It will be observed that I address myself in the above sentence solely to the liberal reader for information and amusement, and by no means to the invisible censors of the age, who kindly and charitably supply the place of Inquisitors without receiving their appointment either from the Church, the State, or the Publick. _A person_ who honours this publication with his notice in the Eclectic Review remarks, "_We_ should have thought the progress of learning, and the novelties in the trade of books, during the last century, well intitled to some regard; and, as Mr. M. has 'been indebted to his worthy friend Mr. Nichols for the inspection of his matchless collection of periodical publications, from which great part of his materials have been selected,' we wonder not a little how the very institution of periodical publications could escape his notice." The history of literature did not escape my recollection as connected with that of the manners of the Metropolis; but _you_, Gentlemen Reviewers, _being literary men_, ought to have been aware that the very worthy friend you have mentioned had nearly printed his _Literary Anecdotes of the same century_, which would have appeared at the moment my Anecdotes were published, had not one general conflagration destroyed the whole of the impression, and a considerable number of my own books, and compelled the benevolent sufferer to recommence his labours. "Perhaps," continue the Reviewers, "Mr. M. did not know that the voracity of the publick for scandal demanded _four_ editions, comprising 19,000 copies of the Town and Country Magazine, on its first appearance." I did know the prevailing voracity for scandal, and that it was _partly_ supplied by _Reviews_. I do not mean by any particular work so termed, but by individual articles in many publications of that description. Knowing the mischievous consequences to authors, of perversion, misquotation, and misrepresentation, before the _nature_ of Reviews was fully understood, the enlightened and excellent Dr. Blair, whose Sermons do his head and heart so much honour, wrote thus to Mr. Bruce, the celebrated Abyssinian Traveller: "I do not get the Monthly Review, and never saw that article in it which has been so injurious to you. Indeed, I seldom see any Reviews, unless what is called The Analytical one, which a friend of mine takes, and commonly sends to me; and that Review appears abundantly favourable to you. But I entirely agree with Dr. Douglas, that the Reviews are beneath your notice. They are always guided by the interest of some booksellers; and it is not on their opinions that the reputation of books and authors will depend. I am so much of this mind, that though I lately published a volume of Sermons, I never gave myself the smallest trouble to enquire what the several Reviewers said of it, or whether they took any notice of it at all[viii:A]."