THE

BRITISH CRITIC,

A NEW REVIEW,

FOR

JANUARY, FEBRUARY, MARCH, APRIL, MAY,

PRINTED FOR F. AND C. RIVINGTON,

No. 62, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD.

1797.

PREFACE.

WE

HEN Photius wrote the oldest Review now extant, for the ufe of his brother, he could not poffibly forefee, that his book was destined, after a long period of darkness and barbarifm, to keep alive the only memorial of many works then generally diffused, and in the hands of all who chose to read them. Since the invention of printing, it has become infinitely more difficult for books to be entirely loft, fuch only excepted, as perifh not by any extraneous force or barbarous inroads, but by their own internal barbarifm; and because they are not worth multiplying, even by the compendious method of the prefs. The bulk of a review, as now conftituted in this country, contains both those which are ephemeral, and thofe which are permanent, and, in our work, as well as in others of the fame kind, will hereafter be found the names of many authors and productions, which will have retained no other being or memorial. To record thefe, may anfwer, perhaps, at times, an occafional purpose; but is chiefly calculated to gratify an idle curiofity, and is a custom, the breach of which, would be, perhaps, more meritorious than the obfervance. Of the reft, we may fay with Photius: Χρησιμεύσει σοι δηλονότι τα ἐκδιδομενα, εἰς τε κεφαλαιώδη μνήμην καὶ ἀνάμνησιν τῶν εἴτε κατὰ σεαυτον ἀναλεξάμενος ἐπῆλθες, καὶ εἰς ἕτοιμον εὕρεσιν τῶν ἐν αὐτοῖς ἐπιζητεμένων· δ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ εἰς εὐχερεςέραν ἀνάληψιν τῶν ἔπω τὴν ἀνάγνωσιν τῆς σῆς συνέσεως ὑπελθόντων. "What

BRIT. CRIT. VOL. IX.

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