om
being intoxicated by the quaintness and affectation of the Salmagundi
school, and the purity and wit of the other have as little proved
powerful to save his work from being deserted for the bathos and
silliness of the 'Backwoodsman.' I remember them both. In private life
they united qualities which are seldom found together, brilliancy of
conversation and modesty of deportment. In their writings they were
chaste without being tame, and elevated without being extravagant. Alas!
I little thought to have lived until their light should be hidden by a
cloud of delirious bats who had left their native obscurity and madly
rushed to uncongenial day, vermin which are likely to be of direful omen
to our country unless the land be speedily cleansed of them."

The greatness of Philadelphia is the inspiration and the pride of the
_Critic_. "Having often heard Philadelphia called the 'Athens of the
United States,' 'the birthplace of American literature,' I was naturally
delighted at the prospect of a visit to so celebrated a city" (p. 14).
And again: "Philadelphia with all its faults and follies is, in a
literary and scientific point of view, the first city of the Empire" (p.
20). The _Critic_ fired its last arrow May 10, 1820.

Dennie's _Port Folio_ continued to be the admiration and the despair of
contemporary editors and authors. In 1821 appeared the _Post-Chaise
Companion or Magazine of Wit_. By Carlo Convivio Socio, Junior Fellow of
the Royal Academy of Humorists. It was begun in January, 1821, and was
issued from 15 North Front Street. In its first "leader" it deprecated
comparison with the favorites of the hour: "With the venerable Mr.
Oldschool, who for almost twenty years has delighted or instructed the
'mind of desultory man,' I would not presume to enter into a
competition, still less should it be provoked with the profound labours
of the editor of the _Analectic Magazine_ and his host of 'the most
eminent literary men' who promised to eclipse the dissertations of the
famous Northern lights" (p. 3).

The little paper contains a long article on Mr. Kean's acting (pages
37-51).

The _Philadelphia Medical Museum_ was conducted by John Redman Coxe for
five years, from 1805 to 1810, and was published by A. Bartram.

The _Eye_, by Obadiah Optic, was published every Thursday by John W.
Scott, from January to December, 1808, at three dollars a year. It was
filled with odd, historical and alliterative articles.

The _Phil