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of which have been long fown in the conftitution. Rheumatifm feems to have been lefs common than ufual at the feafon; this is the more remarkable, because the changes of the weather have been most uncommonly fudden and frequent.

The cold weather prefents us more cafes of fractured bones, than the warm feafon in general.

Many inftances of vaccination, in this town, have not come to our know

ledge. But we shall not peak confidently on this fubject, as by a let ter from an eminent vaccinator in the neighbourhood of Bofton, we are informed that he had fifty one cafes during the month of November. He has not however told us how many he has inoculated this month; a circumftance to be regretted, for we fhould be glad to have his returns monthly, to aflift in forming the general estimate.

NOTES BY THE EDITORS.

WITH this number we close the second volume of the AntholoKy. We dismiss it from our hands with neither pride nor depres sion; with tranquillity, though not with indifference. The work, which it has been the amusement of so many idle hours to adorn, we doubtless regard with some affection; but we have enough either of philosophy or nonchalance, not to murmur if the world should be less fond of it than ourselves. We well know too, that if allour wishes should be gratified, the writers of a magazine can have erected no very lofty or imperishable monument. We shall not therefore repine if we should be unable like Horace and Ovid to laugh at the corrosion of time; nor shall we join the lamentation of Cicero, though our fame should be circumscribed by even narrower limits than the stream of the Ganges and the cliffs of Caucasus.

If this volume is in any degree, what we have wished to make it, it will be considered as a contribution to good literature and good principles. We have endeavoured to add something to the general stock of innocent gaiety; something to the improvement of the lite rature of our country, and something to the revival and diffusion of undefiled taste. We claim at least the praise of good feelings and good intentions. If it be said that our observations have sometimes been tinged with severity, it is because it is our belief, that the disor ders of American literature are to be cured by causticks and the lancet, and that palliatives and gentle remedies will only film over and conceal the disease, till its virulence is confirmed and diffused throughout the system. It is true we have occasionally given ourselves some license. We have told some truth without much mer cy, and called things by their names without much paraphrasis. But Je ne puis rien nommer, si ce n'est par son nom, J'appelle un chat, un chat.

We venture not however to say, that we have not written quadam acriter et quædam cum bile; but we say and we feel, that our criti cism has not been embittered by personal rancour, and that we have not sheltered ourselves behind the shield of invisibility in order to cast with impunity the poisoned weapons of dishonourable warfare.

Most of the difficulties, which we felt at the commencement of the year, we have succeeded in overcoming, and have had the satisfaction of seeing the names of our subscribers doubled within that period. There is one however, which we have been unable to conquer. Our predecessors have been uniformly favourites of the ladics, while we have received from them only frowns and neglect. _ So, alas! it must continue to be. If they are grave, we cannot recal their smiles by tales of love or commentaries on fashions; if they are weary, we cannot reanimate attention by the liveliness of the acrostick, or the mysteries of the rebus; if they turn from us, we cannot allure them to return by the raptures of sensibility, or the musick of scandal. We can hope for no patronage from the divinities of the country for none of us have talents

To sport with Amaryllis in the shade

Or with the tangles of Nexras' hair;

nor can we have more ardent expectations from the belles of the city; for all our phizzes are too hopelessly ugly to be moulded into a simper, or tortured into an ogle.

Seriously however. It is our pride and our praise that we have never sought patronage by making our work popular and insipid; that we have never sought the praise of any one who does not relish manly thinking and manly literature. We shall go on therefore with cheerfulness in the course we have begun; satisfied with the patronage with which we are already honoured; patronage from sources, which we must be indeed proud to think we merit. In order however to make our work more worthy their encouragement, we begin our new volume with augmented resources, and its size greatly enlarged.

Before however we commence a new year it is our duty to declare, that the object of our work is, and ever has been, EXCLUSIVELY LITERARY. On the solemn and awful mysteries of some of the subjects of theology, many of us are unqualified to judge, and on them all of us hesitate presumptuously to decide. We feel ourselves therefore pledged to the support of no system, and when any theological work passes under our examination, it will only be in the regular survey of the literature of our country. We reject too and disdain the accusation that the person or the 'opinions of any individual are the objects of our persecution; and if any man thinks thus of us, let him be told, that he exalts himself into an importance which we never dreamed of giving either to his talents, or his influence.

In order to finish the play of Calidas in the prefent number, we give eight additional pages. This, with the Index, has fwelled the number to an unufual fize, and will be an apology for the want of the ufual punctilious regularity which we endeavour to obferve.

We are unwillingly conftrained to poftpone the defcription of the falls of Niagara to the number for January.

The causes will be obvious, which make the Review in the present number more scanty than usual. We are compelled with regret to exclude reviews of the Transactions of the American Academy, of the Report of Judge Chase's trial, of the life of Dr. Johnson, &c. which our more enlarged limits the next year will enable us to present to the publick.

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