Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 131.djvu/119

Rh , every sect and section of a sect, every little coterie of opinionists — nay, almost every trade and profession — has its special organ in the periodical press. Conservatives and Liberals, Churchmen and Dissenters, engineers and botanists, spiritualists, antiquaries, grocers, milliners, hairdressers, and a hundred other fractions of society are all represented. By the aid of previous numbers of the same directory we learn that a large proportion of these journals — probably one-half of the whole number — have come into existence during the last twenty years.

It is curious to turn from such a state of things to the prolonged and feeble infancy of magazines. In nearly all respects — in number, in ability, in circulation, in moral tone, and in the general character of the contributions — the two periods afford a remarkable contrast. There were for many years practically only three journals of the magazine species, strictly so called. These were the well-known Gentleman's Magazine, originated by Cave in 1731, the London Magazine, established the following year, and, after an interval of seven years, the Scots Magazine, begun in 1739. There were other literary ventures, no doubt — "Monthly Chronicles," "Mercuries," and the like, but, except the three just named, none of them survived beyond a very few years. The professed object of the original promoters of these publications was a very humble and modest one. It appears to have been little else than to give a monthly summary, in a convenient form, of the more important articles (often very unimportant) contributed to the newspapers of the day — what would nowadays be called "the spirit of the press." In the introductory chapter to the first volume of the Gentleman's Magazine the design is thus rather awkwardly stated: —


 * This may serve to illustrate the Reasonableness of our present Undertaking, which in the first place is to give monthly a View of all the Pieces of Wit, Humour, or Intelligence daily offer'd to the Publick in the Newspapers (which of late are so multiply'd as to render it impossible, unless a man makes it a business, to consult them all), and in the next place we shall join therewith some other matters of Use or Amusement that will be communicated to us.

The contents of the magazine and its two companion journals exactly corresponded to this for many years. Of what is understood now as "original articles" there were very few examples, and the chief dependence of the editors was on borrowed assistance. The comparative difficulty of filling a magazine in those days is half comically, half pathetically bewailed by Lloyd, the friend of Cowper: —

Southey adds: "During eighteen months he had continued to fulfil his monthly task, though at length in such exhaustion of means and spirits that he seems to have admitted any communication, however worthless or reprehensible in a worse way." The journal edited by Lloyd was called the St. James' Magazine.

As time rolled on, however, and the undertakings prospered, one or two regular contributors became attached to the respective staffs. Chief among those — a host indeed in himself — was Dr. Johnson, whose engagement by Cave for his publication proved a valuable accession. So early as the close of 1734 we find him writing to the publisher suggesting improvements in the poetical department of the magazine. From his remarks it may be inferred that the quality of the contributions was then very poor.

"By this method," he says, after describing his own plan, "your literary article — for so it might be called — will be better recommended to the public than by low jests, awkward buffoonery, or the dull scurrilities of either party."

It was not, however, till four years afterwards, in 1738, that Johnson's connection with the journal formally began. At this time the largest portion of each issue was occupied by the summaries of the borrowed articles referred to, known as the "Weekly Essays and Disputes." Many — indeed, most — of these communications were ridiculously short, seldom exceeding a page, and sometimes not more than a column or half a page. In one number of the London Magazine we counted in the table of contents sixty-four articles in thirty-seven pages.

The papers themselves — and the remark is also applicable to many of their own early articles — were, in the main, poor and ineffective. Little discussions on manners or the minor morals, on dress, fashion, and the relations of the sexes, recipes for various ailments, hints on household management, moral essays of the 