the days of Bacon and the invention of printing are not in accordance with such an opinion. On the whole aspect of the civilized world, there are strong indications of the rapid approach of a period of great intellectual light, and of corresponding social and religious happiness. Towards the hastening on of such an era, the periodical press, in all its departments, is indispensable. Its great and only legitimate purpose is the establishment and diffusion of good principles over the whole world. No subordinate ends are to usurp the place of this grand final cause. There is a fixed standard of right and wrong, or an ultimate tendency in taste and morals, according to which the critical reviewer is to measure his commendations and his censures. He is not allowed to be under the guidance of any lower motive than the universal happiness of man. The periodical essayist is not to fritter away his powers in the discussion of the varying fashions and tastes of a luxurious community. He ought to define and enforce the principles which lie at the foundation of all the vacillating modes of society-principles in whose operation such fashions and modes will either become entirely harmless, or productive of positive good. The magazine is to be filled with a worthy and well arranged selection of articles, all tending to some definite and good result. It is the duty of the annalist to show the bearings and connections of his facts, their adaptedness to suggest or elucidate important trains of thought, which will be valuable ages hence, either for the purposes of history, or as designed to impress great truths on the hearts of men. The editor of a newspaper, as he values the verdict of a good conscience, will not pander to every man's taste, nor follow blindly the beck of party, nor, for the sake of temporary applause or personal profit, put at hazard any great principle. Vast is his responsibility, for he touches equally the crowded city and the extremities of the country, the leading statesmen, and the blind mob. Such being the obligations of the periodical press, it is important to inquire, Whether in our country, its obligations are sustained, and its high purposes realized. We will inquire first into the condition of the newspaper press. It is obvious that a large class of newspapers are to be put out of the account as harmless, or as accomplishing very little assignable good or evil. The well meaning sentences which the editors insert, have become diluted or defunct by transmission. The editorial paragraph is either a simple record of some sad accident by "flood or field," a small chapter of crime, a specimen of village gossip, or the annals. of the arrival and departure of a stage coach, or a well conditioned caravan of cattle. There never appear in these journals a presiding mind, an independent will, a thorough acquaintance with the wants of the community, or a conscientious estimate of the power of the press. Another considerable class are positively and fatally bad. They weaken the sense of religious obligation, pervert literary taste, throw discredit on the labors of philanthropy, and stimulate an already enormous appetite for news by spreading out the details of successful and cunning fraud, or of heart-sickening licentiousness. Unwilling to trust to the silent operations of those causes, which frequently alienate different classes of society from each other, they ply all possible provocatives with dreadful eagerness. Organized efforts are now making to array the poor against the rich-efforts, which indicate a spirit little less than diabolical. A portion of the editors of these papers may honestly think that they are doing their country service, by a reckless adherence to party, and a miserable prostitution of those noble powers, which, if properly trained, and directed, would have rendered their possessors benefactors of the species. As it is, bad passions are fostered, the appetite of a community for scandal and defamation becomes rabid, curiosity ungoverned, and habits. of sobriety and of candor unknown. A great contested election is not so much to be dreaded as a contingency, on which turns the election of a virtuous or vicious man; but as making a part of an organized system of evil-as a machine operating to destroy with fatal certainty much of the remaining conscience and virtue of the electors. The exhibition of extraordinary excitement and ferocious passion, which has been lately witnessed in New York, is not to be regarded as a momentary and unexpected outbreaking of popular fury, but as the continued passion or habit, which belongs to a system of measures. Uneducated aliens, spurious patriots, or the mode of exercising the right of suffrage, were not the main cause of these disturbances. Check lists or written ballots will present but an impotent barrier to a community thoroughly aroused. The newspaper press had been in fault. Appeals had been thrown upon the community, charged with elements of volcanic excitement. The dire necessity of the case, we are aware, will be urged on the one side and on the other. Sage and well-principled men almost thought that they might do evil that good might come. But this apology only removes the difficulty further back. What cause led to this state of things? How was this necessity imposed on single minded men? We answer, very much in consequence of an irresponsible or inflammatory press. A third class of newspapers, small in number but extensively circulated, are comparatively free from objections. Though generally attached to some political party, yet they have common sense, good breeding, regard to the purity of the English tongue, and to the higher interests of literature and religion. They are not so committed to party, as to approve every measure which is devised. They can observe silence, or administer reproof to ill-advised and intemperate coadjutors. Still these papers, with all their negative commendable qualities, and with some positive excellences, are deficient. A portion of them advocate amusements which are at war with good taste and good morals. They are not firm and explicit in condemning practices, which as individuals they would abhor. Though some of their conductors are gentlemen of sound sense, correct principle, large experience in their work, yet they rarely exhibit the highest talent. We meet in their pages with but few discussions of great principles in politics or morals. We wait for the daily or weekly arrival of the paper, because of the attraction of mere news, or the need of some item.of commercial or other information. The editors, who possess the requisite ability, are either withdrawn to other pursuits, or do not deeply feel the stimulus of the commanding motives which are pressing upon them. The influence of their papers is for the most part salutary, but it is not great. No original genius, no powerful mind, sparkles in their columns. They do not lead the community into the right path, but are themselves led by the prevailing directions of public opinion. Who looks into a newspaper for a profound discussion of a great public question? On rare occasions, we acknowledge, such discussions may be found. Master spirits, as in the case of the authorship of the Federalist, are accidentally called upon the arena. A portion of the preceding remarks will apply to religious newspapers. They are in general conducted with candor and Christian liberality, but not with distinguished ability. They do not stamp their character on the community. Cir culating in every part of the United States at the rate of one hundred and twenty thousand copies weekly, they are very good vehicles for the diffusion of intelligence, the discussion of subjects of temporary interest, and for the presentation. of popular appeals. They rarely exhibit, however, striking original powers. The conductors do not seem to have placed before their minds a high ideal of excellence, or to have formed a philosophical arrangement of their duties. Pleasant paragraphs, stirring news, entertaining narratives are found, but no great definite purpose is aimed at; the light of intellectual life does not illuminate their columns. Intermediate between the newspapers and reviews are the magazines, literary journals, repositories of various kinds of knowledge, and the publications connected with the different benevolent associations. We here find a great diversity in external form and inward spirit. There are occasionally articles of power, excellent in their moral tendency, written in conformity with nature, and which become incorporated with the elements of thought, and the very frame of society. If such articles were more numerous, and were not in some degree neutralized by those of a greatly inferior character, we should withhold all censure. As it is, we do not wish to cast the blame where it does not belong. It is possible that other causes exist than want of ability or disposition in the conductors. The remaining class of periodicals are the Reviews, of a more imposing character, and generally published at the return of the quarter. For some reason or another, their influence is not what it should be. Consecrated to the discussion of principles, which may be too recondite or elaborate for the pages of a newspaper, they ought to be the seers of the press, to be endowed with a keen foresight into futurity, and with rich experience from the records of the past. Their conductors possessing full time for persevering research, and profound discussion, ought to furnish a large portion of the materials of thought, and to stand at the great central places of influence. We now propose briefly to consider some of the principal causes of the inefficiency of the periodical press. The first which we shall name, is the extreme subdivision of influence and of pecuniary support, in consequence of the large number of publications. Probably more than three fourths of the existing periodicals are very incompetently patronized. Many of them indeed are bankrupt. And here the fundamental difference between this department of labor and almost all others is to be taken into the account. The income is exceedingly uncertain and variable from the minute subdivision of patronage. The pecuniary demands are to be collected from a great extent of country, involving of course in the collection no inconsiderable expenditure. Unhappily subscribers to periodical publications sometimes exhibit a destitution of those careful habits of business, and of that rigid honesty, which they maintain in all their other business concerns. This, we are confident, is one of the main causes of the languishing state of periodical literature. Indeed, it is incident to the very nature of the employment. It has never been made, except in extraordinary cases, the source of very valuable pecuniary profit. The We mention as a second cause the want of one large capital city. We have no Bagdad, Alexandria, Paris, or London. We have half a dozen literary circles-Cincinnati, Philadelphia, New York, New Haven, and Boston. advantages of one literary emporium are clear and indisputable. It furnishes a wide field in the immediate neighborhood for the circulation of the journal. An extensive intellectual vicinity is obviously for this purpose a great desideratum. The patronage is much more sure and ample than can be expected from a distant though crowded population. Those classes of artizans upon which the beauty and cheapness of the mechanical execution depend, will naturally flow to a large metropolis. It is also the common centre of news from all portions of the world. The modes of rapid international communication, which the British government have established in various continental nations, are in many ways exceedingly servicable to the literary community of London. Authors of all descriptions will congregate in a capital. Associations and literary clubs are formed, and thus a powerful impulse is given to thought. An intellectual atmosphere is created, high standards of excellence are raised, generous competition is excited, extensive libraries. are formed, valuable museums are collected, and all the various facilities for scientific discovery and original thought are perfected and concentrated. Especially is it true, that the mind is enlarged, petty rivalries are discountenanced, and the field of vision, like that of the spectator at the temple of |