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THE

LONDON UNIVERSITY

MAGAZINE.

WHEN travellers ask for a passport, one of the first questions usually put to them by the authorities refers to the objects of their journey. And we, too, at our entrance into the world of letters, are desirous of fulfilling the usual expectation, and stating with what intentions we visit the country.

It is now rather more than four years since the London University received its charter. During this period, as many as twenty colleges have been admitted to the privilege of sending candidates to be examined, and nearly a hundred students have successfully competed for the degrees in arts and laws, and about fifty more for the degrees in medicine. It is impossible that a tie thus recently formed, should not have the effect of uniting the students with a strong esprit de corps; and their habitual studies would naturally point to its manifestation in some way similar to the present. Such has, in fact, been the case; and hence the appearance of this, the first number of the Magazine now presented to the public.

While we look principally, with a confidence which we trust the present number justifies, to the exertions of our fellowgraduates in behalf of the Magazine, we are happy in having received assurances of support from many of those to whom we formerly looked for instruction; and we have been further gratified by receiving contributions from literary friends, who, though personally unconnected with the London University, yet interest themselves in its prosperity.

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It is intended that in future the LONDON UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE shall be issued quarterly, but during the present year three numbers only will make their appearance. It will be a Miscellany; no contributions, whether in prose or verse, being excluded from our pages, solely on account of their form. But we are of opinion, that we shall be able to secure for our Magazine a respectable position among the periodic literature of the day, and most perfectly fulfil the expectations which its name is calculated to excite, by giving our principal attention to the Review department. In this line, the range of subjects of which a competent knowledge is required for the attainment of the University degrees, comprising Classics and Mathematics, History Ancient and Modern, and Philosophy in its various branches of Natural, Mental, Moral, and Political, will of themselves, it may be thought, afford a sufficiently wide field for disquisition and research. There are, besides, many subjects of general Literature, which it is by no means intended to exclude from our columns. Religious controversy will be entirely avoided.

One of the features of the Review department will be the admission of papers of a controversial character. There must be a wide difference of opinion upon many of the questions of literary criticism and philosophical investigation, which will naturally find place in this Magazine. We could not fairly represent the sentiments of the body to which we belong-and which, in some degree, we can scarcely fail to be considered as representing if we professed to advocate the peculiar views of however large a section. And by thus presenting both sides of a question in the same publication, we believe that we shall essentially contribute to the discovery of truth.

With respect to politics, there is a difference. The grant of the charter to the London University was the practical declaration of certain principles, which had we not recognized, we should not have become candidates for its degrees. We trust, therefore, to be able, from time to time, to present the public with articles which shall not dishonour our name, either in their general excellence, or in the principles which they advocate. But while the most interesting, because the most urgent questions of political science will not be avoided, we hold it our

proper course to shun taking any share in the struggles, merely of party. It is a great advantage to political principles to be supported for their own sake, and not for the furtherance of other, even though equally excellent, ends of a party. Such an advantage, it is hoped, will belong to the LONDON UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE.

We are aware that there is little if anything new in the scheme we have disclosed; but the fact that the ground is already occupied, does not, we submit, in any degree alter the propriety of establishing another periodical. It may be one of the inconveniences, it is certainly one of the consequences, of periodical literature, in its various subdivisions of daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly, that principles owe no small proportion of their persuasive power to the repetition in every point of view, as well as to the intrinsic force, of the arguments by which they are upheld. So much is said on behalf of all opinions, that very much must be said on behalf of any.

We trust, therefore, that our Magazine, bearing the name of an institution which owes its establishment and much of its prosperity to the strenuous and persevering efforts of a large portion of the public-non sine diis animosus infans-will itself also obtain no inconsiderable share of their favour. We may hereafter take an opportunity of urging at more length the proper standing of our own University, and the respect it claims for its honours, as compared with those of older institutions. For the present, sincerely thanking the originators and friends of the London University, for the advantages which they have placed within our reach, we respectfully present our publication to their notice, as some proof that their labours have not been altogether in vain.

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ART. II.—THE GENIUS AND WRITINGS OF PERSIUS.

"Est non magnus, verum aureolus, et ad verbum ediscendus libellus."-Cic. Acad. lib. ii. 44.

WE frequently meet with the observation, that the characters of men are not to be deduced from their writings. This may be true; but it is true only of the productions of ordinary minds. Authors there undoubtedly are, who indelibly impress upon their creations the predominant and pervading characteristic of their genius. The pure and elevated morality of some disdains the exhibition of sentiments and principles which their better judgment would instinctively condemn; the simplicity of others indulges the fond expectation of awakening a sympathy for the visionary creations of their speculative dreams; and the honest indignation of a third class induces an open demonstration of prejudice and passion, which it may be as imprudent to manifest as it was laudable to conceive. The poetry of a Wordsworth or a Shelley is an index to the intellectual constitution of the mind that produced it; and the writings of a Mitford or a Gibbon as infallibly testify to the peculiar genius or prejudice of the creator, as the rusticity of the "Cotter's Saturday Night," or the dark and daring sublimity of " Manfred." In short, true genius contains within itself a principle of action, which directs and modifies every faculty by which it is ennobled ; and the vitality, the beauty, the grandeur of its conceptions, are derived from the inherent sublimity of an intellect itself immortal and divine. Wherever it is manifest, it is revealed by the intensity of its own brilliancy. But the mind which, failing in its own resources, seeks an adventitious support in the recorded wisdom of others, must of necessity appear in a temporary disguise. The characters and opinions of such men, it may frequently be as difficult, as it certainly is unimportant, to detect.

We ask, then, to which of these classes does the subject of our investigation belong?

It has been asserted that the enigmatical character of his writings was a disguise, adopted for the concealment of sentiments obnoxious to an existing despotism; but, in reality, there are few compositions which stamp more broadly the moral and intellectual constitution of the composer, and from which the history of his hopes, his fears, his hatreds, his affections, can be more clearly deduced. We propose to examine the literature, the philosophy, and the morality of this amiable writer. But before entering upon the investigation, it may not be

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