full anticipation of success. This certainly indicates a widespread demand for this class of literature and if the kind offered did not happen to suit the taste, the fickle public was constantly deserting the old for the new.

The investigator is moreover impeded in his progress by lack of definite and trustworthy information about these publications. There is no complete list of the American magazines during the years under discussion, although work has been done on the period to the end of 1800. Paul Leicester Ford published a Check-list of American magazines printed in the eighteenth century (1889, Brooklyn, N. Y.). This was an attempt to list all publications referred to by any writer, whether accessible or not. The present investigation, however, has brought to light thirty-five or forty volumes of magazines (including twenty new titles), evidently unknown to Ford, not to speak of several newspapers of more or less literary value; but the latter seem to have been omitted intentionally from the Check-list.

Even the magazines of Philadelphia, the literary center of the country during the eighteenth century, have not been listed. "A complete list of the Philadelphia magazines is impossible. Many of them have disappeared and left not a rack behind. The special student of Pennsylvania history will detect some omissions in these pages, for all that has here been done has been done at first hand, and where a magazine was inaccessible to me, I have not attempted to see it through the eyes of a more fortunate investigator."[14] What is here said of Philadelphia is equally true of Boston, New York, Baltimore and the other centers of literary activity of a century ago.

In spite of the difficulties just mentioned it has been possible, after an extended search, to find enough volumes of the magazines to form an almost complete list for the period in question. What omissions there may be are, for the most part, obscure and unimportant publications, which failed to attract enough attention to be included in the large collections of this class of literature. One condition favored the preservation of the American magazines; there were a few institutions, like the Philadelphia Library Company, the American Philosophical Society, and others, which were in existence during the period when most of these publications were issued. It has been possible for them to amass a fairly representative collection of contemporaneous literature. On the other hand, more recent institutions, like the Boston Public Library or the Library of Congress, have displayed such industry in collecting, that they now have splendid lists of these early periodicals.

The plan of the present investigation has been, therefore, to visit those libraries where large numbers of the books needed are located and thus, by combining the material secured in the different places, to approach as near as possible to completeness. One library fills out the gaps of another and it often happens that, in order to see the entire set of a magazine, it is necessary to visit three or four libraries. A record has been kept as to where the individual volumes are, but as useful as this information might be for those working in the same or in a kindred field it has been found too complex to be indicated in the list of magazines given in Part V.[15] The material here included is based on a personal examination of about three hundred volumes representing one hundred and twenty-eight different magazines.

In treating the German influence in the American magazines, it is important to consider the position which the magazine held during this early period. Difference in conditions enabled the periodical to play quite a different rôle from that which it now plays. In the eighteenth century, as compared with the present day, free libraries were scarce and readers had to depend largely on the books they could buy or borrow. Then, too, books were expensive, because many had to be imported from abroad, and those printed here could not be sold as cheaply as now. These conditions favored the magazines, which were inexpensive and furnished to their readers, besides original matter, republications of the best literature of Europe. They kept the public abreast with the times and supplied the place now occupied by the numerous libraries and books which can be purchased at a moderate cost.

Another element which the magazine of a century ago did not have to contend with so vigorously was the newspaper. The modern newspaper is becoming larger and larger, and is making increased demand every day on the time and interest of the public. In the eighteenth century and the first decade of the nineteenth this was not the case. To be sure, there were many newspapers, gazettes and advertisers, but they were comparatively small in size, consisting usually of only four or six pages. "At the period of the American Revolution, journalism had nowhere reached [an] advanced stage of effectiveness. In America, especially, the newspapers were petty, dingy, languid, inadequate affairs; and the department of the newspaper now devoted to editorial writing, then scarcely existed at all."[16] Many editors considered the news available to be sufficient merely for a weekly instead of a daily issue. This is not surprising. With the absence of the modern telegraph, telephone, ocean cable and steam railroad the facility for getting news from a distance was greatly diminished. Then, too, as the population of the country was much smaller than now, the most important domestic news could be told in a few columns. All this tended to keep the newspapers within moderate proportions, and although they were numerous, it is safe to say that they did not make such a demand on the reader's time as to divert his attention from a more serious kind of literature. People had, therefore, plenty of leisure for careful perusal of the magazines, and these, by giving in many cases a summary of the news, decreased the necessity for the newspaper. For advertisements and business announcements the gazettes and advertisers were the main source, but for general information and current literature persons did not have to devote so much attention to the newspaper.

As far as can be learned, the magazine in this early period was regarded in a more serious light than to-day. It was not a means to while away an idle hour—something to be glanced at hastily and then thrown aside. The editors attempted, on the contrary, to give the best literature at their disposal, whether original or reprint, and endeavored to improve the public taste by selecting matter that would be acceptable to a scholarly audience. "A striking difference between the older magazine and the recent ones is the conspicuous absence from the journal of a century ago of what is commonly called 'light literature.'"[17]

Tyler mentions the same conditions. "Our colonial journalism soon became, in itself, a really important literary force. It could not remain forever a mere disseminator of public gossip, or a placard for the display of advertisements. The instinct of critical and brave debate was strong even among those puny editors, and it kept