WARD'S MISCELLANY: UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF A SOCIETY FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND RELIGION. VOLUME I. LONDON: THOMAS WARD AND CO., 27, PATERNOSTER-ROW; AINSWORTH AND SONS, 107, GREAT ANCOATS-STREET, MANCHESTER; AND AT 118, NEW SCOTLAND-ROAD, AND ALL INTERMEDIATE TOWNS. MDCCCXXXVII. PREFACE. COURTESY demands a Preface to every work, if it should consist of no more than the Author's or Editor's “Ave, atque, vale;” but the conductors of WARD'S MISCELLANY, having brought its first volume to a close, and made preparations for the commencement of a second, feel that not only courtesy, but gratitude for their past, and a becoming solicitude for their future success, call upon them to acknowledge the public favour they have already received, and to state the grounds on which they confidently hope to deserve and to enjoy a still more extended patronage. They continue to adhere to the three principal divisions under which have been ranged the miscellaneous contributions of the present volume; namely, Literature, Science, and Religion. In each department it will be their constant aim to blend the pleasant with the instructive, the entertaining with the useful; the flowers and fruits of their literature will not be tarnished nor mildewed by licentiousness; their science will be free from the corrupting taint of scepticism and infidelity; their religion will breathe an universal charity in union with an uncompromising faith, and a blameless and devout morality. What they have addressed to the public, as descriptive of their labours during the past year, they will endeavour fully to realise in the future. "We have written for the public, not for a section of it; and while endeavouring to amuse and improve all readers in turn, we have been very solicitous to give offence to none. We have sought to be entertaining, without violating morality and decorum; grave, without tediousness; and moral, without austerity; to impart useful knowledge, unencumbered by crabbed technicalities; inculcate great principles, irrespective of party bias; and to diffuse the all-important truths of revelation, divested of controverted tenets." WARD'S MISCELLANY will henceforth be recognised as a "Family Magazine." This would have been its appropriate title from the beginning; for to interest and instruct the domestic circle, was originally in the contemplation of the gentlemen to whose management it was intrusted. This, then, will constitute a leading object, a distinguishing feature of the |