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THE MONTHLY ANTHOLOGY.

FOR

JANUARY, 1809.

ADDRESS OF THE EDITORS.

THE MONTHLY ANTHOLOGY, has at length completed a Lustrum; an age, which few of the magazines in this country have reached. We do not use this word because it is Latin; but because it tempts us to remind our subscribers, that a period of five years was so called by the Romans, because, at the end of it the taxes were all paid in to the Censors. This derivation (a luendo i. e. solvendo) our readers will excuse us for suggesting, since we always wish to preserve, as far as we can, the original and classical meaning of words.

In reviewing our last year's labours, we acknowledge the assistance we have received from a few anonymous correspondents. To the author of the "Letters from Europe," we are particularly indebted; and we express the unanimous sentiment of our readers, when we hope, that his contributions will not fail, as long as there remains a memorandum in his portfolio. The man, who writes most at his ease, commonly writes most agreeably; though he may not have sat isfied himself so well, as if he had constructed his style with more formality, and reviewed it with more precaution. No one prepares minutely to criticise a piece, except by profession, till he is tired or uninterested; and this is not yet the case with the readers of these letters. More correspondence of this kind, would greatly relieve the sobriety of our numbers; for surely, no kind of composition encour ages so much good humour and unceremonious simplicity, as the writing of letters to an uncritical correspondent, in those precious moments, when the heart is warmed by recollections of friendship, and ready to receive and transmit the liveliest impressions of interesting objects. It is the peculiar felicity of a good letter writer, not only to

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