and their Contributors_, 1741-1850. Philadelphia, Robert M.
Lindsay, 1892. Preface, p. 5.]

In spite of the difficulties just mentioned it has been possible,
after an extended search, to find enough volumes of the magazines to
form an almost complete list for the period in question. What
omissions there may be are, for the most part, obscure and unimportant
publications, which failed to attract enough attention to be included
in the large collections of this class of literature. One condition
favored the preservation of the American magazines; there were a few
institutions, like the Philadelphia Library Company, the American
Philosophical Society, and others, which were in existence during the
period when most of these publications were issued. It has been
possible for them to amass a fairly representative collection of
contemporaneous literature. On the other hand, more recent
institutions, like the Boston Public Library or the Library of
Congress, have displayed such industry in collecting, that they now
have splendid lists of these early periodicals.

The plan of the present investigation has been, therefore, to visit
those libraries where large numbers of the books needed are located
and thus, by combining the material secured in the different places,
to approach as near as possible to completeness. One library fills out
the gaps of another and it often happens that, in order to see the
entire set of a magazine, it is necessary to visit three or four
libraries. A record has been kept as to where the individual volumes
are, but as useful as this information might be for those working in
the same or in a kindred field it has been found too complex to be
indicated in the list of magazines given in Part V.[15] The material
here included is based on a personal examination of about three
hundred volumes representing one hundred and twenty-eight different
magazines.

[Footnote 15: A list of the libraries consulted is given at
the beginning of Part V.]

In treating the German influence in the American magazines, it is
important to consider the position which the magazine held during this
early period. Difference in conditions enabled the periodical to play
quite a different role from that which it now plays. In the eighteenth
century, as compared with the present day, free libraries were scarce
and readers had to depend largely on the books they could buy or
borrow. Then, too, books were expensive, becau