Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/10

iv measure gratify that taste. They steal some moments from the round of dissipation and pleasure. They relieve the minds of men of business, who cannot pass from severe labour to severe study, with an elegant relaxation. They preserve the strenuous idleness of many from a worse employment.

These pretensions we have in common with all the other periodical compilers; and the same apology serves us all. But it will be expected, that in offering a new performance to the Public, we should mention some new and peculiar advantage which we pretend to have over our fellow-labourers. Some such advantages we flatter ourselves we possess, partly arising from our scheme of an annual rather than a monthly publication; partly from our own attention and industry.

Not confined to a monthly publication, we have an opportunity of examining with care the products of the year, and of