A LITERARY, SCIENTIFIC, AND INSTRUCTIVE FAMILY PAPER. 



Conducted toy WILLIAM KIBD, of Hammersmith,— 



Author of the Familiar and Popular Essays on "Natural History;" "British Song 



Birds;" "Birds of Passage;" "Instinct and Reason;" 



" The Aviary and its Occupants," &c. 



"the OBJECT oF our work is to make men WISER, without obliging them to turn over folios and 



QUARTOS.— TO FURNISH MATTER FOR THINKING, AS WELL AS READING." EVELYN. 



No. 5.— 1852. 



SATURDAY, JANUARY 31. 



Price \\d. 



Or, in Monthly Parts, Price Id. 



DIFFICULTY AND IMPOSSIBILITY. 



The Wise and Active conquer difficulties by daring 

 to attempt them : sloth and folly shiver and shrink at 

 sight of toil and hazard, and make the impossibility 



THEY FExVR. — Howe. 



We have long been of opinion, that the 

 word "impossibility" ought to be obsolete. 

 While it continues to be recognised, much 

 evil must be the necessary consequence. 



" Difficulty " certainly is a word whose 

 existence we are obliged to acknowledge ; 

 but even that is to be " conquered." We 

 consider the proper understanding of these 

 two words so important, that we propose 

 writing a distinct " Article " upon them. 

 Wherein the " difference " may be said to 

 consist, we will presently inquire ; and we 

 shall find a grand " moral" thereunto at- 

 tached. 



The word "difficulty" we have recently 

 had opportunities out of number to compre- 

 hend ; and had we not long since expunged 

 the word " impossibility " from the copy of 

 our interleaved Modern Dictionary, we might, 

 perchance, have "pored over" the meaning 

 of that word also. 



We allude to the varied circumstances 

 which have transpired since December 18, 

 1851 : on which day we first decided on 

 bringing forward our London JOURNAL. 

 When we look back upon that day, and con- 

 sider the position in which we are now placed 

 —when only five weeks old — we marvel ex- 

 ceedingly at the progress of events. 



If we were to attempt to tell our kind 

 friends, the public, hoiv we have contrived 

 in this tiny interval of time to take firm root 

 in the land — we should fail in the effort, and 

 they would hardly credit our tale. Day by 

 day, night by night, hour by hour, have we 

 wandered East and West, North and South, 

 through this great metropolis and its suburbs, 

 to make known the existence, and explain the 

 objects of the London Journal. 



We have had to put our head into small 

 shops, in which we could not stand upright ; 

 to wander into by-lanes and alleys in the 

 most wretchedly-low neighborhoods; to 

 make friends with people from whose breasts 

 the word friendship would appear to have 

 long since been banished, if indeed it ever 

 found a resting-place there,— and to talk 

 with a class of folk whose very existence 

 was before unknown to us ! 



Allthese,andmanyothernondeseript places, 

 have we personally visited ; and enlisted their 

 tribes in our service.* Had we not done so, 

 never could the London Journal have 

 flourished in our own parts ! A " personal 

 canvass" has alone saved us. Here we see 

 " impossibility" struck down, and " difficulty" 

 energetically surmounted. We have given the 

 merest ' outline ' of our Herculean task, and 

 we record our triumph that others may " take 

 a leaf out of our book." 



We come now to a most grateful, — a most 

 gratifying task ; viz. : to thank those kind 

 friends in the provinces, who, never hav- 

 ing seen us, have yet, at their own cost and 

 great sacrifice of time, forwarded our interests 

 to an immense extent. We allude more 

 particularly to an unknown friend in the 

 neighborhood of Liverpool, by whose un- 

 ceasing, unwearied energies, we have taken 

 a stand in that populous town and its vicinity 

 as astounding to us as it must be pleasing to 

 our ' Brother Cheeryble,' who will hear of 

 no recompense, and even repudiates cur 

 thanks ! 



Similar demonstrations of kindness have 

 shown themselves in York, Manchester, Bos- 

 ton, Doncaster, Aberdeen, and other places, — 



* It will hardly be credited, but it is quite true, that 

 the stench emitted from some of these shops (which ap- 

 pear never to have been cleansed) was such as to cause 

 us to hold our kerchief to our face whilst addressing 

 the proprietors. These people, it seems, do an immense 

 trade in periodicals, which they deliver weekly to their 

 customers. How true is it, that one-half the world 

 knows not how the other lives ! 



Vol. I. — New Series. 



