The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor | Page 2

number must ever be
inconsiderable; and of that number the portion must be small indeed,
who could be diverted from that pursuit by the casual perusal of light
fugitive pieces. On the other hand, the great majority of mankind would
be left without inducement to read, if they were not supplied, by
publications of the kind proposed, with matter adapted to their
circumstances, to their capacities, and their various turns of fancy;
matter accessible to them by its conciseness and perspicuity, attractive
by its variety and lightness, and useful by its easy adaptation to the
familiar intercourse of life, and its fitness to enter into the conversation
of rational society. Men whose time and labour are chiefly engrossed
by the common occupations of life, have little leisure to read, none for
what is called study. In books they do not search for deep learning, but
for amusement accompanied with information on general topics,
conveyed with brevity; happy if, in seeking relaxation from the
drudgery of business, they can pick up some new particles of
knowledge. For this most useful and numerous portion of society, some
adequate intellectual provision ought to be made. Nor should it be
imagined that, in supplying them, the general interests of literature are
deserted. The frequent perusal of well collated miscellanies imparts to
youth an appetite for diligent reading; by slow but certain gradation,
stores the young mind with valuable ideas; accumulates in it a large
stock of useful knowledge; and imperceptibly insinuates a correct and
refined taste. Nor is this all. It may serve, as it often has, to rouse the
indolent from the gratification of complexional sloth, and recall the
unthinking and irregular from the haunts of dissipation and vice to the
blessings of serious reflection.
Few things have more tended to inflame the general passion for
literature in Great Britain than the practice of uniting the plan of the
reviews with that of the magazines, and making them jointly vehicles
of dramatic criticism. Multitudes at this day know the character of
books, and form a general conception of their subjects, who, but for the
light periodical publications, would never have known that such books
existed: many who would not otherwise have extended their reading
beyond the columns of a newspaper, are led by the pleasures of a
represented play, to read the critic's strictures upon it, and thence, by a

natural transition, to peruse attentively the various other subjects which
surround those strictures in the magazines. This is the reason why
hundreds read the Monthly Mirror and similar productions of London,
for one who reads the Rambler.
For the passionate love of books, and the rapid advancement of
literature which distinguish her from all young countries, America is
greatly indebted to her periodical publications. Those, though small in
number, and, unfortunately, too often shortlived, have been read in
their respective times and circles with great avidity, and produced a
correspondent effect. THE PORT FOLIO alone raised, long ago, a
spirit in the country which malicious Dulness itself will never be able
to lay. Yet the disproportion in number of those miscellanies which
have succeeded in America, to those which enrich the republic of
letters in England, is astonishing, considering the comparative
population of the two countries. London boasts of several periodical
publications founded on the DRAMA alone; and though the other
magazines occasionally contain short strictures on that subject, those
have the greatest circulation which are most exclusively devoted to the
stage.
IN AMERICA THERE HAS NOT YET BEEN ONE OF THAT
DESCRIPTION.
To supply this defect, and raise the United States one step higher in
laudable emulation with Great Britain, the editors have planned the
present work, of which, (though not to the total exclusion of other
matter) the basis will be
THE DRAMA.
The first and by far the larger share will be allotted to the stage, and
dramatic productions. The residue to miscellaneous articles, most of
them connected with the fashionable amusements, and designed to
correct the abuses, which intemperate ignorance, and Licentiousness,
running riot for want of critical control, have introduced into the public
diversions of this opulent and luxurious city.

In the composition of the several parts of this work, care will be taken
to furnish the public with new and interesting matter, and to select from
the current productions of the British metropolis such topics as will
best tend to promote the cultivation of an elegant taste for knowledge
and letters, and, at the same time, repay the reader for the trouble of
perusal, with amusement and delight. Abstracts from the most popular
publications will be given, accompanied with short critical remarks
upon them, and, whatever appears most interesting in the periodical
productions of Great Britain will be transferred into this; pruned if they
be prolix, and illustrated by