Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

ILLUSTRATED

LONDON MAGAZINE:

A MONTHLY JOURNAL,

DEVOTED TO THE USEFUL AND INSTRUCTIVE; AND PLEDGED TO ADVOCATE THOSE SOCIAL
CHANGES WHICH HAPPILY ENGAGE SO LARGE A PORTION OF PUBLIC

SYMPATHY IN THIS AGE.

EDITED BY

RICHARD BRINSLEY KNOWLES, ESQ.,

BARRISTER-AT-LAW, AUTHOR OF THE "MAIDEN AUNT," &c.

“A magazine so liberal, so able, and so vigorous, so good in every department, and withal so cheap, ought not to starve among us for
the want of favour."--Examiner.

VOL. I.

LONDON: PIPER, STEPHENSON, AND SPENCE.

1853.

J. IIUTTON, Printer, 170, Fleet -street, London.

ADDRESS.

AN ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE, if not quite a novelty, has at all events rever been attempted upon a scale so costly as the present, nor on terms so liberal to the Purchaser.

In one respect the ILLUSTRATED LONDON MAGAZINE is wholly new-in its object.

It is not our intention to disparage the merits of the older Magazines. They are before the world, and are equally beyond question and above praise. But they are for a class, not for the general public. It may be price which effects this, or a graver tone and deeper thought than suits the million. But the fact is so; and excepting two or three monthly parts of weekly publications-not illustrated-there exists no Miscellany of the kind we propose to give.

Our aim is to unite the useful and agreeable; to touch the heart with some social truth, involving in its observance or neglect the welfare or misery of our fellow-creatures; to cull from the stores of Science and set forth some wonder, in language freed from the difficulties of technicality; to roam through other lands, note their features, legends, and the manners of their people; pause with our Fisherman by the Fjord; scamper over the hunting-ground with the Pioneers of Civilisation in the Far West, or dig deep with the Gold adventurer for the wondrous treasures of the earth. We shall copy from the page of History now and then, a model of patriotic worth, or retrace the incidents of some event notable for its romance, or the changes it has wrought for good or evil in the interests of humanity : while he who cares not for these things, may read of passions which affect us all, which make us laugh or weep, relieve our cares, relax our attention from the severe thoughts of reality, and make us live awhile out of ourselves; or he may trace some oddity, with a truth in it-some new reading of the common things around us; or in our notices of new books, enjoy the novelty of hearing more about the author than the critic.

That union, too, which later years have witnessed between the Pencil and the Pen, we shall endeavour to extend; uniting, we trust, those of equal station upon either side, and that station not a low one.

Pervading these intentions, is an earnest ambition to bear part in the struggle which goes on in the field of Literature betwixt the cheap and worthless and the cheap and beneficial; to assist in forcing back that depraving torrent of immorality which sweeps away so many minds on its impure tide; to assist in elevating heart and soul to the contemplation of good, generous, and ennobling thoughts; to show forth the manliness of piety and virtue, the meanness and vulgarity of vice.

With this promise, and in the faith that we shall deserve well of the Public, we I cast our bread upon.

the

waters."

P.S.-Six months have passed since the first number of the "ILLUSTRATED LONDON MAGAZINE was issued. The result has fulfilled our highest expectations. We have done more than deserve success-we have achieved it.

« ZurückWeiter »