ADVERTISEMENT. 
AT the time of presenting to the Public this first part of the third volume, 
it may not be improper to observe, that the Academy refer the business of pub- 
lishing their Memoirs to a Committee, which for some years past has been chos- 
en annually for this purpose ;—that the Academy have declared in their Stat- 
utes, and notice of it has been given in their preceding volumes, that they 
*¢ will never give their judgment or opinion upon any literary performance pre- 
sented to them, but allow it to rest upon its own merit, and the credit of its au- 
thor ;”—that the Committee, while exercising their diseretiona'y p power with- 
in proper limits in ma King « eelcction from papers on the files of the Academy 
and printing the same, do not subject themselves to any part of that responsibil- 
ity fora paper, which the Academy has so properly permitted to rest on the 
author ;—that the publication of a paper may be expedient on the ground of the 
utility, importance, or singularity of the subject, or the advantageous manner of 
treating it, without involving or justifying the inference, that the Committee be- 
lieve every fact; related, to be true, every step in the reasoning accurate, every 
conclusion just, or every hypothesis probable. 
