Originally published in Sharpe's London Magazine (Thomas Bowdler Sharpe) vol.1 #1 (01 Nov 1845).
We do not feel that much apology is necessary for the attempt we are about to make, to add one to the number of those caterers for the literary appetite of the day, who spread out their stores at regularly recurring intervals to catch the public eye. In all those cases in which the appearance of the applicant for favour is really an intrusion, uncalled for and unwelcome, the process of putting him down (being nothing more than merely letting him alone) is at once so simple and so effectual, gives so little trouble, and does the business so thoroughly, that it amounts to a tax upon the public good-nature sufficiently slight to admit of its being easily pardoned, even though it should be rather unceremoniously imposed. If, however, we must needs, for the sake of good manners, offer some apology, it shall be much about what we should suppose a tradesman to say in justification of his opening a shop in a crowded thoroughfare:—"No doubt there are many shops, but there is also a large demand. The world is becoming fuller every day, and the article in which I deal is getting more and more into request. Why should not I find customers as well as another, if I only give them as good an article for their money as he does?"
In this "if," lies the pinch of the case; for it cannot be denied, that there are already articles in the market, with which it would not be prudent rashly to challenge a comparison. It is, besides, precisely the point on which it least becomes him to speak, upon whom the task of introducing a publication of this kind by a preliminary notice generally devolves. A tradesman may commend his own wares without incurring the charge of presumption or bad taste; but the literary workman has no such privilege. Diligence and good intention are the utmost to which he can be permitted to pledge himself beforehand. Of his ability to command the other qualities requisite to render his commodity attractive, he is seldom a competent judge; and it is, therefore, a point of prudence with him to be silent on a subject on which his opinion would not carry much weight. The world has become sufficiently knowing in these matters, to refuse to accept the expression either of confidence or of humility, as a sure indication of the possession of powers to command success. If the former is too often the offspring of presumption and ignorance, the latter, where it is genuine, is just as likely to be nothing better than the mere outleaking of unretentive conscious dulness. Silence, in these circumstances, is the wisest and most dignified course. Readers very soon discover for themselves what they ought to think; and promises made at starting are speedily forgotten amid the realities of actual Performance.
Our Publisher has informed the world already, in the announcement circulated by him, that his object has been "to furnish a publication which shall supply the general reader with matter of an amusing and instructive character, for the hours of recreation." We do not know that we can add much to this description of the purpose of this publication. That it points to what has now become one of the imperative wants of society, which must somehow or other be supplied, no man of common observation is ignorant; nor are we at all disposed to question that the want is, in many quarters, and from many sources, very worthily supplied. But the desire of knowledge is an appetite which grows by what it feeds on. The more it is gratified, the more insatiable becomes its craving. Wherever it is planted, it carries a living generative principle within it, unceasingly tending to an indefinite increase. The more thoroughly a publication of this kind succeeds, the more impossible does it become, that it should occupy alone the field which it has opened up. Its power of gratifying the hungry cravings which it is waking up around it, is bounded by limits, moral, intellectual, mechanical,—while these cravings are unbounded in the extent of their increase, and in the diversified character of their objects. The man who first stirs up the inert soil of his neighbour's mind, and sets him a thinking, may perhaps be able, unaided, to keep up for him a constant supply of materials, suited to his temperament and intellectual character, on which to exercise his thoughts. But he who does the same service for twenty or a hundred men, each of whom has his own peculiar turn of mind, will most infallibly fail in the attempt to furnish them all with intellectual food of which they can continue to make a profitable use. And when we consider that each man, in whom the desire of knowledge is awakened, carries about with him an atmosphere which transmits it like a contagion to the circle around him; that each of these in turn, as soon as infected, forms the centre of a circle, from which the like influence radiates to every point on its circumference; and soon, in endless geometrical progression; it becomes manifest, that we shall far sooner reach the limit of our power to supply the demand for intellectual sustenance, than we shall that of the demand itself.
The growing development of this particular form of publication—the Periodical—and the increasing variety of subjects to which it is becoming adapted, are a necessary consequence of the extension of a literary taste beyond the class of merely literary men. The professional student, whose business lies in his books, can afford time to dig for his necessary knowledge through the bowels of the most ponderous folios, and finds in the fruit of his labours a sufficient reward for his toil. But thousands have now been taught to regard knowledge as a necessary, whose pursuit of it can be followed only by snatches, at intervals of relaxation from their ordinary business and labour; and to these, this mode, desultory and fragmentary though it is, of presenting it, prepared and trimmed for immediate use, the husk removed, the shell broken, and the kernel ready for mastication, is as indispensable as the daily supply of the common necessaries of life. Their Magazine must come to their doors as regularly as their milk or their beer.
The knowledge which publications of this kind disseminate may be compared to a fountain, far hid among the mountains, which can only be reached, after much painful and toilsome travel, by a few; to render it available to the multitude, reservoirs must be formed, and pipes laid, which carry it to every man's door, to be drawn off as he needs it, without waste of time, expense of labour, or hindrance to his regular employments. We claim only to be allowed to insert our pipe into the general reservoir, and so to share in the work of distribation of the precious element. There is little danger that all of us together shall either exhaust the fountain, or deluge the world with an overabundant supply.
A single word may be necessary as to the principle on which me propose that this Magazine shell be conducted, We intend its contents to be as diversified in character as may be found practicable, furnishing something to gratify all tastes, except such as we cannot stoop to gratify without degrading ourselves. Original essays, tales, articles descriptive of objects antiquarian or historical interest, will be interspersed with translations from approved foreign authors, and occasional notices of, and interesting extracts from, English publications not generally accessible. And to the lovers of poetry we think we can promise contributions in that department, to which they will not disdain to grant more than one perusal.
We should be sorry to allow any reader to rise from the perusal of these remarks, with the impression that we had no moral purpose in view in this undertaking, although we have not attempted formally to obtrude it upon his notice. We are, we trust, sensible of the responsibility which attaches to every man, who takes upon him to address the world though the press, and who thus sets in motion an agency, whose effects nay be immeasurably out of proportion to his individual capacity or personal importance. We wish to instruct es well as amuse; to instruct while we amuse; so to amuse that our readers shall be wiser and happier for the enjoyment we may afford them. Disclaiming all intention of usurping the chair of the appointed religious teacher, we trust so to regulate our undertaking, that the reader of this Magazine will find it to deepen in his mind the impression, that religion and pure morality are the sources of our truest happiness—the foundations of one highest hopes. Having no party views, we have no intention of addressing ourselves to the limited sympathies of any particular class. We shall find more pleasure in dwelling upon those views of our present condition and future hopes, which afford to all of us a common ground for our sympathies to rest upon, than upon those which may be suggestive of topics of contention and animosity.
No pact of our projected plan is contemplated by us with more interest and satisfaction, than that which holds it out as intended to furnish employment for "hours of recreation;" for it suggests that we shall be engaged in lightening the burden of labour; in conveying some portion of the more elevated enjoyments of life within the reach of men whose condition is, too generally, one of unmingled toil and privation; and thus contributing to sweeten the lot and brighten the hopes of those whose stalwart limbs, if we view tho matter aright, are the main pillars on which the structure of society rests.