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Entered, according to the act of Congress, in the year 1835, by

J. S. REDFIELD,

in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York.

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THE publication of THE FAMILY MAGAZINE was first commenced on Saturday, April 20th, 1833. From that period, through the first volume and up to No. 12 of the second volume, it was published in weekly sheets. The second volume was commenced on the 19th of April 1834, and was issued under the auspices of the former conductor until September 1834, when the editorial department fell into the charge of the present Editor.

The precise period at which the FAMILY MAGAZINE was first originated, seemed to be a new era in periodical literature. It was marked by the adoption of a plan for the diffusion of useful knowledge, adapted to the present state of Society, and coequal and coextensive, if possible, with the newly acquired facilities and extraordinary improvements in the mechanick arts. The first operations under the new plan, had their origin in the British "Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge," of which Lord Brougham is chairman. They consisted in the publication of useful works, in a comprehensive form, and at such a cheap rate, as to render them attainable by the poor, while at the same time they were worthy of the rich and the wise. Among others of their first publications was the Penny Magazine, a work that soon gained an unprecedented circulation. Induced by the example of this excellent society, others of a similar character and for, similar objects were formed in various parts of the kingdom. Among other works originating with them, were the Saturday Magazine and the Dublin Penny Journal. Multitudes of similar papers afterwards teemed from the British press in every part of the kingdom. The impulse was felt in France, and it immediately gave birth to numerous similar periodicals there, among the most prominent of which are the " Magazin Pittoresque," and "La France Pittoresque," both of which enjoy an enormous patronage. Our own country too, began to feel the necessity of the new facilities. The FAMILY MAGAZINE WAS originated, and it progressed notwithstanding it was deemed the most extraordinary and presumptuous literary undertaking ever devised in the country. Two small but popular Magazines were also commenced in Boston, and the New York and Philadelphia press were soon teeming with numerous cheap publications under the names of "Libraries," "Galleries," and many other equally comprehensive titles. The poor man was thus furnished with books at a price proportioned to the cost of the farthing light by which he read them. In the zeal of competition, however, many stale and useless works were imprudently admitted into some of the publications, and the smallness of the type and bad quality of the paper, rendered many of them unsatisfactory and almost worthless. Many of the cheap Magazines, also, became satisfied with making up their pages with the fragments of ephemeral news, rather than with substantial Knowledge, alleviating their dulness by introducing here and there a worthless tale, and only taking care to impose the trash upon the world with the catchpenny glare of engravings. The remark however is not general, nor is it made invidiously. But in the belief that more valuable and important information would at least be more beneficial if indeed not more acceptable to the publick taste, and that it could be more easily diffused through a periodical of a style similarly attractive and popular, but under an arrangement differing from those before mentioned, the FAMILY MAGAZINE was continued, with that specifick purpose of remedying some of the existing defects, and supplying some of the existing wants. But it recommended itself chiefly on the score of the useful knowledge it contained, the adoption of METHOD AND SYSTEM, and its unparalleled cheapness. The plan, we are warranted to say by the issue, has been favourably received, and our periodical has thus progressed to the conclusion of the second volume, which is now presented to the publick. It will, it is trusted, be found to contain much information that will always be valuable, by reason of the intrinsick importance of the subjects treated of, the convenient arrangement under which they are presented, and being accompanied with many engravings which will be useful in facilitating the mind in comprehending them and in forming complete ideas.

New York, April, 1835.

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The beautiful original picture that graces this volume as a Frontispiece, was designed and drawn by Weir, and engraved by Mr. Linton Thorn. The suggestion was furnished by the above lines from Bryant's Poem, on “An Indian at the Burying-place of his fathers." The design is no less beautiful than the execution is alike excellent and honourable to the artists.

In order to appreciate fully the lasting interest and beauty of the picture, it is necessary that the mind. should recur to those primitive days, when, upon the very ground where we have built our homes, the "red ruler of the shade"

"Walk'd forth, amid his reign, to dare

The wolf and grapple with the bear."

The simple Indian is the "forest hero" of this western world, and the white man has but just set his foot upon its unsubdued shores. At an opening in the border of the forest, for

-"they laid their dead

By the vast solemn skirts of the old groves,"

an Indian and his young and tender wife are observed weeping over the grave of their first-born that they have just yielded to the earth.

"A low green hillock, two small gray stones,
Rise over the place that holds its bones."

The swarthy Indian has sat himself down beside a rude rock, and leans upon it, hiding his face in sorrow. Long raven hair veils the face of the young wife, as she droops in the fulness of grief upon her protector's knee. In the rudeness and simplicity of nature, they wear but the wampum blanket to shield their bodies, and the ornamented leathern moccasin to protect their feet. The only guaranty of a livelihood for the morrow, the sorrowing Indian grasps in his right hand, his bow. At their side lies the swathing board, that but recently bore the young innocent, whose lifeless body the green hillock' has too prematurely covered. Close at hand sits their faithful companion, the dog, not altogether lacking sympathy, gazing listlessly into the trees. As if to soothe the loneliness of grief, nature has arrested her elements, and a "vast solemn" stillness seems to reign around. While, on one side, the huge trunk of a mighty oak ascends spreading its branches high over the scene, the aspiring saplings upon the other seem striving to reach with their topmost boughs the nethermost limbs of that Father of the forest. The affections of the wife have intertwined themselves with those of her hardy companion and protector, upon whom she reclines with confidence; fit emblem of the tender relation of that gentler portion of the Indian pair, a vine has entwined itself around the oak, and acquiring assurance in the enduring strength of its supporter has extended itself into the branches.

A little beyond the group, a ploughed field extends itself, whence the white man,

-"hewed the dark old woods away,

And gave the virgin fields to the day."

Carrying the view still further in the distance, and over various cultivated fields, undulating, and studded here and there with clumps of trees, the eye meets a beautiful river, which, after threading its way among rocky hills and beetling cliffs, and along overshadowing forests, debouches peacefully into the sea. Its quiet bosom, however, bears a busy squadron of the white man's ships, that have come to burden themselves with the riches of this new treasure land. Full of new zeal, the white man has set his encroaching foot upon the Indian's shore, and elated with his glories and successes, he has reared up a city there, a monument of his bold enterprise, and easily acquired wealth. The landscape lessens among the hills, and the distance is lost among the far-retiring mountains on one side, and the ocean which confuses its bounds with the horizon on the other.

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