LONDON, Printed by JOHN NICHOLS,
at Cicero's Head, Red Lion Paffage, Fleet-Street:
And fold by ELIZ. NEWBERY, the Corner of St. Paul's
Church Yard, Ludgate-Street. 1793.

Volume of the GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE.

HE fmiling Spring, the golden field,
Again to icy Winter yield;

The garden's pride, the blufhing rose,
Hath fall'n beneath the gelid fnows;
Where, dormant all the flowery tribe,
Their filent flumbers deep imbibe :-
Still big with hope, the new-born year
To expectation must appear,

While, rich with all the fpoils of time,
Eventful, awful, and fublime,
Your annual labours ftill fupply,
And crowd Reflexion's wand'ring eye!

Thus, lifted to its higheft zeft,
Where fhall our admiration rest
Of every quick revolving scene
Which ne'er has ceas'd to intervene
Since Difcord threw her flaming brand
On Gallia's wild and madd'ning ftrand;
Where Maffacre the fceptre bears,
And all the form of Juftice wears;
Where fage Philofophy is prefs'd
To own what Nature ne'er confeft,
And idolize the fordid plan

Of equalizing beast with man!
Unreafoning all!-Where Terror reigns,
Binding the intelle&t in chains;

While thrinks appall'd th' immortal mind,
To chilling dread alone confin'd!
Dire Hiftory of infernal brood,
Thy characters are grav'd in blood,
So deep, the ever-flowing tear
Will ne'er fuffice the page to clear;
Be all thy crimes to Juftice given,
And the avenging hand of Heaven!

A calmer clue the Mufe now guides
(Where URBAN over I afte prefides)
To Britain's fhores, which Örder guards,
And Peace and Liberty rewards;
Where happier.arts their influence fhed,
And Learning rears her laurel'd head,
And in her train amufement brings,
Redundant from a thoufand springs.
May thefe each year increase your store
With pleatures uncnjoy'd before!

Dec. 31.

E

PREFACE.

UROPE, fince the period when it was overrun by the Goths and Vandals, has never experienced more alarm and danger than at the prefent moment-Religion, Manners, Literature, and the Arts, are all equally menaced by a foe, whofe characteristick is a compound of impetuofity, ignorance, and crime.

It is the pride of Englishmen, to have united in one firm and noble phalanx to preferve their country from these attacks; attacks which are the more formidable, because they are not made with open, avowed, and generous boldness, but with the most dark and cowardly artifice. Our native force and native courage would prompt us to avoid no encounter in the martial field: but what would even the magnanimity of Britons avail against the venom of poifon myfterioufly prepared, and communicated with the malignant filence of affaffins ?

Yet fuch is the natural operation of thefe new-fangled doctrines, this strange and heterogeneous philofophy, which has deluged France with blood. Such is the fraternity, the liberty, and the light, our Gallic neighbours have not only wished, but endeavoured, to spread among us. To refift and counteract these machinations, has been the honeft and unremitting endeavour of the GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE; and ever will be fo, as long as our Political and Religious Conftitution fhall require our indefatigable fupport.

After avowing ourselves the fteady friends of our Country's Liberties and Laws, we addrefs ourfelves more particularly to our Literary Friends and Correfpondents. We presume that the Volume we are now clofing will neither difgrace our candour nor our taste; that it will manifeft our industry in collecting, from the different branches of Science and Belles-Lettres, every variety of amufement for our Readers: that it will prove we have neither been faftidious in rejecting applications for our notice, nor guilty of giving too eafy and indifcriminate admiffion to pieces without intereft, or writers without merit. In every circumftance of admiffion or rejection, we act from a sense of public duty, and decide according to our beft judgement.

This, however, we wish to be invariably understood, that nothing will ever appear in the GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE,

which