In lieu of the rest I venture to place in your hands the published opinions of many of my contemporaries. I will not deny that I have been careful to collect & to preserve them. They include, as you will see, the warm commendations yreat number of very eminent men, and of these commendations, I should be at a loss to understand why I have not a right to be proud.

>>>After a long & desperate struggle with the ills attendant upon orphanage, the total want of relatives, & >>Since quieting the Magazine<< >>Not long<< before quitting the >>Mag just mentioned<< Mess:, I saw, or fancied that I saw, through a long & dim vista, the >>wide and<< brilliant field for >>a true<< ambition which a Magazine of >>proper noble & high &<< bold & noble aims presented to him who should successfully >>accomplish<< establish it in America. I perceived that the country from its very constitution, could not fail of affording in a few years, a larger proportionate amount of readers than any >>country<< upon the Earth. >>I perceive I knew that even then<< I perceived thee the whole >>tendency of the age<< was to the Magazine literature—to the curt, the terse, the well-timed, and the readily diffused, in preference to the old forms of the verbose and ponderous & the inaccessible. I knew from personal experience that lying perlusamong the innumerable plantations in our vast Southern & Western Countries were a host of well

educated >>& but little prejudiced<< men si[n]gularly devoid of prejudice who would gladly le[n]d their influence to a really vigorous journal provided the right means were taken of bri[n]gi[n]g it fairly within the very limited scope of their observation—per >>A<< Now, >>one of a Magazine Grahams a very true insignifi a journal

Full of I<< I knew, it is true, that some >>dosens<< scores of journals had failed (for indeed I looked upon the best success of the best of them as failure) but then I easily traced the causes of this failure in the impotency of their conductors, who made no scruple of basing their rules of action altogether upon what had been customarily done

in stead of what was now before them to do, in the greatly >>altered<< changed & constantly >>altring<< changing condition of things.<<<

But not to trust too implicitly to d priorireasonings, I entered a few steps into the field of experiment. I joined the “Messenger” as you know. Ie had then about 7oo subscribers. In short I could see no real reason why a Magazine, if worehy the name, could not be made to . circulate among 20,000 subscribers, embracing the bese ineellece & education of the land. This was a thought which stimulated my fancy & my ambition. The influence of such a journal would be vast indeed, and I dreamed of honestly employing that influence in the sacred cause of the beautiful, the just, & the true. Even in a pecuniary view, the object was a magnificent one.

The journal I proposed would be a large octavo of I28 pp. printed with bold type, in single column, on the finest paper, and disdaining everything of what is termed “embellishn”ene with ehe exception of an occassional portrait of a literary man, or some well-engraved wood design in obvious illustration of the text. Of such a journal I had cautiously estimated the expenses. Could I circulate 20 000 COp. at s$ the cost wd be about $30.ooo, estimating all contingencies at the highest rate. There would be a balance of $70.000 per annum. t ex

But not to crust too implicitly to d priorireasonings, and at the same time to make myself thoroughly master of all details which might avail me concerni[n]g the mere business of publication, I entered a few steps into the field of experiment. I joined the “Messenger” as you know which