Prospectus of a new weekly paper, submitted to men of affluence, men of liberality, and men of letters.

Prospectus of a new weekly paper, submitted to men of affluence, men of liberality, and men of letters.

Table of contents

PROSPECTUS OF A NEW WEEKLY PAPER, SUBMITTED TO MEN OF AFFLUENCE, MEN OF LIBERALITY, AND MEN OF LETTERS.

CONDITIONS.

I.

II.

III.

IV.

V.

VI.

VII.

VIII.

§

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PROSPECTUS OF A NEW WEEKLY PAPER, SUBMITTED TO MEN OF AFFLUENCE, MEN OF LIBERALITY, AND MEN OF LETTERS.

A YOUNG MAN, once known among village-readers ¹, as the humble historian of the hour, the conductor of a Farmer's Museum, and a Lay Preacher's Gazette, again offers himself to the public as a volunteer-editor. Having, as he conceives, a right to vary, at pleasure, his fictitious name, he now, for higher reasons than any fickle humour might dictate, assumes the appellation of OLDSCHOOL.² Fond of this title, indicative of his moral, political, and literary creed, he proposes publishing, every Saturday, on a super-royal quarto sheet,

A NEW WEEKLY PAPER, TO BE CALLED, THE PORT FOLIO,³ BY OLIVER OLDSCHOOL, ESQ.

Warned by "the waywardness of the time⁴," and the admonitions of every honest printer, the Editor begins his work on a Lilliputian page, and, like a saving grocer, gives of his goods only a small sample; but Subscribers, if peradventure ⁵ the Editor should have any, must not "despise the day of small things." It is proposed always to give plenty of letter-press, in proportion to the public demand, and, as the exigency of the season, or copiousness of materials may require, to double, treble, and even quadruple the number of pages in the PORT FOLIO. Hereafter, more may be done, if more be wanted, and if more be fostered. At present, with the prudent policy of wary beginners, it is judged expedient to risk but little. No sonorous promises are made, and no magnificence of style attempted. The paper is to be neither wire-woven, nor hot-pressed, and it certainly, in more senses than one, shall not be cream-coloured; but, in a plain dress of Quaker simplicity, may, perhaps, offer something tolerable on political, literary, and transient topics, and something, auxiliary to sound principles, which, after church, "retired leisure ⁶" may read on Sunday⁷.

Empirical vaunting is always nauseous and arrogant; and the plausibility of mighty promise has generally a pitiful conclusion. The Editor, with honest diffidence, declines making specious engagements; timid, lest time or chance, lest laziness, sickness, or stupidity, should step between stipulation and fulfilment, he applies to himself one of the didactics of Solomon, and ‘boasts not himself of to-morrow, for he knows not what a day may bring forth.’

But though the making of such promises is no less trite than fallacious, and it is the part of Effrontery to exclaim, ‘I possess adequate powers, and I will perform mighty things,’ yet, on the other hand, it will be both novel and safe for an Editor to declare, what he will avoid. More certain and confident respecting that which he can shun, than that which he can accomplish, he stipulates, with perfect sincerity, not to do certain things, and makes his public contract as Theologians, at the beginning of the century, used to divide their sermons, with a First, negatively.

He will not publish an impartial ⁸ paper, in that style of cold, callous, supine, and criminal indifference, [Page] which views, with equal eye, a chieftain, and a follower—a man of sense, and a fool— the philosophy of the Greeks, and the philosophy of the French—a stable government, and the uproar of anarchy. He will not make his paper "a carte-blanche on which every fool and knave may scribble what he pleases." To gratify the malignancy of fanatics, he will not asperse the government or the church, the laws or the literature of England. Remembering that WE ARE AT PEACE with that power—that the most wholesome portions of our polity are modelled from hers—that we kneel at Shrines, and speak a language common to both, he will not flagitiously and foolishly advert to ancient animosities, nor, with rash hand, attempt to hurl the brand of discord between the nations.

He will not strive to please the populace,⁹ at the expence of their quiet, by infusing into every ill-balanced and weak mind, a jealousy of rulers, a love of innovation, an impatience of salutary restraint, or the reveries of liberty, equality, and the rights of man.

He will not labour to confound the moral, social, and political system, nor, desperately essay "to break up the fountains of the great deep" of government. He will not calumniate Talents and Authority, and the "higher powers," whether of Genius or Wealth, or ‘Might and Dominion.’ He will not repeat to ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water,’ the Fairy-Tales of France, that all men ¹⁰ are kings and emperors, and nobles, and judges, and statesmen. To plunder property, and to suffocate genius, he will not invite either a Wat Tyler, or a Jack Cade.

He will not, with political adversaries, maintain any other than well-manner'd controversy, and will not, in the rage¹¹ of a zealot, forget the principles of a gentleman.

And, lastly, He will not print any other than a uniform, correct, and independent paper; nor gratify the caprice of parties, sects, or individuals, by departing, no, not for a moment, from that scheme of political and literary composition, which has hitherto been pursued by the Editor, with sufficient approbation from the good¹², the loyal, and the studious. He will not be an inconstant and luke-warm supporter to principles and law; nor, like the parasite of the poet,

"Supple to every wayward mood, strike sail,

"And shift, with shifting humour's peevish gale:

"Nor be a glass, with flattering grimace,

"Still to reflect the temper of each face."

On the promissory part of this contract, the Editor engages that attempts will be made,

To publish, in a condensed manner, momentous intelligence.¹³ To reject the minuteness of foreign and domestic detail, and, by a sort of synopsis of news, retain the valuable, and reject the refuse;

To communicate, with accuracy, the most interesting and important State papers;

To correct vulgar errors, and detect Jacobinical misrepresentations, respecting the acts of government;

To obtain political essays, not merely from lookers-on, but from experienced statesmen and from principals,

To relieve the dryness of news, and the severity of political argument, with wholesome morals and gay miscellany—to insert interesting articles of biography, criticism, poetry, and merriment, and ‘bind the rod of the moralist with the roses of the Muse ¹⁴.’

Having succinctly stated what he will avoid, and what he will attempt, the Editor now feels the propriety, the necessity, the utility of summoning to his aid the Master-Spirits of the nation. It must be apparent to the most heedless observer, that it is the object of this undertaking, to combine literature with politics, and attempt something of a more honorable destiny, than a meagre journal. To accomplish this purpose, the co-operation of many minds is requisite; and, without the cheerful and constant contributions of erudition, taste, and genius, an Editor, the most inventive and industrious, would have frequent occasion to sigh over his pages, either "mournfully jejune," or ignominiously vacant and incorrect. The causes of the inaccuracy, inequalities, dulness, and, at length, the total failure of many of our American Gazettes may be easily traced; and it may be useful to read a ‘brief chronicle’ of the rise, progress, and downfal of a newspaper, lamely conducted, and penuriously supported.

An obscure and illiterate individual, of mere mechanical skill in the art of printing, contracts debt for his press and paper, and issues proposals for a Gazette. As education or habit, as chance or interest, may determine, he professes himself a republican, or a federalist; or, what is more common, a man of no party; willing to publish trash for all, and pretending to be unbiassed by any. Fervet opus. The press groans, the work begins, and with the paltry aid of two or three hundred subscribers, and without assistants, either literary or political, he, of necessity, prints from week to week a thing—"without a name," without correctness, without consistency; in narration turbid, or false, in comment clumsy, in its original departments crude and juvenile, in its selections uncouth, vicious in the humblest combinations of grammar, and a trespasser on all the limits of language.¹⁵ A puny bantling from the press "so faint, so spiritless, so dull, so dead in look," quickly "goeth to its long home," its inky "mourners go about the streets," and its numerous sponsors and friends strangely wonder at its dissolution.

Thus conducted, and thus unsupported, can it be expected that a paper should flourish in vigor, or possess interest; that it should furnish documents to the Historian, or even amusement to [Page] the Lounger? The journals of Europe are respectable, are read eagerly, and preserved long, because they are under the direction of active skill, assisted by the researches of statesmen, and the liberal labours of literature and genius.— Abroad, it is generally understood that the director of a press is a scholar and a gentleman ¹⁶. In Germany and Holland, university professors, men erudite and dignified, are frequently engaged in this honourable service. A Gazette of Leyden, and a Spectator of the North have been conducted by men who associated the statesman's research and the scholar's lore; men who visited the tombs of the learned, and the camps of the valiant. In France, under the old government, abbés, lawyers, and men of letters by profession, superintended the flying-sheets of the time; and now, UNDER THE ANARCHY, it is notorious that all the public prints, controuled by whatever faction, are composed, or compiled, by men of invention and learning, many of whom were once among the clergy. In Scotland, more than one paper has been illuminated by many a ray from the constellations of genius and wisdom, shining in her three universities; and in England, not to mention that political articles and arguments are frequently furnished by the ministry themselves, the best and most popular papers exhibit the abilities of numerous writers, ACTING IN CONFEDERACY. The memory of WOODFALL has supplied with parliamentary debates the columns of a Chronicle, and DUNNING has given it sparkling wit, and logical precision. By the side of SMART's poetry, Dr. JOHNSON published his Idlers in a Saturday's paper, by Newberry. The Whitehall Evening Post, and the St. James' Chronicle numbered Soame JENYNS, Lord CHESTERFIELD, and Horace WALPOLE, on an ample catalogue of accomplished auxiliaries; and both the literary virtuoso, and the laborious annalist, still preserve and read the files of "The Public Advertiser," which displayed, at one period, the political arguments of the Marquis of ROCKINGHAM, the playful humour of Dr. GOLDSMITH, the polite literature of ARTHUR MURPHY, and the gorgeous imagery of EDMUND BURKE¹⁷.

From the experience of some years, while he was conducting the FARMER's MUSEUM, a paper pronounced, by the partiality of the public, not altogether vacant of original composition, the Editor concludes, that of learning and wit, an alliance defensive can be formed even here. Private assurances have been already made of liberal contributions from learned minds; and the Editor will omit nothing, which can add to the literary forces of this enterprize. To this end, a correspondence with men of political information, and miscellaneous writers will be commenced; and arrangements are already made, to obtain from Europe every new and interesting publication, which, either for use or ornament, may supply proper materials to be deposited in the PORT-FOLIO.

To men of letters,¹⁸ and to all, who are in the habit of writing correctly, usefully, or pleasantly, we would give a very general invitation. Meritorious essays shall always be cordially welcomed, and bad ones dismissed with urbanity. From the very nature, and demands of the undertaking, the Editor will sometimes be compelled to the ungrateful task of rejection; but he will always "glance an eye of pity" on juvenile imperfections, and though the crude and incorrect must be denied a place in the PORT-FOLIO, yet the denial shall not be conveyed in terms contemptuous, or austere.

In this invocation to correspondents, it is proper and pleasant to name the CLERGY. From their love of letters, from their literary leisure, and from their order and regularity of life, so propitious to mental exertion, they are peculiarly interested in the advancement of every vehicle of knowledge. The members of that dignified and pious profession, who, in the words of PROSPERO, are

—"All dedicated

To closeness, and the bettering of the mind."

are entreated to become auxiliaries. To such Mentors, as candid, consistent, and enlightened Clergymen, we shall always lend a listening ear, and give the confiding heart¹⁹.

The gentlemen of the bar, to whose liberality and genius the Editor is largely indebted for much of the diffusion, and many of the materials, of the papers, he formerly conducted, are solicited to supply pages for the Port-Folio, when the Court Docket is cleared, and when the client has paid "the uttermost" of his fee. Though duty and interest urge every Barrister to employ "his courage, and his care," in climbing the rugged steep of jurisprudence, yet, lawyers are splendidly distinguished for polite, as well as professional studies. The critics of Rome desc [...]d no less upon the elegant literature, than upon the legal science of Trebatius, Sulpitius, and Cicero; and London will not soon cease to extol the versatile genius of a Talbot, a Yorke, and a Jones²⁰.

The liberal merchant, the inquisitive manufacturer, and the country gentleman, if they find leisure, in the intervals of business, to inspect the contents of the Port Folio, will discover that essays on topics of commerce, and the useful arts, and rural economy, will not be omitted.

The tranquil sect of Quakers, a description of men, imbued with that "charity, which suffereth long, and is kind;" men honourably distinguished for their aversion to pernicious novelties, and to the state charlatans, and audacious deists of France, and to all the trumpery of her bungling innovation, and to all the tampering of her political restlesness, are invited to countenance this work.

In aid of a paper, principally devoted to moral instruction, and polite literature, it would be equally indecorous and undeserved, to neglect soliciting the good opinion, and assistance of the ladies. The influence of female elegance on the manners, and female principles on the character of men, is wide and powerful. They not only fix the standard of fashion, but regulate most of the duties, and decencies of life. On every question of delicacy, and sentiment, and taste, and decorum, they have the clearest right to be respectfully heard. To the honour of the country, especially of its CAPITAL, where their education is the most sedulously regarded, there are many, who, possessing learning, which would be thought extensive in the other sex, set an example of deep humility to their own;—women who distinguished for wit and genius, are eminent for domestic qualities; who, excelling in the fine arts, have carefully enriched their understandings; and who have not refined elegance into insipidity, nor frittered down delicacy into frivolousness²¹. Such females can give grace, strength, and lustre to Literrature, can weave the brightest textures in the loom of Fancy, and teach the noblest morals of the heart. To this respectable and polished class of female characters, the Editor looks confidently for the exertion of their influence, and for the display of their talents in support of his Miscellany. It has been his privilege to know more than one highly instructed and accomplished woman, indulging herself in a chaste display of literary as well as fashionable excellence, benignant to the votaries of science, which she loved, and patronizing the learning which she herself adorned. Flattery and fondness have extolled the Aspasias and the Glyceras of Athens, and the Talliens of [Page] Paris. But we can pay homage to beauties of purer lustre. We have "of honorable women not a few;" who associate study and invention, who unite the virtues to the graces, and who are "capable of making the bad good, the inconstant stable, and the giddy wise."

Nor is the Editor of that hermit humour, to be regardless of the innocent wishes of the modish tribe. Though it cannot correctly be expected that he should be a critic of Coquelicot, or learned in laces; yet, he will not omit to notice sometimes the shop of the milliner, and "watch the wild vicissitudes of taste." Fashionable dress, as well as manners, shall be occasionally described; and to please the flaunting belle, he will, with no languid voice, and in the words of Anstey, invoke her tutelary power.

"Come then, nymph of various mein,

Votary true of beauty's queen,

FASHION, come,—on me a while

Deign, fantastic nymph, to smile.

Vers'd in science debonnair,

Bowing, dancing, dressing hair,

You gaily trip it o'er the globe,

Clad in party colour'd robe.

Bring, O bring thy essence pot,

Amber, musk, and bergamot,

Eau de chipre, eau de luce,

Sans pareil, and citron juice.

Nor the band-box leave behind,

Fill'd with stores of every kind;

All the enraptur'd bard supposes,

Who to FANCY odes composes;

All that fancy's self has feign'd,

In a band-box is contain'd:

Violets, pinks, Italian posies,

Myrtles, jessamin, and roses,

Aprons, caps, and 'kerchiefs clean,

Straw-built hats, and bonnets green."

It remains for the Editor to indicate to his friends and correspondents, various topics of composition, and to subjoin the conditions to which the purchase of his paper is subjected. He enters copiously into the detail of the first; and, he presumes, that to the terms of the second, no just and generous man will hint an objection.

Brief reports of the most interesting debates in Congress, from the notes of members, friendly to this undertaking.

Political information, and political disquisition from the pens of Principals.

Elegant, or interesting speeches, in either house of Congress.

An early and prompt communication of momentous state papers.

Monthly, quarterly, or semi-annual retrospects of foreign affairs.

Faithful translations from valuable French, Spanish, or German books, pamphlets or papers. But, it must be understood, that the Editor totally prohibits every thing Jacobinical.

Economical essays, on the model of count Rumford.

Statistical tables.

Abstracts of the specification of every new patent.

Summary of domestic politics.

Detections of Jacobinical forgery, falshood, and misrepresentation.

Accurate reports of legal decisions, involving important national, commercial, or private interests.

Essays on rural economy.

Scientific papers.

Notices of the useful and fine arts.

Notices of new books, pamphlets, and literary projects of every description.

Information, respecting every species of "lettered worth," in obscurity.

Sketches of tours and journies, either through our own, or foreign territory.

Journals of voyages.

Descriptions of local peculiarities, and characteristical manners.

Review of new, or fashionable musical publications.

Remarks on the manners of the times, and on public amusements.

Descriptions of the fashionable dresses of the season.

Hymeneal register.

Articles for an obituary of remarkable, or distinguished persons, accompanied by anecdotes, after the model in "The Gentlemans' Magazine."

Meteorological diaries.

The various tribes of gay and useful miscellany; and in this pleasant and flowery walk, the Editor will assume the freedom to particularize the [...]iects, he wishes should be attended to.

Burlesque translations.

Parodies of the poets, particularly of Shakespeare.

Cross readings.

Ship news extraordinary

Advertisements extra.

Humorous and satiric ballads, in the style of John Gilpin.

Tender and pathetic ballads, in the manner of Dr. Percy's "O Nancy wilt thou go with me," and Hamilton's "Braes of Yarrow."

Mock odes, imitations &c. in the manner of "The Rolliad."

Hudibrastic poetry.

Characteristical and humorous diaries.

Dialogues, sentimental, or sportive.

Correct songs, adapted to the taste of the Anacreontic group, or the amateur.

Translations from the classic poets of Spain and Italy.

Epigrams.

Anecdotes.

Articles of levity, wit, and humour.

Articles of American biography, and of memoir writing in general.

Historical documents, or narrative.

Elegant translations of brilliant or useful passages from THE ANCIENTS.

Concise moral lessons.

Criticisms on new books and pamphlets.

Periodical essays, in the manner of Addison, Johnson, or Goldsmith.

Moral Allegories, Tales, and Romances.

Dramatic Sketches of Character.

Extracts from scarce and curious publications.

Extracts from the most novel works of celebrity, published abroad.

Extracts from the most recent and valuable American publications.

Original poetry.

Scenes of original plays.

Original letters.

Notes, concerning Americans of genius, enterprize, or mechanic skill, resident abroad, and

Literary selections from the London, or Cambridge, Bristol, Bath, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Dublin newspapers.

Notes

1.

The Editor, not without emotion, calls up in review the tranquil pleasures of a studious life, amid the ever-green forests of Newhampshire. In Solitude, "with her best nurse, Contemplation," he passed his "inoffensive day,"

"Oft' perch'd upon the green hill top, and close

Environ'd with a ring of branching elms."

COWPER.

The conclusion of the fourth Georgic of the Mantuan bard vividly describes the pursuits of "a self sequestered man." The nice ear'd Prosodist must forgive the substitution of harsh "Hantonia" for "Parthenope," the classical and the liquid.

Illo—me tempore dulcis alebat

Hantonia, ETUDIIS FLORENTEM IGNOBILIS O [...],

Carmina, qui lu [...]i Pastorum; audaxque juventa

— Cecini sub tegmine fagi.

VIRG.

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2.

A name, which though harshly combined, is abundantly expressive, and not unprotected by analogical authority. BOLINGBROKE published his Remarks on the History of England, under the name of Old Castle. To a diffident Editor, the machinery of a fictitious title is convenient. Sir Richard STEELE, as a periodical Mentor, appeared to many a delighted eye in the shape of an Isaac BICKERSTAFF, and a Nestor IRONSIDE; and, if an English Knight deemed it decorous to avail himself of the "immunities of invisibility," it is surely proper they should be claimed by an unobtrusive American.

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3.

Many periodical writers, seriously or jocosely, have described the difficulty of inventing an appropriate title. Though this to Cynical eyes may appear one of the frivolous cares of authorship, yet it has kept many an Essayist awake, for at least one night. Of the name for a popular vehicle it is required that it should be concise, modest, and appropriate. The words Port Folio, from the French Porte Feuille, are not to be found in Johnson's Dictionary, but they are very currently employed, in pure English, to signify a portable repository for fugitive papers, which is the exact definition of this Miscellany. Editors, ambitious of sonorous, or brilliant titles, frequently select a name, not intimately connected with the nature of their work. We hear of "The Mirror," and the "Aurora," but what relation has a literary essay with a polished plane of glass, or what have politics to do with The morning?

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4.

This phrase alludes to our indifference to elegant letters, to the acrimony [...] our party bickerings, and to the universal eagerness for political texts, and their commentary. Hence, it is generally, and not without reason, supposed that amid such "wild uproar," the gentle voice of the Muse is scarcely audible. Prudence, therefore, has dictated a concise paper, not quite a Gazette, nor wholly a Magazine, with something of Politics to interest Quidnuncs, and something of literature to engage Students. To those, who utterly despair of the success of such a plan, and to those who would deride the temerity of the Editor for persevering to the end, it may be said, that the first similar scheme in England commenced at a time, when the nation was divided into whigs and tories, and coxcombs and impertinents, rather than into Patrons and Readers. But, to use the Tatler's own words, "by forming that paper, by way of Letter of Intelligence, consisting of such parts as might gratify the curiosity of persons of all conditions, and each sex, the design, however executed, met with so great success, that there is hardly a name now eminent among us for power, wit, beauty, valour, or wisdom, which is not subscribed." This was no empty vaunt of Steele's, for on consulting the celebrated edition of the Tatler, published in 1786 by the indefatigable and accurate John Nichols, we find a list of the subscribers, at an early stage of the undertaking. The names are both very numerous, and very respectable.

The condition of a literary adventurer, meditating a new work, and solicited to publish by some, and to suppress by others, is drolly described by honest John BUNYAN. The conclusion drawn by his whimsical logic is what might be expected from the natural wishes, and self complacency of every author.

Some said, John print it; others said, not so.

Some said, it might do good; others said, no.

Now I was in a strait, and did not see

Which was the best thing to be done by me:

At last I thought, since you are thus divided,

I print it will, and to the case decided!

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5.

The Editor employs this old fashioned adverb to express his scepticism, with respect to the immediate encouragement and success of this paper. But under every disadvantage of a narrow subscription, he is resolved to persevere. He is sure of being fondly fostered by the liberal Few, and will trust to Time for the slow reward of literary toil.

This it is presumed will prove ultimately successful, if men of virtue, influence, genius, learning, and wealth assist his honest endeavours to promote the dissemination of the true, and the beautiful. But this assistance must be rendered with fervent zeal, and unabating kindness. A paper to be advantageously edited, must be liberally supported. The compositor must be requited for his mechanical toil, the publisher must be compensated for his cares and risque, and the conductor, if competent to his highly responsible duties, has a claim to what an ancient author, who well knew the value of literary service, calls the "quiddam honorarium," the generous stipend for mental efforts, not the paltry wages of a vulgar hireling. If an industrious and high minded man thus situated, received only a servant's price of labour, he will quickly sink to the level of the mercenary fugitive in the gospel. He will flee from or neglect his duty, because he is an Hireling.

Literary industry, usefully employed has a sort of draught upon the bank of opulence, and has the right of entry into the mansion of every Maecenas. When to government or to individuals it renders actual service, gives harmless pleasure to some, and new ideas to others, it confers at least a species of obligation, which any code of ethical precept will teach men to repay. Let not this be considered a mercenary doctrine, and let not writers be rashly censured for vending the fruits of mind. Authors, far elevated above the mire of low avarice, have thought it debasement to make Literature common and cheap. The affluent lord LYTTLETON made his history of Henry II. a book-sellers property at the price of three thousand pounds; and Gibbon, and Robertson, and Blair, and Sir William Jones sold their manuscripts for sums, which the generosity of Britain did not scruple to pay, nor the pride of authorship blush to receive.

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6.

MILTON. Il Penseroso.

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7.

The choice of Saturday is propitious to our plan. The leisure, which is generally found, or made on that day, together with the retirement and quiet of the Sabbath, seem to invite moral speculations, and "the cherub Contemplation." The union of Literature, Piety, and Morals, is fervently and elegantly wished by the admirable author of "The Pursuits of Literature," a lofty and columnar work, whose grace and strength will endure, when the delusions of fanatic democracy and Gallic philosophy shall have vanished, like the filthy fogs of a morbid autumn.

"Oh, never may Castalia's streams divide

From Siloa's brook and Jordan's hallow'd tide."

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8.

I would not take one of these, says a great orator, speaking with all contempt of the impartial tribe, I would not take one of these for my arbitrator in a dispute, for so much as a fish pond, for if he reserved the mud to me, he would be sure to give the water, that fed the pool, to my adversary

EDMUND BURKE.

Dr. SMOLLET, in one of his merry novels, describing a quackish prescription of a neutral draught, adds, "it was so neutral, as to declare neither for the patient nor the disease." Such is the neutrality of many a news-paper; and it may be added, of its readers too, men of convenient maxims, who can cry amen to every creed, and venture on all sides, without being trusted by any. Of such infamous principles the Editor has the deepest abhorrence, and for the silly scheme of Impartiality, he cherishes the most ineffable contempt. This is not a time for "creamy smoothness" in our speculations, nor for lukewarmness in our conduct. When "bold bad men" are assailing THE CITADEL, and violating the tombs of the ancients, and plucking up the old land-marks, it is salutary to apply to each timid Bystander what was once indignantly addressed to the supineness of Laodicea, "I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot, I would thou wert cold or hot." When Classical Learning is exploded as a senseless study of words; public quiet disturbed by every boorish bawler; a church pronounced no better than a barn, and the bible classed with an obsolete almanac: When Genius, Talents, and Virtue are wrenched from their just elevation, and "trodden under the hoofs of a swinish multitude," it is right and decorous, and useful to be partial, bigotted, adhesive to old systems.

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9.

To the lower classes of our motley vulgar, too often composed of the scoundrels of all nations, and perpetually restless and rebellious, may be applied a description from the most vigorous poet in the language.

—"A headstrong, moody, murmuring race,

As ever tryed the extent and stretch of grace;

A pamper'd people, whom, debauched with ease,

No king can govern, nor no God can please;

These Adam wits, too fortunately free,

Begin to dream they want more liberty;

And when no rule, no precedent, is found

Of men by laws, less circumscribed and bound,

They lead their wild desires to woods and caves

And think that all but savages are slaves."

DRYDEN.

One of the primary objects of this undertaking is to combat revolutionary doctrine. The opinion of a profound English lawyer deserves quoting in this place. He thought rightly, though he acted wrong. "Alteration is dangerous, because we know not where it will stay; 'tis like a milstone, that lies upon the top of a pair of stairs; if once it be thrust off the first stair, it never stays till it comes to the bottom.

SELDEN.

In an age, when inversion is the order of the day, the modern idea of improvement does not consist in altering, but extirpating. We do not reform, but subvert. We do not correct old systems, but demolish them; fancying that when every thing shall be new it will be perfect. Not to have been wrong, but to have been at all, is the crime. Excellence is no longer considered as an experimental thing, which is to grow gradually out of observation and practice, and to be improved by the accumulating additions brought by the wisdom of successive ages. Our wisdom is not slowly perfected by age and gradual growth, but a goddess, which starts at once, full grown, mature, armed cap a pee, from the heads of our modern thunderers. Or rather, a perfect system is now expected inevitably to spring at once, like the fabled bird of Arabia, from the ashes of its parent; and, like that, can receive its birth no other way, but by the destruction of its predecessor.

H. MORE.

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10.

See Dr. JOHNSON's works, passim, for irrefragable arguments and bitter satire against this execrable delusion of hair brained Philosophy. See PRATT's Gleanings for a sensible train of reasoning on this subject. See SALLUST's admirable description of the motives, which instigated to revolt the followers of Cataline. See all the productions of Edmund BURKE, posterior to the French revolution. See the very eloquent performance of Professor WILDE.

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11.

"The moral Satirist, if he cuts deep, it is with the hand of a surgeon, not of an assassin." Cumberland.

↵

12.

Happy my studies▪ when by these approv'd,

Happier their Author, when by these belov'd.

Pope.

↵

13.

That all our facts will be authentic, or all our remarks just we dare not venture to promise: we can relate but what we hear, we can point out but what we see. Of remote transactions, the first accounts are always confused and commonly exaggerated; and in domestic affairs if the power to conceal is less, the interest to misrepresent is often greater and, what is sufficiently vexatious, truth seems to fly from curiosity, and as many enquiries produce many narratives, whatever engages the public attention is immediately disguised by the embellishments of fiction. We pretend to no peculiar power of disentangling contradiction, or denuding forgery, we have no settled correspondence with the antipodes, nor maintain any spies in the cabinets of princes. Dr. Johnson's Preliminary Dicourse to the London Chronicle

↵

14.

—As the various fits

Of humour seize you, from Philosophy

To fable shift; from serious Antonine

To Rabelais' ravings, and from prose to song.

Dr. Armstrong.

Those who aspire to a solid erudition, must undoubtedly take other methods to acquire it. They have their labour and their merit. But there are readers of another order, who must not be left wholly unprovided: For such readers, it is our province to collect matters of a lighter nature; but pleasing even by their levity; by their variety; and by their aptitude to enter into common conversation. Things of this sort often gradually and imperceptibly insinuate a taste for knowledge, and in some measure gratify that taste. They steal some moments from the round of dissipation and pleasure. They relieve the minds of men of business, who cannot pass from severe labour to severe study with an elegant relaxation They preserve the strenuous idleness of many from a worse employment.

Preface to Dodsley's Annual Register.

The junior PLINY, the most elaborate, if not the most agreeable letter writer of antiquity, has sanctioned by his opinion the propriety of diversifying our lucubrations.

Ult in vita, sic in studiis pulcherrimum existimo,

SEVERITATEM COMITATEMQUE MISCERE.

Plinii Epist.

In a paper, designed for general perusal it will be necessary to dwell most upon things of general entertainment. The elegant trifles of Literature, the wild strains of Fancy, the pleasing amusements of harmles wit, shall therefore be considered as necessary to our collection.

Dr. Johnson. Preface to the Literary Magazine

↵

15.

This fashionable mode of bad writing is forcibly, though quaintly ridiculed by the vivacious HOWELL, an "old English gentleman" of sound understanding, and of sparkling wit "A kind of simpering, and lank hectic expressions, made up of a bombast of words and finical affected compliments only. I cannot well away with such sleazy stuff, with such cobweb composition, where there is no strength of matter, nothing for the reader to carry away with him, that may enlarge the notions of his soul."

↵

16.

It is well known to all, who are conversant in the history of the writers in the reign of Queen Ann and of George II. that some of the finest wits of the age, both scholars and statesmen, were actively engaged in writing for the public papers. Dean Swift, Mr. Addison, Sir Richard Steele, Lord Bolingbroke, &c. At a subsequent period, Henry Fielding. Mr. Kelly and the Bishop of Dromor [...] wrote in the gazettes. Richardson, the author of Clarissa, was the conductor of two papers, and Bowyer, one of the most learned of English printers, published for many years a weekly museum.

↵

17.

Well conducted, authentic, and accurate newspapers often afford useful, and sometimes the only materials to the historian. Bolingbroke somewhere in his letters mentions the utility of gazettes both to the studious and the compiler of History. BURKE and Dr. Campbell, who for many years furnished the historical article in Dodsley's Annual Register were largely indebted to the news writers of the time. A very tolerable narrative of the American war (published in 1779 by Faulder in Bond street) was compiled almost entirely from gazettes: and the Paris "Moniteur" at the earlier [...] French revolution, was the ground work of more [...] the events of a memorable epoch.

↵

18.

—who from early youth

Have trod the FLOWERY TRACTS OF TIME

Together mus'd, in search of truth,

O'er learned sage, or bard sublime.

SHENSTONE.

↵

19.

It is highly honourable to the character of the priesthood, that both in monkish and modern time, they have been either faithful depositaries, or laborious teachers, or diligent cultivators of science. The monk in his cloister, darkened by the gloom of the tenth century, saw the brightness of the classical page. The Jesuits, in the age of Lewis the fourteenth, familiarized to Gallic nobles every Athenian and Roman expression; and a Lowth and a Watson have adorned the schools as well as the pulpit.

—"Learning would rather choose

Her Bodley, or her Vatican to lose."

COWLEY.

↵

20.

Mr. GIBBON has elegantly painted the various features of Mes [...]ala, an accomplished Roman, the "omnis homo" of the poet.

As an orator he disputed the palm of eloquence with Cicero himself. He cultivated every muse, and was the patron of every man of genius. He spent his evenings in philosophical conversation with Horace▪ assumed his place at table between Delia and [...], and amused his leisure by encouraging the [...] of young Ovid.

There have been lawyers that were orators, philosophers, historians: there have been Bacons and Clarendons.

Lord BOLINGBROKE.

The name of Sir WILLIAM JONES demands the amplest tribute of praise. The Editor, captivated by the versatility of his powers, and benefited, he hopes, by his industrious example, owes the sincerest compliments to the varied excellence of a lawyer, in whose learned and luminous pages one may discern the most exact proportions of logic, and the most beautiful forms of diction. He is "a legitimate English classic." He has omitted nothing useful or pleasant in literature. He has translated the oratory of the Greeks, and compiled a grammar of the Persic; he has methodized the most chaotic of English law titles, and described the jurisprudence and morals, the arts and amusements of Asia. He has instructed and charmed the courts of Calcutta, and playfully investigated the origin of chess. He has embodied the features of the landscape of Hinzuan, and composed classical epithalamiums on wedded Beauty.

↵

21.

H. MORE.

With strict propriety and with merited praise. MILTON makes our general ancestor accost the first [...] as ‘"Daughter of God and man, ACCOMPLISH'D EVE."’

↵

CONDITIONS.

[Page]

I.

The Port-Folio will be published every Saturday morning, and will always contain at least eight pages of letter press. The Prospectus is a specimen of the size and quality of the paper, and of the typographical execution.

II.

It will be published, for the Editor, by ASBURY DICKINS, opposite Christ-Church, Philadelphia.

III.

The price will be five dollars annually, and it is requested of subscribers that the money be paid in advance. To many this may appear a rigorous and unpleasant exaction, but, as the expences of the publication will be great, and as it is extremely difficult, not to say impracticable, to collect small sums, at remote periods, or from remote situations, it is believed that the considerate and the liberal, to whom this is addressed, will cheerfully comply with the condition.

IV.

No single paper to be sold, nor any subscription for less than a year to be received. No advertisements to be inserted in the body of the work; but as they principally contribute both to the profit and the circulation of every City paper, the Editor hopes that Merchants and Booksellers will not forget this circumstance. Their advertisements shall be conspicuously printed on a separate sheet, which will serve as an useful envelope to the Port-Folio.

V.

City subscribers shall be regularly supplied by the carriers; and, by the mail, it shall be punctually transmitted to gentlemen, in different parts of the United States, and British America, who are inclined to read and circulate a paper, which, vacant of advertisements, must be peculiarly desirable to remote residents, naturally studious of original composition, and political documents, unmixed with mere local and commercial matter.

VI.

In proportion to the increase of pecuniary and literary assistance, afforded to this paper, the quantity of its contents shall be gradually augmented.

VII.

All letters and communications for the Port-Folio must be Post-paid, and addressed to Mr. Asbury Dickins, bookseller, Philadelphia. To facilitate City correspondence, a letter box will be placed in the window.

VIII.

Gentlemen in the West-Indies, or in any part of Great-Britain, who wish to encourage this paper, may be furnished with regular files, at no very distant period from the time of publication; and those, who do not choose to receive them in a desultory way, may have them transmitted semi-annually, or annually, in the form of volumes, half bound. Orders, accompanied by the monies for the subscription, and incidental charges, shall be strictly attended to.

§

§

SUCH are the outlines, and terms of an adventurous paper, which, not without anxiety, is now to be presented to the public. Between Criticism and the conducter of the Port-Folio, there are but few hours: and, during a suspense, so interesting in the annals of a writer, the proudest heart would beat, and the firmest nerves tremble. In this walk of composition, this is not the Editors first essay. To some little experience, he may, without arrogance, pretend, who for many years has been laboriously employed in a Literary Journal. At an early season of life, he voluntarily forsook the path of ordinary business, for a lowly seat in the Muses' bower. Though his choice has not enriched, or advanced him, yet of its propriety he has never doubted. "I was," says Mr. HUME, "seized very early with a passion for literature, which has been the ruling passion of my life, and the great source of my enjoyments." The heart of every literary enthusiast is always responsive to such sentiments; the Editor has a right to make a similar declaration. In common too with many others, he has long been urged by a sober wish, or, if the sneering reader will have it so, he has long been deluded by the visionary whim, of making literature the hand-maid of Fortune, or, at least, of securing something like independency, by exertions, as a man of letters. Hitherto, his success has been far from brilliant: But though the gains of Authorship have been trivial, yet once they secured him a portion of rural comfort, and, perhaps, they will enable him to flourish in a city. The anticipations of an adventurer, are like the desires of a lover, "Gay hope is their's by Fancy fed." With a spirit lofty, yet not insolent, with a voice timid, yet not servile, he calls on his countrymen to inspect and appreciate his labours; and, with a moderate estimate, he will persevere and be cheerful.

[Page]NAMES.

ABODE

Information about this book

Title statement

Prospectus of a new weekly paper, submitted to men of affluence, men of liberality, and men of letters.

Dennie, Joseph, 1768-1812.

Publication

Publisher

Text Creation Partnership,

Place of publication

Ann Arbor, MI :

Date

2007-01.

ID [DLPS]

N37428

ID [TCP]

N37428

ID [STC]

Shipton 49059

ID [STC]

Shipton 49060

ID [NOTIS]

APY6345

ID [IMAGE-SET]

49059

ID [EVANS-CITATION]

99033604

Availability

This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal. The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

Series

Early American Imprints, 1639-1800 ; no. 49059.Early American Imprints, 1639-1800 ; no. 49060.

Notes

(Evans-TCP ; no. N37428)

Transcribed from: (Readex Archive of Americana ; Early American Imprints, series I ; image set 49059)

Images scanned from Readex microprint and microform: (Early American imprints. First series ; no. 49059; 49060)

Source

— Prospectus of a new weekly paper, submitted to men of affluence, men of liberality, and men of letters., Dennie, Joseph, 1768-1812..

Extent

[8] p. ; 35 cm. (4to)

Joseph Dennie and Asbury Dickins,. [Philadelphia :: 1800]. ("... a new weekly paper, to be called The Port folio, by Oliver Oldschool, Esq. ..."--p. [1].) (Caption title.) ("Presumably written either wholly or in part by [Joseph] Dennie."--BAL. The Port folio was edited by Dennie and published by Dennie and Dickins. An advertisement for the Prospectus appeared in the Gazette of the United States, Philadelphia, Oct. 16, 1800.) (Two states noted, a number of lines having been rejustified, and the number of lines per column varying. In one state the last word of the first column on p. [1] is "with"; in the other it is "something.") (Text printed in three columns.)

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