THE Lady's Magazine; O. R, Entertaining Companion for the FAIR SEX, appro- This Number is embellished with the following Copper-Plates, viz. 1. An elegant Fröntifpiece, defigned and engraved by the moft capital Artists in LONDON, Printed for G. G. J. and J. Robinson, No. 25. Pater- The Genius of the MAGAZINE prefenting it to Minerva and Britannia, who recommend the Work to the Perufal of the Fair Sex. WE Το our CORRESPONDENTS. E fhould be ungrateful, indeed, to our Correfpondents if we did not acknowledge the increase as well as importance of their late communications. Within a very few months we have been enabled to prefent our readers with above one hundred Original Papers, Eflays, and Letters, on a variety of amufing and inftructing fubjects. Few we believe of our cotemporaries, and certainly none of our rivals, can honestly make a fimilar affertion. Our Profe Collection for next month will afford a proof that our funds are still increasing. In this month's and in our Supplement we have been enabled to pay off many old scores to our Poetical Correspondents. The following, however, remain yet to be promised for next month. Curfus Glacialis-a Poem. Rural Felicity-a Pastoral Ballad. Acroftic on Mifs Mary Drake. A young Lady's Poem on Winter, communicated by Juvenis. Emma to Edwin. Two Acrostics by Sinceritas and G. Martin-with many others which we are defired by the writers not to acknowledge previous to infertion. The following we are forry must be rejected: Lines addreffed to Mr. C, by M. C. B. Lines on feeing Girls ftrew Flowers before their Majesties at Mount Edgcumbe. Verses infcribed to Mifs Ch, by a Conftant Reader, we must also reject; and, as he has thought proper to accompany his poetry with a threat, in cafe of its not appearing, we fhall fubmit a part of them to our Reader:. "Its you I love and none elfe I declare To fay that my name is S. E. I've no more to write fo farewel my love I vow and proteft by the powers above Our readers will fee from this fpecimen that it is impoffible to clafs fuch verfes with good or even tolerable poetry-and we have no room for what is very bad. ADDRESS TO THE PUB AT C. T the expiration of fo long a period from the commencement of our labours, we cannot but acknowledge that the encouragement we have met with is fuch as confirms our beft opinions of the public tafte, and affords us no inconfiderable proof that we have not laboured in vain. It was our early opinion that a work dedicated to the use of the Fair Sex would foon attract their attention: and while we were pleased to find that it had this effect, we derived no lefs fatisfaction from the idea that they would affift us in rendering the LADY'S MAGAZINE, what without their contributions, we defpaired of, a REPOSITORY for the firft ATTEMPTS as well as the MORE MATURE EXERTIONS of the FEMALE PEN. In these hopes, and in this expectation we have not been disappointed. To the genius and taste of our female correfpondents we owe much, and are proud to own the obligation. THE prevailing taste for improvement in female education, and the happy effects of that education, have enabled us to extend our plan beyond its original intention. The days are paffed when Men Writers were afraid left they should be too learned for the comprehenfion of fe male readers, when they were compelled to mould their writings into childish forms, and when the prefumption of literary pride led many to believe that learning and genius, tafte and study were incompatible with the duties of (4) female life, fuperior to their understanding, and pernicious to the morals of the fex. The days are past, when learning in a woman was accounted miraculous, when fervile employments were the only duty they were capable of, and the ornament of the perfon the only pride they could boaft-If in the outfet of our plan we anticipated this happy revolution in female inftruction, we are happy to add that we have profited by it; that fome of the best. embellishments to thefe volumes have been the work of female pens, and fome of our greatest improvements the refult of their fuggeftions. THE objects of our Morality, however, do not yet ceafe to call loudly for our exertions. The age of folly is not paft, nor has public licentioufnefs yielded to the many checks it has received. In most refpects, it is the colour and not the fubftance of vice which is changed-and folly, depreffed in one quarter, is ready to ftart up in another, with the fafcination of novelty to attract, and the power of fashion to preserve that attraction. It fhall, therefore, ftill be our affiduous endeavour to give to virtue those ornaments which vice wears with fo much fuccefs, and to take from vice all that can allure and deceive, all that can bewitch and deftroy. In this attempt we are confident that we may appeal to the sense of our female readers, and be determined by their judgment—and that while we continue to furnish a pleafing variety of MORALITY, AMUSEMENT and LITERATURE, we may hope for the patronage which first established and has hitherto fupported this Magazine. THE |