No. I.]

SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1817.)

An architect of great skill and experience was wont to say, that he found less difficulty in giving the plan of a gentleman's seat than in devising a lodge for the termination of his ayenue. We are much mistaken if a similar difficulty has not been felt by most periodi cal essayists. The first appearance before the public is like the entrance of a bashful person into a ceremonious company; and in both cases the French proverb applies, Ce n'est que le premier pas qui coute. And how often have we seen such a person, qua lified both to enjoy and to entertain society, suffering during a whole evening under the too acute feeling of some awkwardness or inadvertent solecism, which he supposes himself to have committed on his first entrance, But the case of the essayist is still harder, The utmost that can be expected from a member of fashionable society is, that he shall present himself with the ordinary ease and grace of men of good-breeding; and those who affect peculiarity, or marked sin

A

gularity of manners, are in our day, as in Congreve's, set down among the Lord Froths and Mr Brisks, the solemn or lively coxcombs of society. But here the metaphor no longer holds; for, in this department of literature, mediocrity, however void of affectation, or even if marked by elegance, is insufficient to produce any impression on the public. It is expected of us, not only that we should be eloquent, but that we should be new; not only that we should be cor rect, but that we should be striking; and that our lucubrations should promise to combine originality with the humour of Addison, the learning of Cumberland, and the pathos of the Man of Feeling. Aware of the difficulty, not indeed of making such promises, but of giving the public any sound reason to think that it was in our power to keep them, we were somewhat tempted to elude the task of announcing our pretensions in an opening Num. ber; and, like the worthy Irishman, who,

on finding the second month of attendance at the fencing-school was rated at a lower fee than that which preceded it, requested to take the said second month first, we had half-resolved to publish No. II. of THE SALE-ROOм before No. I.

We conceived that we might be the more easily justified in the omission of all preliminary matter, (the concoction of which is attended with such difficulties,) since it is not our intention to introduce any dramatis persona, or even to assume any marked or peculiar personage as the supposed author of our essays. We are not ignorant of the charm which the reader receives from the congruity between the moral sentiments or opinions delivered in such lucubrations, and the character and habits of the supposed author; and we feel what weight precepts of conduct derive from the authority of Nestor Ironside, or observations on manners from that of the philosophical Spectator, who, never mingling in society or conversation, was solely occupied in marking and recording what was worthy of notice. But that spring of interest has been so often successfully employed that its force is now weakened, and whatever character we could with pro priety produce as our representative and prolocutor, would inevitably remind the reader of some original portrait, designed with greater spirit, or finished with more elegant accuracy. Our Essays will, then, be impersonal in the diction, unless when we are favoured with communications from correspondents, who will, of course, speak in their own real or assumed characters.

Relieved, therefore, from the necessity of announcing a supposed editor, it did not seem of greater importance to us to, enlarge upon our reasons for assuming a title so different from those adopted upon si

milar occasions. We might indeed be sa tisfied with referring to the place of publication, as sufficiently warranting our titlepage; but we may add, that it will also be vindicated by the miscellaneous nature of the materials which we have collected and arranged, with the hope of meriting a share of public favour and patronage. Our design is, to collect in our hebdomadal reservoir such scattered rills of literature as are not already diverted into channels of greater consequence; and were we as sure of escaping the exception as we are desirous to extend our plan to what is unexcepted, we would willingly adopt the maxim of Voltaire, tout genre est permis hors le genre ennuyeux. Therefore, as the Salesman's rooms contain articles the most inconsistent with each other, and yet arranged side by side, and all designed for the use of the public, our papers will, on the same principle, boast an equal variety; and as a Dutch grotesque may happen to be hung next to a scripturepiece, or a Chinese joss placed by the side of an Etruscan vase, we shall not hesitate to blend the ludicrous with the serious, or relieve historical dissertation by the more whimsical researches of the local antiquary. Like the Sale-Room in another respect, although it may seldom or never be our lot to present to the public pictures of firstrate value by Claude and Raphael, yet we trust there may remain between that unat tainable point of perfection, and the opposite extreme of productions deservedly contemptible, various points of excellence that may be reached, some by the patient labour which supplies by power of finishing the lack of creative genius, and some by the hasty efforts of those who possess the talent, without the time or patience, necessary to make pictures out of their rough sketches.

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 lucubrations 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 restric tion, 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.

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) up. on 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 suf. fer, 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

ma, lie before us as before our predeces sors, with the privilege of varying them by moral fiction, or inoffensive pleasantry. How får the supporters of the present publica, tion may be found qualified to avail themselves 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 publie 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