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FAMILY MAGAZINE;

OR,

MONTHLY ABSTRACT

OF

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE.

ILLUSTRATED WITH SEVERAL HUNDRED ENGRAVINGS.

1836.

CINCINNATI:

PUBLISHED BY ELI TAYLOR.

1836.

PREFACE.

WE here present to the community the first volume of the Family Maga zine. It is the fruit of much toil of both mind and body, and it is our sincere de sire that it may be found a valuable auxiliary in the advancement of general knowledge.

It has been the object of our humble labors to condense into a cheap, convenient and attractive form a portion of that useful and entertaining knowledge which is found interspersed through hundreds of volumes of the most valuable works on Literature and Science. We have aimed more to cultivate the mind than to please the fancy, being convinced that many of the publications of the present day are, to the great detriment of practical instruction, of an opposite character.

At the same time we have not confined our efforts to dry, abstract knowledge, but have endeavored to blend the entertaining with the useful in such a manner as to cultivate a love of practical knowledge without wearying the mind in the pursuit of it. We are happy to know from the numerous testimonials to the merits of the Family Magazine, that our labors have not been in vain.

An increase of five thousand subscribers in one year and the many favorable notices from the Press in all parts of the country, have cheered us in our past labors and encouraged us to enter upon a new year with increased zeal and energy. PUBLISHER.

Cincinnati Dec. 1836