of a Newspaper, than they would in a more stable and enduring publication?

A variety of such questions might be asked; and the general reply might be made, that a large circulation for much valuable information was thus secured; that much gratification and improvement was afforded to the public mind, while the arts were patronized and encouraged to an extent, hitherto unknown in any age or nation. There may be some truth in this; though perhaps it may be truer to say, that a fashionable mania is thus completely gratified, and an immense pecuniary harvest reaped by the few who have been fortunate enough to hit upon this successful expedient for humouring the public taste, and dazzling the public fancy.

But granting a considerable share of truth to the former allegation; we have yet a most serious question to ask, which is this: Are not the injuries inflicted by this species of publication far greater and more extensive than the benefits gained from them? Do not the disadvantages decidedly preponderate over the advantages resulting from them?

We think they do, and we shall state the grounds of our conviction on this head, leaving it to our readers to determine whether or no, we have truth and reason on our side in the argument. They are as follows. Both of the species of publications-viz. Newspaper Magazines and Picture Newspapers-are, in practice, substituted for works of a more improving kind. We say, in practice, for whatever be the protestations made to the contrary, our own observation thoroughly satisfies us that such is very generally the case. And, indeed, how should it be otherwise? By far the majority of persons have only a limited portion of time to spend in reading of any description: if then a considerable share of this limited period is spent in gazing on the decorations of Picture Newspapers, or glancing over the silly tales mingled with their more sober articles, how can time be spared for sounder and more useful reading? The same objection applies in a considerable measure to the Newspaper Magazines, and to such publications as Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, which we scarcely know how properly to designate. Their contents are of far too desultory a kind to answer the end of either reading or study properly so called, and yet they are made to serve, in great measure, the place of both. Vast quantities of Vast quantities of scraps of every description are brought before us at once-some grave, some gay, some partaking of the nature of ephemeral news, others of literature and science. Art is called into exercise to please the fancy, or gratify the curiosity. Any thing in fact, is had recourse to, for the purpose of garnishing the dish so that it may attract the restless and roving eye, or seasoning its contents so as to suit the diseased and vitiated palate !

Need we say what is the effect of all this? The exact opposite of what reading and thought are designed for. The mind is relaxed and unsettled, instead of strengthened and established. It flutters about from one to other of these dainty dishes, like the butterfly among the flowers of the garden; bearing any resemblance rather than that of the industrous bee, intent upon one object, and gathering honey from every flower to be carefully treasured up in appropriate cells.

To say that the mind starves amidst the apparent superfluity of the intellectual banquet is feeble language, by no means guaging the extent

of the evil inflicted. A mind merely starved will return with zest to an appropriate meal. But such is not the fact in the case we are considering. The mind has not merely been starved. It has by degrees become organically injured, or at least, such is the tendency of the aliment on which it has been attempting to feed. It not only finds no sustenance in the food placed before it, but it gradually learns to reject with loathing more wholesome and substantial nourishment.

Let us leave the language of metaphor and come to that of reality. Is it possible that intellectual attainment or mental culture can be successfully pursued while time is spent and talent mis-employed in poring over the pages of such productions as those to which we have alluded? Let us carefully notice one point. The attitude of the mind, if we may so term it, is different at different periods even of the same day. To pursue reading or study with any beneficial result, we must have our time as well as our subjects of study apportioned and adapted to these varied attitudes of the mind. For example, it would be as absurd to attempt profound study when the physical and mental faculties are wearied and exhausted, as it would be wrong to engage the buoyant spirits and recruited intellectual faculties upon the lighter reading or physical relaxation suited to our hours of weariness and exhaustion. But, in the productions of which we are treating, all subjects seem huddled together without discrimination or congruity. Every attitude of the mind is called for at one and the same time. Study is turned into play, and vice versâ. Thought is interrupted that the eye may gaze on the works of art; or literature suddenly suspended that science may be forcibly introduced.

We ask again with confidence, what is the effect of all this? What but, that which we see continually exemplified around us, the substitution of superficial smattering, in the stead of profound knowledge; habits of restlessness and uncertainty, in the place of soundness of judgment, and decision of character and purpose. The professedly admired, but practically neglected maxim of the Poet, is as true now as ever; and perhaps, the virtual contempt with which it has been treated, has never been more felt than at this moment.—

'A little learning is a dangerous thing,
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring;
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
But drinking deeply sobers us again.'

We might further illustrate the truth of our remarks, by calling attention to the simple fact of the change, which is perpetually taking place in the character and appearance of the species of Periodicals, to which we have alluded. The endless succession of different sorts of the same kind is, in our eyes, a most potent argument against them. Will anybody be found to assert, that the picture Newspapers excel the 'Penny,' or 'Saturday Magazines;' or, to deny, that the former are now very generally substituted for the latter? If these be facts, which cannot be disproved, then what is the deduction necessarily drawn from them? None other than this, that the public taste and sentiment, is on the down-hill road: that the fashionable mania now requires more stimulating, though less nutritious food than it once did; that—in plain terms-it has proceeded from bad to worse, and is advancing continually, in the path which leads away from rectitude of judgment,

correctness of sentiment, and propriety of taste. Surely, no prejudice of partiality, or perverseness of argument, can lead us to the conclusion, that a healthy state of the public mind can be indicated by a willingness, nay, anxiety, to further the progress of these restless successions of semi-ephemeral literature, as, with mighty effort, they succeed in shouldering one another out of place,—in hurling one another down from the boasted eminence, that they may in turn usurp it for themselves! It might seem difficult to determine, whether our houses are more burdened with the masses of such periodicals-too good to be destroyedtoo worthless to be preserved, or our minds more oppressed by the vast medley of undigested matter, which floats promiscuously on the external surface of the intellectual faculties!

But if the effect of such productions is fraught with evil when considered in its reference to mental culture, is not its tendency with regard to religion still more dangerous? To obtain the enormous circulation necessarily required to make them answer the ends of the speculator, religion must well-nigh be excluded, or most cautiously admitted. Religious persons may be burlesqued or caricatured with impunity, in the tales introduced into these works; but may not be fairly represented, much less applauded, without risking an injury to the sale of the periodical.

This remark applies in some measure to almost all-even the best of such publications. It may be safely taken as a very general maxim, that if a Periodical is designed to circulate among all parties, it must be, to a considerable extent, destitute of all principles. If it is to circulate among the world at large, religion must be omitted altogether. If among the religious public in general, all distinguishing features of creed must be avoided. If among the whole body of the Church of England, then, the Conductors must take care to close their eyes and ears against all perception of difference-on essential or non-essential points-to be found either among the lay or clerical members of that church. Everything which manifests adherence to one view of doctrine, discipline or rites, in preference to another, is instantly branded as evincing party-spirit-and the periodical is thrown aside as the organ of a party. For ourselves we are willing that it should be so, as we believe it to be impossible faithfully to proclaim the "whole counsel of God" in the midst of " a crooked and perverse generation," without incurring the reproach of party.

While, however, we cannot but insist on what we consider to be the evils connected with all these species of publications, we are willing to hope that they may in many cases be substituted for worse, as well as for better reading. It would go far to make us look with equanimity, if not with favour-upon such productions, if we could believe that they drew attention from such atrocious papers as the Weekly Dispatchwith its infamous politics, morals and religion (!)-to fix it on matters more conducive to the physical, moral and spiritual welfare of our fellow-countrymen, especially of the lower orders of society.

Having thus mainly dwelt on what may be termed the abuse of Periodical Literature, we purpose, in our next, to point out its proper and legitimate uses, and to offer suggestions towards securing the latter and avoiding the former.

1844.

(To be continued.)

D