WHILE the Conductors of this Miscellany might, with propriety, allow this first number to explain their views, and furnish a specimen of the nature of their undertaking, they deem it advisable to make a brief statement of the motives by which they are actuated.

The candid reader will not be disposed to under-value their labours, when the Editors confess that their own gratification has had somewhat to do in originating their design. Literary habits form in those who cultivate them, an expansion of feeling, which impels them to diffuse the results of their exertions. They long to produce the same habits in others, and are willing to risk the charge of selfconceit in the efforts they make to attain their objects. So far from the treasure they possess making them selfish, they experience a pure satisfaction in imparting it to others.

Another, and a more general object, is the affording to

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persons of literary tastes and pursuits, a receptacle for their contributions. Numerous are the cases, in which talent has first developed itself in a provincial Miscellany, which has afterwards benefited the world. The modest diffidence of the first stages of authorship may thus be encouraged, and a stimulus given to more extended exertions. Besides, persons of abilities, which render them capable of influencing the public mind, may wish to give their thoughts a local bearing, which, if contributed to works of general circulation they would not admit of. The Editors invite the co-operation of all classes, and pledge themselves to exercise the utmost liberality in their decisions.

But the principal design of this Magazine will be the cultivation of the minds of its readers. The tastes of the Editors and contributors must all be made to bend to this. The books which are reviewed, and the essays which are found in its pages, as well as the local information communicated, will be made subservient to the great cause of religion and virtue. This is the spirit which will pervade the whole, and for this the Editors hold themselves responsible. If they succeed in implanting right sentiments, or eradicating errors, in only one instance, they shall consider they have not laboured in vain.

The motto chosen, is intended to intimate the liberality by which the Editors wish to be governed. In religion, in literature, and in politics, they will remember that the middle path is the safest. While they have principles to which they will conscientiously adhere, they will reverence the honest opinions of others, however opposed to their own.

ON BIGOTRY.

How often are our ears assailed by the expression, "That man is a BIGOT." Persons of known integrity of principle, and whose conduct is influenced by benevolence, are frequently spoken of as obnoxious to this charge. Men of every party, whether religious or political, and whether professing liberality of sentiment or not, are said to be characterized by bigotry.

Now it is of great importance that words of such common occurrence should be accurately defined, and that those who prefer the charge we are considering should well understand its nature. We have thought that a brief exposition of this subject may be acceptable to our readers, and at the same time tend to elucidate the principles on which this work will be conducted.

Bigotry consists in such an extreme fondness for our own methods of thinking, as prevents us from feeling proper respect for the opinions of others. Those who are under its influence, propound their sentiments with all the authority of an infallible being, and espouse the interests of the party to which they are attached, as though they were the men, and wisdom should die with them. We need scarcely say, that such an exclusive spirit cannot be too strongly reprehended, or too cautiously guarded against.

A proper estimate of the powers of the human understanding will convince us, that such a restriction of the truth to our own view of a subject is unwarranted and absurd. Even where THE TRUTH is revealed by the supreme Intelligence, the mind is not sure to take a true view of it: two thinking persons may arrive at different conclusions respecting it; and unless we are rendered infallible in our reasoning by the Being who promulgated the system of truth, we cannot be positive that we are always in the right. Yet what but this arrogant assumption of infallibility has occasioned all theological contentions? Religious bigotry has produced as