PRE®ACE. 
AS two volumes of this work are now completed, the 
public are in a situation to judge how far the execution has 
corresponded with the original plan. Not a local, but ana- 
tional undertaking, its leading object is to advance the in- 
terests of this rising empire, by exciting and concentrating 
original American effort, both in the sciences, and in the 
arts, and it may with truth be said, that no Journal was ev- 
er more fully sustained by original communications. ‘They 
have been forwarded from our cities, towns and villages, 
from our academies and colleges, from the East and the 
West, the North and the South, and even occasionally from 
other countries, so that the Editor feels himself justified in 
believing, that this work is regarded as a national Journal. 
if therefore this view be one which patriotic and honoura- 
ble men can approve, and if the execution has in any good 
degree corresponded with the design, it is to be hoped 
that the American public will not permit the work te 
languish, for want of pecuniary patronage. This is the on- 
ly material difficulty which it has encountered, and this is 
far from being removed. A more extended patronage is in- 
dispensable to its permanent establishment, and, should it 
fail on this ground, who can wonder if our national charac- 
ter should be even more severely (perhaps even more de- 
servedly) reproached than ever. 
The Editor, although called upon to sustain the pecunia- 
ry, as well as the more appropriate responsibilities of the 
work, is determined not lightly to abandon the undertaking. 
He will persevere, until it is ascertained, whether the vast 
American Republic, with ten millions of inhabitants, with 
wealth scarcely surpassed by that of the most favoured na- 
tions, and with immensely diversified interests, growing out 
of those physical resources, which the bounty of God has 
given us, will permit this effort, devoted to the advancement 
of its wealth and its power, its honor and its dignity, to be- 
come abortive, with the gloomy presage that it may be very 
long before any similar enterprize can be successfully pros- 
ecuted. 
Yale College, November 1, 1820. 
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