all passing events; and to vary the form of the papers by
throwing them into sketches, essays, tales, adventures, letters from
imaginary correspondents, and so forth, so as to diversify the contents
as much as possible.

"In addition to this general description of the contents, I may add that
under particular heads I should strive to establish certain features in
the work, which should be so many veins of interest and amusement
running through the whole. Thus the Chapters on Chambers, which I have
long thought and spoken of, might be very well incorporated with it; and
a series of papers has occurred to me containing stories and
descriptions of London as it was many years ago, as it is now, and as it
will be many years hence, to which I would give some such title as The
Relaxations of Gog and Magog, dividing them into portions like the
_Arabian Nights_, and supposing Gog and Magog to entertain each other
with such narrations in Guildhall all night long, and to break off every
morning at daylight. An almost inexhaustible field of fun, raillery, and
interest would be laid open by pursuing this idea.

"I would also commence, and continue from time to time, a series of
satirical papers purporting to be translated from some Savage
Chronicles, and to describe the administration of justice in some
country that never existed, and record the proceedings of its wise men.
The object of this series (which if I can compare it with anything would
be something between _Gulliver's Travels_ and the _Citizen of the
World_) would be to keep a special lookout upon the magistrates in town
and country, and never to leave those worthies alone.

"The quantity of each number that should be written by myself would be a
matter for discussion and arrangement. Of course I should pledge and
bind myself upon that head. Nobody but myself would ever pursue _these
ideas_, but I must have assistance of course, and there must be some
contents of a different kind. Their general nature might be agreed upon
beforehand, but I should stipulate that this assistance is chosen solely
by myself, and that the contents of every number are as much under my
own control, and subject to as little interference, as those of a number
of _Pickwick_ or _Nickleby_.

"In order to give fresh novelty and interest to this undertaking, I
should be ready to contract to go at any specified time (say in the
midsummer or autumn of the year, when a sufficient quantity of matter in