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THE

MONITOR,

DESIGNED

TO IMPROVE THE TASTE,

THE

UNDERSTANDING,

AND

She Weart.

VOLUME L

BOSTON:

PUBLISHED BY R. BANNISTER."

P277.23

A

HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRABY

1867. Mar. 26.

By euch. I depel.

2 vols.

DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, TO WIT:

District Clerk's Office.

BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the twentieth day of Fe bruary, A. D. 1823, in the forty seventh Year of the Independence of the United States of America, HERVEY WILBUR, of the said District, has deposited in this Office the Title of a Book, the Right where of he claims as Editor ond Proprietor, in the words following, to wit:

The Monitor: designed to improve the Taste, the Understanding, and the Heart. Vol, I.

In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies, during the times therein mentioned:" and also to an Act entitled, "An Act supplementary to an Act, entitled, An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies during the times therein mentioned; and extending the Benefits thereof to the Arts of Designing, Engraving and Etching Historical, and other Prints."

JNO. W. DAVIS, Clerk of the District of

Massachusetts.

THE silent rapid flight of twelve months, has a MONITORIAL voice to those who conduct, and those who peruse, periodical works. It admonishes, that important opportunities of imparting or acquiring useful knowledge, are irretrievably gone; and their improvement or misimprovement registered in another volume, to be opened in the great day.

This work was commenced with the hope of benefiting a most interesting portion of our race, whose improvement by periodical publications has not been sufficiently regarded. YOUNG PEOPLE have been suffered too much to feed their reading appetites on any trash which might come in their way. By this means, false tastes have been created; and much that could not be digested, or was really poisonous, has been swallowed with avidity. Thus they have been particularly exposed to have the Novel, with false estimates of human life, misguide their inexperienced steps; or the Play with obscene allusions, contaminate their morals; or the fascinating imagery of a Poem, impregnated with delicious poison, vitiate their principles. This is too much like placing ignorant thirsty youth in the shop of an Apothecary, and permitting them to take their fill from the contents of any phial which might allure by its colouring, its smell, or its taste. Now it has been our wish, to take from the phials within our reach, and with the nature of whose contents we are acquainted, and compound such a monthly cordial as should, on the whole, be agreeable both for colour and flavour, and whose effects must be salutary; and thus, by the moderate price at which it might be obtained, place it within the reach of vast multitudes of thirsty youths.

We feel gratified with the confidence, and we feel justified in expressing it, that our labours have not been useless. We feel many obligations to contributors, and to subscribers, and we trust that the obligations are not ALL on our part. It would indeed be unprecedented, if ALL who write for our work, and all who read it, should be always pleased with the course we pursue: our most sanguine expectations in this respect, have been exceeded.

By the leave of Divine Providence, we propose to continue another year, the labours, cares, trials, responsibilities, and pleasures of Editors. While we shall attempt to merit it, we ask that an ample patronage and a profitable improvement may attend our labours.

We will close this preface with the reflection, that several of our youthful readers have closed their probation ere this volume was closed. Nor should it be forgotten, that the Conductors of this work may,-that some writers for its pages and 'numbers of its readers will, in human probability, close their earthly span before a second volume of this work shall close.

BOSTON, Dec.1823.

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