

THE HULL 



LITERARY & PHILOSOPHICAL MISCELLANY. 



No. I. OCTOBER. Vol. I. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The rapidly extending diffusion of a literary taste is one of 

 the most conspicuous and animating characteristics of our time. It 

 is clear that our age is not fertile in those gigantic creations of 

 original thought, that constitute the glory of our national literature, 

 still it must be conceded, that no prior age ever witnessed literature 

 assume so wide-spread a dominion over the public mind : " If we have 

 ceased to produce profound thinkers, we have become more generally 

 intelligent." The indications of this spirit of our times ai-e to be 

 discovered in the vast numbers of periodicals of the most dissimilar 

 nature, that weekly and monthly issue from the press, and are greedily 

 read by the public, notwithstanding the incalculable amount of matter 

 daily addressed to them through the newspaj)ers on tlie absorbing 

 struggles of party politics. Admitting the predilection for productions 

 of literary skill to be a general one in our day, are we to assume that 

 Hull is exempted from its influence — that it is a sort of peculium 

 into which the spirit of authorship has as yet not penetrated ? We 

 certainly do not discover one of the indications which ordinarily 

 accompany it ; we have no magazine, review, or other periodical. 

 Does the feeling itself, then, pervade our town ? It may be answered — 



