THE MONTHLY ANTHOLOGY. it up THIS work was begun by Mr. Phinehas Adams, a graduate of Harvard, and who at the time taught a school in Boston. The first number, "under the title of the Monthly Anthology and Boston Review, edited by Sylvanus Per-se," was published in November, 1803. At the end of six months he gave to the late Rev. Mr. Emerson, who induced two or three gentlemen to join with him, in the care of the work, and laid the foundation of the Anthology Club. The title was altered with these words, "By a society of gentlemen," and the change was marked by the numbers being printed in double columns; but after two or three years the double columns were given up, which however well adapted for the short articles of a magazine, were found inconvenient for Reviews of books, if extended beyond a mere notice. The club was regularly organized, and governed by certain rules; the number of resident members varied from seven or eight to fifteen or sixteen; there were a few honorary members in other towns and in other states, who occasionally contributed to its pages. It was one of the rules, that every member should write for the work: the contributions were in some cases voluntary, in others were assigned by vote, which was the general practice in regard to Reviews. But in labour of this kind, it was found more difficult than in any other, to produce regularity. A few of the members I believe never wrote any thing, and the quantity produced by others varied very considerably. They received frequent aid from many correspondents, some of whom wrote more pages than several of the members. No particular responsibility devolved on any one as editor, because nothing was published without the consent of the society. The care of the manuscripts, arranging them for the press, revising proofs, necessarily rested with one individual, who, according to the articles of the club, was called the editor. The gentleman who at one period took this trouble, finding himself obnoxious to a good deal of remark as editor, declined filling the office any longer. To get over this difficulty an amendment of the constitution was adopted; "the duties of the editor should be discharged by a standing committee, that this committee should consist of one, and that Mr. [the actual editor] should be this committee."-A kind of amendment not wholly unlike some that have been made in the constitutions of larger communities. The following gentlemen were members of the club, some of them for a short time only, the rest during the greater part of its existence.-An asterisk is prefixed to the names of those who are deceased. Rev. Drs. Gardiner, Kirkland, *M'Kean, Rev. Messrs. *Emerson, *Buckminster, *S. C. Thacher and Tuckerman, Doctors Jackson, Warren, Gorham and Bigelow, Messrs. W. S. Shaw, P. Thacher, W. Tudor, *A. M. Walter, E. J. Dana, Wm. Wells, R. H. Gardiner, B. Welles, J. Savage, *J. Feild, Professor Willard, *Winthrop Sargent, J. Stickney, Alexander H. Everett, J. Head, Jr. George Ticknor. The club met once a week in the evening, and after deciding on the manuscripts that were offered, partook of a plain supper, and enjoyed the full pleasure of literary chat. Some of these evenings were truly the noctes attica, the recollection of which is, alas, saddened by regret that so many of those who contributed essentially to their delight, have been prematurely taken away from their friends and their country. The meetings were often prolonged into the middle watch, and the member who went too soon was a subject of pity. It is observed in the records of one evening, "Mr. as usual went away early, on which Mr. remarked that he เ was like Mercutio, always killed in the second act.” ” The concluding minutes of another evening are ;"The Society broke up (credite posteri!) before eleven o'clock." The pleasures of conversation were the prevailing motive for attending the weekly meetings, business was soon transacted, and a task unfulfilled had no severer punishment to dread than a little scolding from the committee for publication. The pages of the Anthology were very unequal, but R |