326 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



FROM MR. JARED SPARKS. 



BOSTON, July 26, 1826. 



DEAR SIR, I fear I can suggest few hints that will be 

 of service to you on the subject you mention. My experience 

 in the business of periodicals, it is true, has been consid- 

 erable, but you know experience is not always the handmaid 

 of wisdom or profit. In regard to the " North American 

 Review," nothing has been done from the beginning but to 

 let it take care of itself. For the first four or five years, it 

 languished, and its friends aimed at little more than to keep 

 its head above water, and to prevent the living principle 

 from becoming quite extinct. Since that time it has been 

 more successful, and still continues to receive an increased, 

 substantial support of the public. From the nature of this 

 work, it must of course be adapted to a greater number of 

 readers, in this country particularly, than are strictly scien- 

 tific ; yet it cannot be doubted that there are scientific 

 readers enough among us to afford a most liberal patronage 

 to such a work as the " American Journal." The character 

 of this latter is strictly national, and it is the only vehicle 

 of communication in which an inquirer may be sure to find 

 what is most interesting in the wide range of topics, which 

 its design embraces. It has become, in short, not more 

 identified with the science than the literature of the country. 

 In regard to the means of promoting the circulation, I 

 would remark, in the first place, that I am convinced any 

 attempt at a forced subscription by sending out runners to 

 importune people, for this or any other work, will result in 

 more harm than good. There is no difficulty in procuring 

 any number of names in this way, but every name increases 

 the expenses. The greater part will fall off at the end of 

 one year, and many of the remainder will never pay any- 

 thing. This system has been the ruin of many of our 

 periodicals, and came near destroying the "Edinburgh" 

 and " Quarterly " when first set up in this country. 



