The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 14, No. 407, December 24, 1829

CONTAINING
HISTORICAL NARRATIVES; BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS; SKETCHES OF SOCIETY; TOPOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTIONS; NOVELS AND TALES; ANECDOTES;
FROM
POETRY, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED;
DISCOVERIES IN THE ARTS AND SCIENCES; USEFUL DOMESTIC HINTS; &c. &c. &c.
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY J. LIMBIRD, 143, STRAND, ( Near Somerset House .)
1829.

Wassailing, prefaces, and waits, are nearly at a stand-still; and in these days of universality and everything, we almost resolved to leave this page blank, and every reader to write his own preface, had we not questioned whether the custom would be more honoured in the breach than the observance.
Cheap Books, we hope, will never be an evil; for, as the same care and toil that raise a dish of peas at Christmas, would give bread to a whole family during six months; so the expense of a gay volume at this season will furnish a moderate circle with amusive reading for a twelvemonth. We do not draw this comparison invidiously, but merely to illustrate the advantages of literary economy.
The number Seven —the favourite of Swift, (and how could it be otherwise than odd?) has, perhaps, led us into this rambling monologue on our merits; but we agree with Yorick in thinking gravity an errant scoundrel.