To the Editors.

You are about embarking in a literary voyage, calculated, if ably and prudently conducted, to subserve the best interests of society. Previously, however, to your taking a final leave of terra firma, and before its shores shall recede from your view, it may be the part of wisdom to contemplate the nature and object of your journey, by the steady lights of experience. The legitimate end of every enterprise of the kind, is to enlighten the understanding, and improve the heart. To produce a result so important, no exertion should be omitted, and no means neglected, to impart a useful interest to your miscellany. Of the truth of these preliminary observations, you are no doubt sufficiently impressed. To please every taste, however fastidious, or to gratify in all respects, the wishes of the million, would be a task altogether hopeless; and which a temperament the most sanguine, would scarcely indulge. However transcendent may be the merit of any periodical journal, and however brilliant its success, should the editor listen at all the avenues of public opinion, his ear will notwithstanding be saluted by many an ungrateful sound. Some readers will complain of what they are pleased to call its dull monotony; while others will lament the sacrifice of what they conceive to be matters of importance, in the pursuit of endless variety.—Those who seek for novelty alone, will sometimes be disappointed; while others will start objections, because sufficient respect is not accorded to the venerated opinions of the olden time. The gay may sometimes meet with nothing to excite the smile of merriment, and the grave and reflecting may regret to find so little solid food for the mind. He, however versatile his talents, who would be a favourite with them all, must first be successful in his chase of the ignis fatuus; or obtain from that fairy region in which the rainbow reposes its brilliant arch upon the earth, its treasures of gold. But if your labours should happily tend to give "energy to virtue, and confidence to truth," you will not fail to gratify the wishes of those whose approbation alone is worth desiring—the well principled of all parties.

It has been said, and repeated times without number, that to call a rose by any other name, its odour would be equally delightful. Although the fact may be so, the inference that a name is altogether unimportant, cannot be supported on just principles of deduction. Authors, who have reflected the brightest honours on the cause of literature and virtue by their writings, have encountered a difficulty at the very threshold, in selecting for them an appropriate name. It was after some time anxiously devoted to the subject, by which it would appear they considered it a matter of no trifling consequence, that the pious and elegant Addison adopted that of a Spectator, and the Sage of Litchfield that of a Rambler; under which, with such signal effect, to inculcate the lessons of moral truth. It has been observed by one who knew something of the world, that few circumstances contribute more essentially to general success in life, than an engaging first appearance. So, likewise, the garb in which it appears, as well as the name by which it is distinguished, is more intimately connected with the extensive popularity of a work, intended for the general reader, than at first may be supposed. It is gratifying therefore to find, that both these considerations have had with you their due weight.

The Rural Magazine will not only be a repository for articles of miscellaneous interest, but peculiarly so for every thing connected with agriculture, and a country residence. It is to rural scenes, and rural innocence, and rural employments, that man is principally indebted for many of those blessings and enjoyments, which impart a charm to human existence, and lighten its load of cares and sorrows. The man, whoever he is, that has long been confined to a populous city, will at length with Shenstone sicken with the unceasing recurrence of artificial life, and long to breathe the pure atmosphere of the country. He will hail with delight the blue bird, earliest harbinger of spring, and welcome the primrose, eldest daughter of Flora, and contemplate with rapture the vernal season, in which youth, and beauty, and melody, walk hand in hand, over verdant lawns, variegated with flowers, inhaling the zephyrs of health. Then he will witness summer, with brown, vigorous, and manly aspects; and autumn, groaning with her ripe and mellow fruits; succeeded by winter, clothed in storms and glittering with pendent icicles; who notwithstanding a sternness of mood, and a manner somewhat uncourteous, is in the hands of a beneficent Creator the minister of great good to man. The fury of the tempest may rage, and the clattering hail beat against the windows; the driving snows may deform the face of day, and nature assume the appearance of old age and decay: notwithstanding all this, that portion of the circling year, of which we are speaking, will continue to have its positive pleasures. These will be closely and intimately united in the domestic circle, where in charmful confederacy they will be found clustering round the Evening Fire-side. Who does not associate with this delightful scene his earliest images of innocent gayety and exquisite enjoyment; in which garrulous old age and lisping infancy mingle their voices, and where carking care never intrudes? But as the hours are hastening on with feathery footsteps, they should likewise minister to the cause of mental and moral improvement. The farmer should cultivate a taste for reading, and store his mind with useful knowledge; and thus become qualified to assume the dignified station to which, in this happy country, he is fairly entitled. He should remember, that the plough has been guided and venerated by the "awful fathers of mankind;" and that a profession, to which Cincinnatus and Washington were zealously and practically devoted, and for which the emperor Charles V. exchanged his sceptre and his crown, must be intrinsically elevated and respectable. It is among the yeomanry of our country that the love of literature, by whom it is already cherished to a creditable degree, should be more widely and universally disseminated.

In order to promote an object so desirable, may you succeed in assembling at your Evening Fire-side a cheerful happy group, who, bidding defiance to the rude clamours of the storm without, shall entertain topics of public utility, while cultivating and improving the domestic virtues; and with warm and expansive gratitude ascribe their blessings to a benignant Providence, from whom alone they are all derived.

E.

FOR THE RURAL MAGAZINE.