may now predict with the utmost confidence, our complete adaptation, and that in a shorter time than would be imagined, to all the mighty objects we have proposed.'

I am constrained to admit,' resumed our friend, with a serious yet satisfied countenance, and folding up as he spoke the corners of a sheet of blank paper which lay before him, as if a long train of previous ideas were vanishing out of his mind; 'I must confess there is much truth, and great justice in what you have said. It is expedient, as well as right, that attention to a part should be merged in the interest of the whole. This is truly a great and a mighty people, and the task of catering to, and perhaps assisting to form, their literary taste, while it is a nobler, is likewise a far more splendid object than could be found in a more limited design. But even there, has not your course been liable to objection. Can you not be accused with justice, of filling your pages with the productions of names unknown,' instead of adorning thy periodical with the lucubrations of the mighty, the well established in our literature.'

In that specious objection,' resumed we, with a little warmth, we can see but one of the greatest sources of our praise. As public confidence becomes established, as the world becomes convinced of our strength and our resolution-such assistance as you speak of will not be wanting in an abundant degree. Even now, and the boast will be incalculably increased, the KNICKERBOCKER has been the means of bringing into the field greater and more numerous names, than any other periodical ever established in our country. But even were they absent;-is it not a noble lot to foster latent genius into life? To encourage the young talent of the country? and to be a ready and convenient channel into which every little rill of mind may pour its tributary stream, and thus preserve that, in freshness and beauty, which would be otherwise dissipated and lost for ever. In this respect, at least, my worthy friend, you must turn your objection into praise, and acknowledge that our course has been the best. Proud of the co-operation of our greatest names -yet ever holding out the hand of encouragement to the timid, the reserved, the unknown.'

'Certainly,' replied he, you have made a good case out, and now upon reflection, perhaps, the remark was a little cynical. But I was doubtless swerved by the influence such names exert upon opinion.'

We answered him with enthusiasm-' and is not the starry garland of the KNICKERBOCKER rich even in such names as you have mentioned ?-Have we not had the polished song of Bryant-the graceful wit of Paulding-the nervous and noble lay of our own Sigourney.'

'True,' said he, interrupting us, that Indian Names,' was one of a thousand, full of proud feeling, and of lofty thought, fit accompaniment to the everlasting roar of our Susquehannah's and our Niagara's, and worthy to be pealed by the last of his race, in his war-dress from the eternal peaks of our Alleganies. It alone were enough to redeem a volume.'

6

Yes,' said we, well pleased to see him roused. Thy enthusiasm is in excellent place. But have we not likewise the charming good nature of Miss Gould, and-But to what purpose need we recount over a long list of well known names, whose contributions have graced our pages. Though we have little, little, as yet to boast of, we have achieved enough to show a fact, long disputed or denied, that even a magazine may be a medium of embodying the scattered efforts of all the great minds of our country, where, however dissimilar, disconnected, and infinitely varied, they may be concentrated in a union which will long remain to amuse, instruct, or to delight. But we even attach still more value to our periodical as a medium of bringing before the public the best efforts of that unrepresented class,' in the republic of letters, whose genius or whose powers are too often neglected, because untested and unknown, of these you must confess our pages have given some highly favorable specimens.'

Yes, you had some very sweet poetry in the Land of Dreams,' from E. Č. Linden, from whose genius, if cultivated, much may be hoped, and many readable tales and papers, which, upon the whole, may pass muster exceedingly well, among the pages of a periodical-many of your lighter pieces indeed are creditable in the extreme, among others the Falls of Mongaup,' full of spirit, energy, and a just perception of poetical power, which give to the description an effect equal to the subject.'

'They were indeed very fine, and we hope for many contributions from the same gifted pen; but of all such pieces there is one of an excellence rarely to be met with in magazines; we mean those touching and finely poetical verses, the Bride,' which for pathos, beauty, or feeling, may well be called one of the brightest gems of occasional poetry ever published in the country.'

'They were generally admitted to be such, and their praise cannot be suspected, coming even from you.'

'Friend,' said we, at such a time as this, when winding up the affairs of our first twelve months, it is but right to enumerate and place for your special approbation any of our varied contributions, which particularly please us-and even were we to publish this, our conversation, as our faculty of memory would easily enable us to do, it would serve a very useful end, and would be answe the same purpose for us, as the Noctes Ambrosiana'.

our renowned brother, and trusty cousin, Blackwood, forming light and amusing dramas, where the merits of old Christopher's favorite contributers and their articles are introduced to his readers with that particular praise which they deserve.'

To the practice, in such a publication as this, there can be no possible objection. But I have not seen any inappetency on the part of the public to appreciate your merit when it was apparent.'

There,' replied we, indeed you are most unquestionably right. Perhaps no enterprise of this kind, ever attempted in our country, has been more largely indebted to the warm partiality, with which the public favoured us from the very commencement of our career. We were welcomed into the world with smiles of encouragement. It was a gladsome sight, never before so gloriously witnessed in the annals of publishing, to see, the moment the magic name of KNICKERBOCKER was announced, and New-Yorkers became certain they would have a magazine of their own, how they crowded to fill up the subscription list,-how carriages, stanhopes, wagons, sleighs, sulkies and sociables, all drove up to 219 Broadwaytheir inmates eager to have their names in the Livre d'or, which soon contained a prouder and a nobler list, than the celebrated scroll of the Venetian's heraldry. Never bookseller held such a levee as did Peabody & Co., day after day, when the young, the old, the merchant, the tradesman, the bright-eyed, the lovelyformed, thronged their establishment, all anxious, ere it made its appearance in the world, to act as sponsors to the expected, the desired, the waited for,-The KNICKERBOCKER,-heir to all the hopes, the wishes, the proud-feelings of Gotham,-and when, like Minerva from the skull of Jupiter, it came ready armed into the field,-how month after month they loved to watch its appearance, how they pardoned its infant errors-how, with all the partiality of a father for his favorite child, they excused its deficiencies, they lauded its merits, in the generous hope of ulterior improvement. Indeed, my friend, you may well say, the public, the honored public stood our friend, and proportionably bound are we, now that we are approaching adolescence, and our form is acquiring vigor, our bones firmness, and our sinews strength, to repay with increased energy, with greater exertions, with an undeviating anxiety for improvement, that noble and unwavering confidence, with which they honoured us, in spite of calumny and opposition, publisher's peccadilloes, indiscreet friends, and open enemies.'

"Truly,' said our visiter, 'thou hast drawn an animated picture, and it delights me to see, that, even already, the ends of thy magazine's existence have been, in some measure, fulfilled. Already

ary community look up to it as an organ of criticism. The ltiplies your articles, your tales, your poetry, to the utter

most parts of our union. The critical journals of England notice it in handsome terms-and some of its articles have been reprinted there, with many commendations; my greater communion with the world, gives me to see more of such things than thee, and it must certainly glad thy feelings to be acquainted with thern.'

'It does; and another convincing proof,' added we, of our success, will be found in that quickening of the public spirit, which is ever attendant upon prosperous enterprise. For years before we started, New-York had no periodical of the kind. Now, called into trial by the eclat of the Knickerbocker's triumph, we have FOUR, not to mention others in embryo or in rumor. Again, what a reviviscence of old associations. The days of Diedrich's undoubted history seem to have returned. We have Knickerbocker steeds, Knickerbocker stages, Knickerbocker yachts. If a witling endites a paragraph for the newspaper, he signs himself by our venerated and popular cognomen. We see the placid and cocked-hat-surmounted face of the renowned historian, swinging on the tavern post, and we hear of Knickerbocker at the fire-side, in the steamboat, on the road. The very name speaks proudly to old reminiscences, and while the memory of ancient customs and of the times of the renowned Stuyvesant and Von Twiller shall exist, our undertaking will not want a friend.'

"True,' returned our venerable acquaintance, adjusting his queue and resting his head between his hands, and his elbows upon the table, so as he might look at us with an air of greater determination, True, such feelings have their sway, and such predilections for any favorite, are always of some force. But,'-here, though he is naturally benevolent, his brows became knit, and his gaze at us across the table was concentrated into something very like a frown, "you must not calculate too much on the forbearance or the indulgence it will create.'

With much pride and satisfaction we replied to him, 'Although the possession of Knickerbocker as a name, were it nothing else than its unapproachable singularity, is a tower of exceeding strength; still its abstract charm never has entered for a moment into our calculations for the public favor. No, like a stately bark, well-manned and seaworthy, we commenced our voyage. Though difficulties were so rife, that no insurance could be effected; though friends feared, and foes foretold our shipwreck; though quicksands and rocks were to be encountered in our path; though there was storm in the sky, and da iger in the wave, a head-wind, and a lee shore, with breakers roang ominously for our destru still, with sails trimmed and peanon fluttering proudly from o we made way against every opposition, and steered, safely and prosperously into harbor. In like mar

lated by our success, and experienced by our dangers, we will recommence our voyage under the happiest auspices for successful issues trusting solely to a strong bark, a careful pilot, and a gallant crew for our safety, we will recommit ourselves to the waters,-and who will dare to say now, that we will not reach the port?' Certainly said our friend, his countenance having resumed its usual benevolent expression, you are warranted to hold such language success and experience alike inspire confidence, and, in a case hke yours, where difficulties conquered by experience become so much available knowledge, we have every reason to hope

the best results, and as the bear is said to lick her cubs into ne, so the knowledge and the power acquired by surmounted obstacles, will doubtless gradually mature your undertaking into the ful measure of your wishes, the formation of an indigenous and Baronal Heriodical Improvement is certainly the consequence af experience.'.'.

In our case peculiarly so. The fulfilment of that design of our heart, to the full extent we contemplated, could hardly have been expected or accomplished in so short a time. Now, with increased stability, and increased means, we will also have a vastly augmented power. We can be better able to estimate, and to satisfy, that subule essence of the public taste, which regulates all such destinies as ours. Our nieans of procuring new and interesting supplies for its gratification, will be more abundant and more select. The first writers in America, know

in our flourishing conditie

talents and their inf