Sir John Hawkins, in his "Memoirs of Johnson," ascribes the decline of literature to the ascendancy of frivolous Magazines, between the years 1740 and 1760. He says that they render smatterers conceited, and confer the superficial glitter of knowledge instead of its substance. Sir Richard Phillips, upwards of forty years a publisher, gives the following evidence as to the sale of the Magazines in his time:-- "For my own part, I know that in 1790, and for many years previously, there were sold of the trifle called the _Town and Country Magazine_, full 15,000 copies per month; and, of another, the _Ladies' Magazine_, from 16,000 to 22,000. Such circumstances were, therefore, calculated to draw forth the observations of Hawkins. _The Gentleman's Magazine_, in its days of popular extracts, never rose above 10,000; after it became more decidedly antiquarian, it fell in sale, and continued for many years at 3000. "The veriest trifles, and only such, move the mass of minds which compose the public. The sale of the _Town and Country Magazine_ was created by a fictitious article, called _Bon-Ton_, in which were given the pretended amours of two personages, imagined to be real, with two sham portraits. The idea was conceived, and, for above twenty years, was executed by Count Carraccioli; but, on his death, about 1792, the article lost its spirit, and within seven years the magazine was discontinued. The _Ladies' Magazine_ was, in like manner, sustained by love-tales and its low price of sixpence, which, till after 1790, was the general price of magazines." Things have now taken a turn unlooked for in those days. The price of most magazines, it is true, is still more than sixpence--usually a shilling, and at that price the _Cornhill_ in some months reached an impression of 120,000; but the circulation of _Good Words_, at sixpence, has touched 180,000, and continues, we believe, to be over 100,000. * * * * * MRS. SOUTHEY. And who was Mrs. Southey?--who but she who was so long known, and so great a favourite, as Caroline Bowles; transformed by the gallantry of the laureate, and the grace of the parson, into her matrimonial appellation. Southey, so long ago as the 21st of February, 1829, prefaced his most amatory poem of _All for Love_, with a tender address, that is now, perhaps, worth reprinting:-- "TO CAROLINE BOWLES. "Could I look forward to a distant day, With hope of building some elaborate lay, Then would I wait till worthier strains of mine, Might have inscribed thy name, O Caroline! For I would, while my voice is heard on earth, Bear witness to thy genius and thy worth. But we have been both taught to feel with fear, How frail the tenure of existence here; What unforeseen calamities prevent, Alas! how oft, the best resolved intent; And, therefore, this poor volume I address To thee, dear friend, and sister poetess! "_Keswick, Feb. 21, 1829._ "ROBERT SOUTHEY."