[Illustration: EARL GREY.] THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION. CONTAINING ORIGINAL ESSAYS; HISTORICAL NARRATIVES; BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS; SKETCHES OF SOCIETY; TOPOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTIONS; NOVELS AND TALES; ANECDOTES; SELECT EXTRACTS FROM NEW AND EXPENSIVE WORKS; POETRY, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED; THE SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS; DISCOVERIES IN THE ARTS AND SCIENCES; USEFUL DOMESTIC HINTS; &c. &c. &c. VOL. XIX. LONDON: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY J. LIMBIRD, 143, STRAND, (Near Somerset-House.) 1832. * * * * * PREFACE. Here we are with our Nineteenth Volume complete. We do not carry it to Court to gain patronage, neither do we preface it with a costly dedication to a purse-proud patron; but we present it at the levee of the people, as a production in which the information and amusement of one and all are equally kept in view. We know that instances have occurred of authors tiring out their patrons. A pleasant story is told of Spencer, who sent the manuscript of his Faery Queen to the Earl of Southampton, the Mecaenas of those days; when the earl reading a few pages, ordered the poet to be paid twenty pounds; reading further, another twenty pounds; and proceeding still, twenty pounds more; till losing all patience, his lordship cried, "Go turn that fellow out of the house, for if I read on I shall be ruined." We have no fear this will be our fate; especially as we strive to effect all that can be accomplished in our economical form to follow as well as direct the public taste. Experience has taught us in the conduct of nineteen volumes of this Miscellany, that the most effectual method of conveying instruction, or aiding the progress of knowledge, is by combining it with amusement; or, in other words by at once aiming at the head and heart. The world is already too full of precept upon precept; and a smattering of principles is too often found in the place of practice. How can this order of things be improved but by setting forth duties as innocent pleasures, sweetening utility with entertainment, and garnishing fact with fancy. A man need not study Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations to become rich, nor seek the glories of nature in artificial Systems. But the contrary notion has probably given rise to the observation, that, "what the present generation have gained in head, they have lost in heart." It should not, however, be so, with the abundance of materials we have for social improvement.