eruse 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