That part of our work, by which it is distinguished from all others, is the literary journal, or account of the labours and productions of the learned.  This was for a long time among the deficiencies of English literature; but, as the caprice of man is always starting from too little to too much, we have now, amongst other disturbers of human quiet, a numerous body of reviewers and remarkers.

Every art is improved by the emulation of competitors; those who make no advances towards excellence, may stand as warnings against faults.  We shall endeavour to avoid that petulance which treats with contempt whatever has hitherto been reputed sacred.  We shall repress that elation of malignity, which wantons in the cruelties of criticism, and not only murders reputation, but murders it by torture.  Whenever we feel ourselves ignorant we shall at least be modest.  Our intention is not to preoccupy judgment by praise or censure, but to gratify curiosity by early intelligence, and to tell rather what our authors have attempted, than what they have performed.  The titles of books are necessarily short, and, therefore, disclose but imperfectly the contents; they are sometimes fraudulent and intended to raise false expectations.  In our account this brevity will be extended, and these frauds, whenever they are detected, will be exposed; for though we write without intention to injure, we shall not suffer ourselves to be made parties to deceit.

If any author shall transmit a summary of his work, we shall willingly receive it; if any literary anecdote, or curious observation, shall be communicated to us, we will carefully insert it.  Many facts are known and forgotten, many observations are made and suppressed; and entertainment and instruction are frequently lost, for want of a repository in which they may be conveniently preserved.

No man can modestly promise what he cannot ascertain:  we hope for the praise of knowledge and discernment, but we claim only that of diligence and candour[1].

FOOTNOTE: 

[1] Dr. Johnson received the humble reward of a guinea from Mr. Dodsley for this composition.

INTRODUCTION
TO THE
WORLD DISPLAYED[1].

Navigation, like other arts, has been perfected by degrees.  It is not easy to conceive that any age or nation was without some vessel, in which rivers might be passed by travellers, or lakes frequented by fishermen; but we have no knowledge of any ship that could endure the violence of the ocean before the ark of Noah.

As the tradition of the deluge has been transmitted to almost all the nations of the earth, it must be supposed that the memory of the means, by which Noah and his family were preserved, would be continued long among their descendants, and that the possibility of passing the seas could never be doubted.

What men know to be practicable, a thousand motives will incite them to try; and there is reason to believe, that from the time that the generations of the postdiluvian race spread to the seashores, there were always navigators that ventured upon the sea, though, perhaps, not willingly beyond the sight of land.