INTRODUCTORY. 
HUE it is that tlie pride, 
the misgivings, the hopes 
and the fears, attending 
the cradle of humanity 
are found also about the 
birth of a new periodical. 
It is true, too, that though 
the judicious looker-on 
knows too well the acci- 
dents that literature, like 
flesh, inherits, to hazard predictions of long life or 
beauty ; sanguine parents and nurses will ever 
claim for the new-born, against all comers, the 
certain attainment of those advantages. This is 
our present office, and we take the time-honoured 
privilege of drawing the kindly reader’s attention 
to our infant’s present claims, and stating our views 
as to its future. 
Our treatment of Nature and of Art will not 
be after the fashion of the Metaphysicians, nor shall 
we indulge in mere scientific detail. Our object is 
to draw our reader’s attention to that which is 
interesting in Nature and admirable in Art. But 
our intentions will be best understood from our 
performances, and we present at once a specimen 
of our work. We need hardly say that as our 
Magazine progresses our means of adding to its 
value will proportionally increase. Our illustra- 
tions in Chromo- and Photo-lithography, which speak 
for themselves, must be at once appreciated, and we J 
shall make use of them for the double purpose of | 
decorating our text and exhibiting the advance of 
those branches of art. 
Seeing that the Literature, Science, Art, 
Antiquity, and Amusement of this and of other 
countries have each and all our sympathy, we pur- 
pose that each, as occasion offers, shall find a place 
in our columns. Yielding, for instance, to the joint 
summons of the antique and the amusing, we have 
prominently placed a paper on “Ancient Greek and 
Roman Fishermen,” considering it an example — if 
Cotton and Davey were not examples enough — of 
how grave learning and love of the angle are by 
no means incompatible ; and we are bold enough 
to predict that it will please alike the scholar and 
the sportsman. An enthusiastic naturalist who 
for a time has laid down the trenchant blade in 
i. 
favour of the pen, has given us the first of several 
graphic sketches in Grim Tartary, which will sur- 
prise some who have principally associated the word 
Crimea with the horrors of war and all but Arctic 
desolation. From another friend we are glad to 
welcome botanical notes ; while consideration for 
our fair readers compelled us to find space for an 
authentic letter from Paris on certain novelties in 
fashionable fine-art manufacture. 
The intimation that we should welcome con- 
tributions from correspondents on foreign service, 
brought us offers which ensure much interesting 
matter for future numbers. That such would be 
the case was certain, seeing that in eveiy corner of 
the world may be found Englishmen whom amuse- 
ment and love of adventure take to nature’s recesses, 
and whom ample leisure tempts to record their 
impressions for the use of such as sit at home at 
ease. While through the ranges and plains of 
India, and the dispersed settlements of the Isles — - 
through all lands, indeed — there are military 
officers afoot whose pleasure as well as profession 
it is to record phenomena, and whose records are 
too often interred for ever in the field-book and the 
pigeon-hole, may we not reasonably look for 
manuscripts of value if we but offer the facility of 
the press 1 Governments, learned societies, and 
even trades, are all sending skilled emissaries to 
each quarter of the globe in quest of scientific and 
practical knowledge. The successors of Humboldt, 
Schomburgk, and Waterton, are ever tracking 
nature in forest and on stream ; while arts are 
pioneered into all lands by the daring followers of 
the Stephensons and the Brunels. All of them 
work for us. There are none of their achieve- 
ments and results that we may not press into our 
service if only space permit us so widely to extend 
our range of subjects. 
We have already arranged for ample and diversi- 
fied foreign correspondence, reports, reviews, and 
illustrations, all by able hands. Since the issue of 
our Prospectus we have received such valuable 
suggestions and tenders of assistance, that we are 
even disposed to apprehend an embarras de richesse. 
Commending, then, to the reader the varied contents 
of our First Number, we may fairly promise that its 
successors shall at least equal it in attractiveness, 
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