311 which he affumed for his fituation, we are naturally inclined to examine the reality of each; as at the death of an acquaintance, we talk with more precision and assurance than formerly, of his age, his character, and his circumftances, To afcertain, as well as to fatisfy any fuch inquiry, the Authors of the Lounger will fairly unfold themselves; not individually, for that were to affume an importance to which they are not entitled; but they have an aggregate name, by which, like corporations, they can be known and impleaded they are the fame Society which, fome years ago, published in this country their periodical Effays under the title of the Mirror. In making this declaration, they incur as much danger, perhaps, as they assume distinction. He who has fome merit of ancestry to fupport, draws the attention more closely upon his own. During the course of this publication, they have fometimes been amused with the discovery of its inferiority to its predeceffor; and have heard, with a mixture of mortification and of pride, fome people express their regret, that the Authors of the Mirror did not write in the Lounger, and refcue it from the lefs able hands into which it had fallen. It may still indeed be said, that an author is often « fibi impar;" that a fecond work is feldom equal in merit to the firft. firft. But they may be allowed to indulge themselves in the belief, that great part of the criticism arofe from a natural enough propenfity to undervalue what has not yet been fanctioned by the general opinion; from that difpofition, common in every thing, not to be fatiffied merely with what is good, but with what is called good. Be this, however, as it may, the Authors of the two works found themfelves fomewhat flattered by the remark; as a mother can but flightly refent the criticism of her daughter's beauty, when it only discovers that she herself was handfomer fome twenty years ago. When thus, like Profpero, they "break their "ftaff," and lay aside the airy power they had affumed, they feel, like him, the lofs of that fociety which the Lounger had raised around them. The vifionary characters with which he had peopled their acquaintance, they cannot help regretting as departed friends; and it is not without a figh that they difmifs Peter from his fervice. But they owe that fort of difclofure of themselves which this paper has made to fincerity; and there is something more folemn in their obligation to this avowal now, because it is the last time they will have an opportunity of making it. Particular circumftances induce them to declare, that they will not again ap pear pear before the Public, as periodical Effayifts, in any fhape or under any name. If any future Work of that kind fhall happen to come out, they will have no claim to its merits, nor refponfibility for its defects. It only remains for them to do juftice to those correfpondents to whofe affistance they have been indebted during the course of their Work. To Correfpondents they owe the following Papers: No 7; the letter fubfcribed Mary Careful, in N° 8; Nos 11. 16. 19. 24.; the letters from Theatricus, in N° 25.; from Philomufos, in No 42.; from John Trueman, in No 44.; the letters figned Almeria, in No 46. Felamina, in N° 53. and Hannah Waitfort, in No 55.; Nos 59. 60. 63. 70. 79. and the 60..63. Poem in N° 85. Of their readers, as well as their correfpondents, they cannot take leave without a very fenfible and lively regret. While they dictate this concluding paragraph, it is with a melancholy feeling they reflect, that it deprives them of an opportunity of cultivating that correfpondence, and of committing to thofe readers the fentiments of their hearts; that it drops the curtain on their mimic ftate, and furrenders them to the less interesting occupations of ordinary life. Yet twice to have made a not unsuccessful exVOL. III. curfion P. curfion into this region of fancy and of literary dominion, is to have atchieved fomething which falls but to the lot of few. They can anticipate, with a venial degree of felf-applause, the talk of their age, recalling the period of their publications with an old man's fondness, an author's vanity, and a Scotfman's pride; happy if any one of their number, who fhall then be pointed out as a writer in the Mirror or the Lounger, need not blush to avow them as works that endeavoured to lift amusement on the fide of taste, and to win the manners to decency and to goodness. NEW EDITIONS of the following WORKS have been lately published by A. Strahan, and T. Cadell and W. Davies, Strand. 1. THE LOUNGER, handfomely printed in Two Volumes 8vo. price 12s. in boards. 2. THE MIRROR, handfomely printed in Two Vols. 8vo. price 12s. in boards. * ** Another Edition, in Three Vols. 12mo. 95. in boards. 3. THE MAN OF FEELING, elegantly printed in a Pocket Volume, and adorned with Plates, price 5s. in boards. ** Another Edition, price 3s. in boards. 4. THE MAN OF THE WORLD, Two Vols. 6s. in boards. 5. JULIA DE ROUBIGNE, Two Vols. 6s. in boards. 6. THE BRITISH ESSAYISTS complete, in Forty-five Pocket Volumes, with Portraits, and Biographical Notices, by Alexander Chalmers, Efq; 91. in boards. Printed by A. Strahan, |