A range, however, so ample, cannot be without its limitations. There are some provinces of the essayist into which it is our intention rarely to intrude, and there are other purposes to which such lucubra tions have been applied, which we desire altogether to avoid. We have no intention to assume the thorny sceptre of criticism, so far as our contemporaries are concerned,-a restriction, however, which must be understood as not limiting us in our remarks on the taste and manners of the age, which, of course, are frequently to be judged by the works which they reject or receive with approbation. We shall not, therefore, deem any thing | lighter literature, from the epic to the draforeign to our pages which comes within ma, lic before us as before our predeces. the circle of general literature; a compass sors, with the privilege of varying them by which we assume, not as pretending to moral fiction, or inoffensive pleasantry. How write de omni scibili, but in order, by ex- far the supporters of the present publica. tending our plan so widely, to facilitate the tion may be found qualified to avail themsupply of respectable materials. selves of these boundless materials is a different question. By making the trial they plainly intimate some confidence in their own powers, and it would be absurd affec tation to disclaim hopes of pleasing the public when addressing them in order to bespeak their favour. They may, however, state, without any misplaced modesty, that they are aware that very considerable talents have been employed in this kind of writing without producing that powerful effect on the public mind, or obtaining that general reception, which is the most obvious proof of success. But still the same text which tells us, that "the race is not to the swift, or the battle to the strong," promises the benefit of that time and chance which happen unto all men, and entitles us to eke out the half confidence which we repose in our powers of entertaining the public, with a half hope that it may be our good fortune to find the public in a humour to be entertained. To this confidence in good fortune, which all possess, though it can only in some instances be justified by success, we owe recruits to our army and navy, for to it belong the marshals' batons, and admirals' flags, and stars, and ribbands, which dazzle the imagination of young midshipmen and ensigns; the bar would be thinned, were all the young counsellors struck off, before the eyes of whose fancy silk gowns and purple and crimson robes are glancing; and, last not least, our national perplexity would be sorely increased by the whole lottery-tickets of the most unparalleled plan ever arran In like manner, it is our intention to avoid all political discussion by which partizans on either side can justly be offended, although we reserve to ourselves the freedom of touching occasionally (should we find our power competent to the task) upon the great principles of legislation, as essential to the stability of government and the happiness of the governed. But controversy on any subject, and satire of any sort, by which private characters may suffer, it is our purpose to avoid, as the most dangerous quicksand on which our little vessel could be grounded. Within these restrictions there remains an ample and inexhaustible harvest for the periodical essayist, were the labourer strong in proportion to its extent. Men and manners, past and present, the whole range of ged being left in the hands of Branscombe, Richardson, and the other good-natured brokers of tickets, who judiciously talk to every customer, with the same confidence and the same success, of the great probability of his obtaining the 20,000l. prize. If, therefore, all avenues to rank, fortune, and fame, are overcrowded by Hope, who, like a master of ceremonies at his annual ball, takes care to issue tickets for ten times the number that the place can accommodate, why should we not thrust ourselves forward in the press, and put in our claim to the literary distinction which so many hope for and so few obtain? "Faint heart," said our grandmothers," never won fair lady.""Never venture never win," was the adage of our fathers, when they allowed Scotland's superfluous population to be used up, and her (very far from superfluous) cash to be wasted in the desarts of Darien. Hope, with some assistance from a sober-minded, mercantile sort of person, called Assessment, (regular in most things, but especially so in his annual visits) paves our streets, builds our churches and our theatres, bridges our vallies, and levels our hills; and why then should Hope not stimulate the publication of the Sale-Room? If Disappointment should prick us off, after her elder sister, or parent, (we are not sure which relation they bear to each other) hath pricked us on, we will e'en put our folly in our pocket, and sit quietly down with our shame and the odd hits. We give this intimation to the public in policy as well as in fairness, that criticism may be at least disarmed of that motive for severity which arises from the pleasure of making its stings felt. And, therefore, we once more promise, that, like a band of repulsed guisards, whom a churlish domestic has threatened with the police, we will disappear from before the public in the darkness which covered our approach, lay down the parts of Alexander of Macedon and the Seven Champions of Christendom, which we had got up for their amusement, strip ourselves of our white tunics and visors, and leave the Salc-Room unenlivened, save by the tap of our respectable publisher's hammer. On the other hand, should the discerning public (then, in our eyes, doubly discerning) descry merit, or find amusement, in our lucubrations, we shall endeavour to supply them weekly with a few pages of useful discussion, curious information, or innocent mirth. This promise our publisher has endeavoured to persuade us was far too low-coloured, and he took the trouble to produce about a round dozen of similar annunciations, the bloom of which did indeed put to shame our modest statement. "Whipping the cream," he said, "from these, we would find no difficulty in concocting such a syllabus (Query, syllabub?) as could not fail to sweeten the palate of criticism." We sate down in conclave with a heavy heart, concluding, that the three-fourths of the introductory paper, (whether we termed it No. I. or No. II.,) which we had already compounded, must be necessarily thrown aside as useless. Upon examining the papers, however, there seemed so close a resemblance in style and arrangement, that we were half persuaded there is some person in the literary world who lives by writing the introductions to periodical works, and who, finding the ricketty babes which he christened died fast, and were soon forgotten, e'en permitted himself to grow lazy and repeat the same topics, in nearly the same style, on every new occasion; as Claudero, of poetical memory, used, in our early days, to visit every new-married pair within the royalty of Edinburgh with the same epithalamium on their happy union, names and places of abode being alone altered. According to this established formula, we ought to have opened our first parallel upon the public by lamenting the decay of taste and genius (modestly intimating thereby some hope that we are the persons to be looked to for their revival,) and assuring our readers of our fixed determination to unite eloquence with reason, and instruction with entertainment.-We should then have boasted our connection with most eminent literary characters of the age, and thre countenance which they were likely to afford us in consequence,-professed our determination (in the established phrase, introduced out of respect to our wooden walls) to steer clear of this Scylla and of that Charybdis; to be wise and witty, generally speaking, at the same moment; but, at least, never to lay aside our cloak of wisdom, save in order to assume the harlequin jacket of wit, or, in plain terms, never to be silly and dull in the same paper. And, having thus professed our power to prepare an intellectual banquet to which poets and philosophers might sit down with rapturous expectation, we ought, as is not unusual for such proem, to have concluded with the stale apology which an under-bred mistress of a family makes for her elaborate dinner, that forsooth our respect for the public is such, that we question, after all our exertions, if we can present any thing worth the digestion of that venerable body. Having thus, in our publisher's phrase, "skimmed the cream" of these preliminary advertisements without any advan tage, except some opportunity of remarking by how many different manoeuvres the words of the same sentence may be marched, countermarched, dispersed, and reassembled in new formations, we began to look upon each other, and " roll our eyes which witnessed huge dismay." The most conscientious asked, if we could with honour, or honesty, promise what there was no chance of our being able to perform; and the more prudent remarked, that, if we did, we should take nothing by our imposition, since detection would attend it as close as the thunder upon the flash of lightning. On the other hand, to break through all rules, and to disoblige at the very outset our publisher, who stood at the bottom of his trap-stair clamouring for copy, as if to stun our scruples by his importunity, to were things not to be thought of. In this dilemma the Coryphæus of our number, un vieux routier, an experienced stager, who, having lived in almost all classes of society, has learned the art of walking easy through life, and having watched all the chances of Fortune's game, has seldom omitted striking the ball at the rebound, if he missed it while in the air, said, with his characteristic indifference, "Egad, gentlemen, since the trick of the scene requires this mummery of profession and promise, do not let us baulk old custom. For saving our credit, we will e'en tack the requisite formula, of which we have made an abstract, to that which we had previously written, and thus, like Lion in the Midsummer Night's Dream, appear on the stage half actors half real persons, half-monster halfhuman. As for our reception, I know the public well: it is neither ill-natured nor fastidious, although as fickle and capricious as a fine lady. Much of our fortune de pends on the manner in which the manyheaded monster has been shortly before catered for. If sharp set, it has gorged worse nutriment than we can offer; but if supplied with better provender, it is like enough to snarl and gnash its teeth at our presumption. But, to give offence to no one, not even to those formalists who hold that No. I. should go before No. II. (as indeed that same Number One is much in the habit of being first attended to by most folks,) I vote we should conclude our paper with an assurance, that we are willing to do our best, and that if we fall some few miles short of the promises which are put into our mouth by established form, we are likely to come as near performance as those who have taken the engagement without a saving clause. Wherefore let these memoranda be arranged, copied fair, and dispatched to the printing-house. And may prosperity attend our undertaking!" our first act and deed upon our agreement. He turned over the leaves, counted the lines and words, and, with a blank look, assured us that the copy we had supplied, after all the skill which could be employed in spacing, driving out, employing new lines where the sense required none, &c. could not possibly over-run the sixth page, an extent for which it would be highly indecent to charge sixpence. We reassured him with some difficulty, by reminding him that the first Number was usually distributed gratuitously; and that, as the old citizen in the farce always reserved his light gold to be paid away in the necessary compliment to the partner of his pleasures, we might, in humble imitation of Old Philpot, make that Essay the shortest which is to be given away for nothing. And having thus overcome all obstacles, moral, bibliopolical, and typographical, we have the honour to present ourselves before the Public of Edin We called upon our publisher according-burgh. ly, and delivered him our manuscript, as C. Edinburgh, printed by James Ballantyne & CoFor John Ballantyne, Hanover-Street. No. II.] THE SALE-R O O M. SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 1817. A Periodical Paper, published weekly at No. 4, Hanover-Street, Edinburgh. Dunder) under whose dictation our Second Number opened with the following motto and proemium: Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas. OUR Conclave assembled on the Monday | gravest of our number, (the worthy Doctor succeeding our first publication with the intention of preparing a second Number. In order to facilitate our labour, we have engaged in our service a scribe possessing the pen of a ready writer, long the acting clerk of a deceased council of eminence, and against whose manuscript we never heard any objection, excepting that no human being could read it but one compositor in a celebrated session printing-house, who, in his better days, had been Blind Inspector, as it is called, or Decypherer of illegible Directions, to the Post-Office. This trifling inconvenience we were fortunately able to remove, by subjecting our amanuensis to a course of three lessons from the Professor who announces to the public his talents for teaching the whole art of calligraphy within that brief period of tuition. This course of study having proved as successful as could reasonably be expect ed, our worthy secretary was placed before his desk of green cloth, and was brandishing his goose-quill at the direction of the "The above verse of an abstruse author must sound new in the ears of those to whom classical learning hath not yielded her last and most coy retreat, and therefore forms a fitting prelude to a discourse in which we propose to discuss the most recondite doctrines of ethics or moral philosophy."-Here the Doctor cleared his voice with an important hem, censured our scribe for having terminated ethics with an x, a short-hand process by which one letter was made to do the duty of three, and then proceeded : "We trust, within the compass of this short Essay, to remove the doubts which have so long hung, like mists over a winter sea," (here the Doctor looked about him for applause)" around doctrines, the distinct. |