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EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
When the glory of ancient Rome was at its zenith, the 
interchange of relations between the remote parts of the 
empire was so rare and difficult, that Livy, the famous his- 
torian of the great city, had so few materials for his narrative, 
that much of it is manifestly the weaving of his constructive 
imagination ; so much so, as to have given scope for the 
sweeping criticism of Niebuhr. 
We sometimes are amazed at the fundamental truth of the 
wise man’s sentence : There is nothing new under the sun ! Funda- 
mental truth we call it, because such it is ; but the founda- 
tion has been so wonderfully built upon, that the similarity 
of the world’s edifice at the interval of centuries is only re- 
cognized in outline. Vice and virtue, ignorance and learning, 
are still absolutely what they were, but their form, their 
degree, though not their kind, have been singularly metamor- 
phosed. In nothing is this so evident as in the judgment 
formed of the actions of men by their contemporaries. We 
are no longer satisfied with leaving to posterity the weighing 
of our proceedings, intellectual and material, but we must have 
a council sitting in permanence, from which judgment on passing 
events shall emanate. This council is the periodical press of 
which we are members. 
There can be no doubt that the manifestos and verdicts of 
Printing-house Square, curb even those in ermine decked; and 
that the equally noble potentates of the intellectual universe 
pay homage to the judgment of the professional press ; thus on 
those who in it review and criticize the scientific progress of 
the age, devolves a duty sacred as important. 
We have reached this point by a tortuous course not without 
design. This is the first number of our series in which a 
review has appeared, and we are anxious to make it known 
with what spirit we engage in the great office of public critics. 
The incomparable Essay on Criticism, from which we have 
so largely quoted, shall ever be our guide in the performance 
of this section of our onerous duties. We shall forget persons, 
only bearing in remembrance the great end of our mission ; 
the increase of scientific truth, by culling all that is valuable, 
setting aside the false, and giving such monition as we may 
