The year 1804 may be taken arbitrarily as the beginning of a new epoch in the history of magazine enterprise. The spread of education, the great increase of population, the prosperity of the people, the improved means of communication, and, above all, the opening of the mails to books and packages, enabled the magazine publisher not merely to find a larger class of general readers, but a large class whose interests were centred on a common object or profession. Then for the first time magazines devoted not to general literature but to particular interests began to appear in quick succession. There had, indeed, been a Medical Examiner in Philadelphia as early as 1788, and an Arminian Magazine, a Theological Magazine, an Experienced Christian Magazine, a Monthly Military Repository, a Methodist Magazine, and a Medical Repository before 1800. But each had been feebly conducted and poorly supported, and, after dragging along for a few numbers or a few volumes, had died and been forgotten. They were the pioneers in a great movement, which, after 1804, went steadily on, growing stronger and stronger year by year, till now there is not a trade, not a profession, not an industry, calling, business, sect, or creed but has at least one magazine or journal devoted to its interests, and to its interests alone.

Specialization began with what were then the three professions-medicine, theology, and law-and, as the home of medicine was Philadelphia, it was there that the Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal and the Medical Museum were founded, and became the first of a long and unbroken series of periodicals devoted to medicine.* The way once opened, others followed, and there was soon a Medical and Physical Recorder at Baltimore, a New England Journal of Medicine

* The Museum ran on to 1810, and was followed in 1812 by The Emporium of all the Arts and Sciences. In 1811 came forth the first number of The Eclectic Repository and Analytic Review, Medical and Philosophical, which continued till 1820, when it took the name of The Journal of Foreign Medical Science and Literature, and continued as such till 1824. In 1818 the American Medical Recorder was begun as a quarterly. This in 1824 became the Medical Recorder of Original Papers and Intelligence in Medicine and Surgery. In 1829 it was merged in the American Journal of the Arts and Sciences, which Silliman had established at New York in 1818.

1809-17.

RELIGIOUS MAGAZINES.

273

and Surgery at Boston, and a Medical Repertory at Philadelphia. From medicine to science was but a step, which was quickly taken; and before 1820 Silliman's Journal of the Arts and Sciences, and the American Mineralogical Journal, the first purely scientific magazine supported by original American contributions, were founded at New York.

The first legal magazine in our country, and the second in the English language, was the American Law Journal, established at Baltimore in 1809. Of the magazines and repositories given up to theology, some were in the interests of a particular sect and some in the interests of Christianity. For the Presbyterians there was the Assembly's Missionary Magazine at New Haven, and the Virginia Religious Magazine, edited by a committee of the Virginia Synod, and devoted to "religious intelligence," biographical essays, and the solution of difficult texts of Scripture. The profits were pledged to the support of missionaries; but it is not likely that many were maintained by the profits of a magazine each of whose five hundred subscribers paid a dollar and a half a year. For the New Jerusalem Church there was for a few months the Halcyon Luminary and Theological Repository at New York. For the Episcopalians there was the Churchman's Magazine, published at New Haven, and its rival, the Magazine of Ecclesiastical History, Religion, and Morality. A certain printer of New Haven had been chosen to publish the Churchman's Magazine, and had been sent to the southward to canvass for subscribers. While so engaged the printing was taken from him, and in revenge he started the Magazine of Ecclesiastical History. Later a quarterly Theological Magazine and Religious Repository was published in the interests of the Episcopal Church in Vermont. This, the editor declared, he was led to do because most of the monthly magazines "calculated to convey religious instruction were dropped," and because he believed that if the church would not support monthlies it might a quarterly.*

* Other religious magazines were: The Religious Instructor, Carlisle, 1810; The Christian Register and Moral and Theological Review (semi-annual), New York city, 1816; The Evangelical Guardian and Review, New York city, 1817; The Quarterly Theological Review, Philadelphia, 1818; The Latter-Day Luminary

In supposing that the church magazines languished because they came out but once a month he was much mistaken. If the date of issue affected them at all, they suffered from infrequency; for in the very year in which he announced his quarterly a weekly newspaper, the Religious Remembrancer began its career at Philadelphia. It was followed in rapid succession by ten others,* and from its appearance, in 1813, may be dated the beginning of religious newspapers in our country. Once started, the new journalism grew with astonishing rapidity-both in number of journals and in circulation. Before 1826 the Boston Recorder and Telegraph, and Zion's Herald, the great Methodist weekly, had each a circulation of five thousand copies, while the Watchman, the Christian Register, and the Universalist Magazine each printed a thousand copies a week. In 1828 there were in the United States thirty-seven religious newspapers, one of which, the Christian Advocate, had a weekly circulation of fifteen thousand copies, the largest, it was

(Baptist quarterly), Philadelphia, 1818; The Methodist Magazine, New York city, 1818; The American Baptist Magazine and Missionary Intelligencer (bi-monthly), Boston, 1817; The Christian Herald, Portsmouth, N. H. (monthly), 1818; The Virginia Evangelical and Literary Magazine (monthly), Richmond, 1818; The Christian Monthly Spectator, New Haven, 1819; The Episcopal Magazine, Philadelphia, 1820; The Presbyterian Magazine (later, The Christian Advocate) (monthly), Philadelphia, 1821; The Religious Inquirer (Universalist, fortnightly), Hartford, 1821; Unitarian Miscellany, 1821; The Theological Review and General Repository of Religious and Moral Information (quarterly), Baltimore, 1822; The Utica Christian Repository (monthly), Utica, 1822; The American Sunday-School Magazine (monthly), Philadelphia, 1823; The Christian Advocate, Philadelphia, 1823; The Evangelist (monthly), Hartford, 1824; The Christian Telescope (quarterly), Providence, 1824; The Church Register (weekly), Philadelphia, 1826; The Christian Examiner, Boston, 1824.

The Religious Remembrancer, September 4, 1813, was the first of its kind in America, and the founder of religious weekly journalism. The second was The Recorder, at Chillicothe, Ohio, 1814. The third, the Recorder, at Boston, 1816. The fourth, The Christian Herald, New York, 1816. The fifth, The Christian Journal and Literary Register (fortnightly), New York, 1817. The sixth, The Sunday Visitant or Weekly Repository of Christian Knowledge. The seventh, The Watchman and Reflector (Baptist), 1819. The eighth, The Christian Disciple, a Methodist weekly at Boston, 1819. The New York Observer was started at New York city in 1820, and The Christian Register, a Unitarian weekly, at Boston in 1821.

1806-23.

SECULAR PERIODICALS.

275

claimed, then reached by any newspaper in the world, the London Times not excepted.

Around these imposing scientific and religious magazines and weeklies a host of minor secular periodicals sprung up, flourished for a day, and perished. There were The Thespian Mirror and Theatrical Censor,† published weekly during the theatrical season, and devoted to criticism on current plays and living actors. There were juvenile magazines,‡ an attempt at a comic newspaper," and a journal devoted solely to the interests of agriculture-the first of its kind in America.|| There were musical journals, designed chiefly for the publication of good music for the piano, flute, and violin; ladies' journals; a repository intended to "rescue from oblivion historical facts connected with Western history; ◊ and a review of reviews, which owed its existence to a desire to provide American readers with "the spirit of foreign magazines." It was better, the prospectus set forth, that Americans should have the spirit than the magazines, for in them were often to be found views corrupting to the morals of

A

*The Thespian Mirror, published at New York, 1806, and edited by John Howard Payne, then a lad of fourteen years.

The Theatrical Censor, Philadelphia, 1805-'06. Theatrical Censor and Critical Miscellany, Philadelphia, 1806. Thespian Monitor and Dramatic Miscellany, Philadelphia, 1809. Mirror of Taste and Dramatic Censor, Philadelphia, 1810.

The first of these was the Juvenile Magazine or Miscellaneous Repository of Useful Information, Philadelphia, 1802. The second was the Juvenile Olio, Philadelphia, 1802. These died young, and were followed in 1811 by a periodical with the child-repelling title of The Juvenile Magazine, Religious, Moral, and Entertaining Pieces in Prose and Verse. In 1813 there appeared a weekly called the Juvenile Port Folio.

# The Fool, edited by Tom Brainless, at Salem.

The American Farmer, Baltimore, 1819.

A The Weekly Visitor and Ladies' Museum, New York city, 1817. The Ladies' Literary Cabinet (weekly), New York city, 1819. The Ladies' Magazine (weekly), Savannah, 1819. The New York Mirror and Ladies' Literary Gazette (weekly), New York city, 1823. One of the most curious was The Intellectual Regale or Ladies' Tea Tray, by Mrs. Carr, of Baltimore. The prospectus states that Mrs. Carr knew that the malignant part of mankind would scoff at a woman editor, but a mother would brave death for the support of her offspring, and "she had five."

Tennessee Repository, 1810.

VOL. V.

republican youth, and criticisms which perverted public taste.* In short, there were ventures in every kind of journalism; even to the publication of weeklies whose purpose was to "castigate the age," supply the town with social gossip, and satirize the fashionable follies of the hour. In every city of importance there was now sure to be a band of young lawyers without cases, or young beaux with a taste for letters and some claims to wit, who found a congenial occupation in furnishing essays, criticisms, and satirical effusions to weeklies of the lighter vein † long since forgotten.

It must not be supposed, however, that what the fine writers of the day called the destroying hand of time was laid on every periodical that arose during the first quarter of our century. The Port Folio, founded in 1801 by Joseph Dennie, was still published in Philadelphia. The North American Review of the present day was then ten years old, and represented the intellectual activity of Boston.

The contrast between these two periodicals in character and purpose, contributors and success, marks an epoch in our literary annals. The Port Folio, just about to perish after a long career of usefulness and prosperity, represented the literary tastes and aims of the past. The North American Review represented the literary aims and aspirations that were to rule in the future. The Port Folio was essentially and intentionally English. The North American, as its name was intended to imply, was essentially American. On the long list of men who in their youthful days contributed to the Port Folio were many who in later life became famous as politicians, political economists, lawyers, bankers, men of affairs, but few who have any claim to distinction in the world of letters. Literature with them was a pastime. The men who

* Select Reviews and Spirit of the Foreign Magazines, Philadelphia, 1809, vol. i. In 1812 the name was changed to The Analectic. Washington Irving was the editor, 1813-'14.

The list is too long to cite. The Trangram or Fashionable Trifler, by Christopher Crog, Esq., his Grandmother, and Uncle; The Beacon, erected and supported by Lucidantus and his Thirteen Friends; The Luncheon, boiled for People about Six Feet High, by Simon Pure; The Tickler, by Toby Scratch 'Em; The Rainbow, edited by the Richmond Literary Club; The Observer, by Beatrice Ironsides, Baltimore; The Critic, by Geoffry Juvenile, Esq., are but specimens.