[Illustration: MILAN CATHEDRAL.]
"Show the motley-minded gentleman in;"--the old friend with a new
face, or, in plain words, THE MIRROR _in a new type_. Tasteful reader,
examine the symmetry, the sharp cut and finish of this our new fount of
type, and tell us whether it accords not with the beauty, pungency, and
polish of the notings and selections of this our first sheet. For some
days this type has been glittering in the printing-office boxes, like
nestling fire-flies, and these pages at first resembled so many pools or
tanks of molten metal, or the windows of a fine old mansion--Hatfield
House for instance,--lit up by the refulgent rays of a rising sun.
The sight "inspires us, and fires us;" and we count upon _new_ letter
bringing us _new_ friends, and thus commence our Fourteenth Volume
with _new_ hopes and invigorating prospects. But what subject can
be more appropriate for such a commencement, than so splendid a
triumph of art as