8 OBSERVATIONS, 



lity) without encountering, by this decision, 

 the pique or resentment of all parties in- 

 terested in the fate of such publication, or 

 its effects upon the multitude. However> 

 the predicament I now stand in compels me 

 to proceed to a thorough explanation, feel- 

 ing myself pledged by a public promise not 

 only to investigate^ make deary and etideavour 

 to explode the cruelties of ancient practice, 

 but to point out the equal danger oi modern 

 composition even in its infancy ; more parti- 

 cularly when ushered into the world by such 

 hi^h-sounding authority as may give it tem^ 

 porary weight with unthinking injudicious 

 I'eaders, or experimental adventurers. 



Previous to farther animadversion upon the 

 elaborate periodical work in question, I shall, 

 without the least intentional gratification of 

 my own vanity, offer to the present reader 

 one congratulat^r} fact beyond the power of 

 sophistry to confute, or criticism to condemn. 

 Amidst the paltry productions that have been 

 obtruded upon the public under various 

 titles, (those servile imitations or wretched 

 mutilations of what had gone before) it is a 

 most flattering circumstance to the author. 



