Chap. XXI.] Literary Journals. 75 



same year ; the Nova Liter aria Maris Balthici, 

 in 1698 j together with several others in Ger- 

 many, France, and Italy. The first work of the 

 kind established in Great Britain was the Histori) 

 of the Works of the Learned, began in London, in 

 1699. Such was the state of Europe, with respect 

 to literary journals, at the close of the seventeenth 

 century. It will be observed, that, as they began 

 in France, so they were most numerous and most 

 encouraged in that country for a long time after-^ 

 wards. 



Soon after the commencement of the eighteenth 

 century these publications greatly increased both 

 in number and in the extent of their circulation. 

 But this increase, for the fnst forty years of the 

 period we are considering, w^as chiefly confined 

 to the continent of Europe. The attempts in 

 Great Britain v^ere few and short-lived. About the 

 beginning of the century M. de la Roche formed 

 an English Journal, entitled Memoirs of JMera- 

 tiire. To tliis succeeded the Present State of the 

 Republic of Letters, by Reid ; the Censura Tem- 

 porum, established in 1708; and the Bibliutheca 

 Curiosa, about the same time. These, howe^'er, 

 were by no means so instructive and interesting 

 as modern Reviews. They only gave notices of a 

 iG\N principal publications, and retailed selections 

 from foreign journals ; and, together with several 

 others too unimportant to be namcd,^ were soon 

 discontinued. 



No establishment of this nature, either perma- 

 nent or in any high degree respectable, was made 

 in Great Britain until 1749, when the Monthly 

 Review Wcis commenced; which has been ably 



