The Penny Magazine. Sil 



stem, and over this it is said the insects will not cross. To 

 prevent the ointment from benig absorbed by the bark, tar 

 and turpentine, melted together, may be thinly spread on a 

 cloth, that cloth cut into shreds, and of these a fillet formed 

 round the stem, on which the mercurial cord may rest. 



(Zb be contiiiued.) 



Art. IV. Catalogue, of Worlcs on Gardening, Agriculture, Botany, 

 Rural Architecture, 8^c., lately published, 'with some Account of 

 those considered the most interesting. 



Anon. : The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful 

 Knowledge. London. Published every Saturday in Numbers, \d. each, 

 consisting of 8 quarto Pages of Matter, illustrated by Woodcuts. 

 4>oo\e apt Kvovv (Bai \ooKivy ovirre. 



This is, in many respects, a singular production ; and, if any copy of it 

 shall be preserved, it will give future generations a very extraordinary 

 notion of the state of literature at the present time. If, indeed, we could 

 imagine that every other impress of the mind of England, at the commence- 

 ment of the year 1832, were to be obliterated, and this Magazine to stand 

 alone as our only literary memorial, why, what would our great-great-grand- 

 children think of us V Here is a Society, aggregated for the express pur- 

 pose of '* diffusing zisefid know/edge;" having a central committee of some 

 threescore names ; the head of it the first temporal peer in the realm j 

 a dozen more senators ; many with literary and scientific additions ; and 

 the very humblest writing " Annigero." Furthermore, there are twoscore 

 and upward of local branches, which share (upon the paper) the very 

 " pick and wale " of provincial talent. Surely, if ever old Dulness and 

 Ignorance are to be made to " rue the day," this is the wherewithal to 

 vanquish them. 



And what is the mighty engine in the hands of those giants of the earth ? 

 A Penny Magazine, published every Saturday, in sixteen small and sparse 

 columns, which, in point of quantity, the humblest solitary scribbler who 

 drudges in a garret could produce any day or every day in the week. Ay, 

 but the quality ? Well, the quality : it is bis coctiis ; nay, more nauseous 

 still. It is like a "joint-stock quid," after it has run the gauntlet of twenty 

 pairs of jaws in a back-wood wigwam ; or an acorn, after passing through 

 the same tale of hogs in a Westphalian forest, in the course of nature. It 

 is a mere melange of patches ; many of them published before, by the same 

 Society, in what they call their " Library of Entertaining Knowledge ; " 

 and in other conglomerates, for which, again, they have been picked up or 

 pirated. How often have the Society (for they are answerable to the in- 

 sulted talent of the country for the conduct of their tools) paid hush- 

 money to those from whom they have pilfered, rather than have the bubble 

 blown up in a court of justice ? Did they eVer hear of Dr. G. or Mr. R. ? 

 They are worse than the " soul-curer and body-curer " in Shakspeare ; 

 they have " stolen the scraps," without having been at " the leash of lan- 

 guages." 



A " full-moon " of their pennyworth lies before us ; let us see for what 

 it is that they go about to chouse the poor out of their pennies : — 



z 3 



