Volume Two: Selections from The Monthly Magazine and American Review (1799-1800).
Edited by Bryan Waterman and Michelle Burnham

      "History and romance are terms that have never been very clearly distinguished from each other. Is should seem that one dealt in fiction, and the other in truth; that one is a picture of the probable and certain, and the other a tissue of untruths; that one describes what might have happened, and what has actually happened, and the other what never had existence.
      These distinctions seem to be just; but we shall find ourselves somewhat perplexed, when we attempt to reduce them to practice, and to ascertain, by their assistance, to what class this or that performance belongs. . . .
      If history relate what is true, its relations must be limited to what is known by the testimony of our senses. Its sphere, therefore, is extremely narrow. The facts to which we are immediate witnesses, are, indeed, numerous; but time and place merely connect them. Useful narratives must comprise facts linked together by some other circumstance. They must, commonly, consist of events, for a knowledge of which the narrator is indebted to the evidence of others. This evidence, though accompanied with different degrees of probability, can never give birth to certainty. How wide, then, if romance be the narrative of mere possibilities, is the empire of romance? This empire is absolute and undivided over the motives and tendencies of human actions."

from "The Difference Between History and Romance" (April 1800)

• 1799-05085 "On Almanacks," Monthly Magazine, I.2 (May 1799), 85-88.
• 1799-05090 "Parallel between Hume, Robertson and Gibbon," Monthly Magazine, I.2 (May 1799), 90-94.
• 1799-05099 "Thessalonica: A Roman Story," Monthly Magazine, I.2 (May 1799).
• 1799-05117 "Art. V. [Review of] New Views of the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America. By Benjamin Smith Barton, M.D. &c. &c. 8vo. Pp. 274. Philadelphia. Printed for the Author by John Bioren. 1798," Monthly Magazine, I.2 (may 1799), 117-119.
• 1799-05132 "Art. V. [Review of] Essays, Political, Economical, and Philosophical. By Benjamin Count Rumford. The first American, from the third London edition. Vol. i. pp. 464. D. West. Boston. 1798." Monthly Magazine, I.2 (May 1799), 132-4 (several instalments).
• 1799-06161 "Portrait of An Emigrant. Extracted from a Letter," Monthly Magazine, I.3 (June 1799).
• 1799-06216 "Art. XII. [Review of] The History of Pennsylvania, in North-America, from the Original Institution and Settlement of that Province, &c. in 1681, till after the Year 1742; with an Introduction, respecting the Life of William Penn, and the Society of Quakers; with the Rise of Neighbouring Colonies, &c. &c. &c. By Robert Proud. 2 vols. 8vo. Pp. 1028. Philadelphia. Z. Poulson, jun. 1798," Monthly Magazine, I.3 (June 1799), 216-17.
• 1799-08335 "Walstein's School of History. From the German of Krants of Gotha," Monthly Magazine and American Review I.5 (Aug.-Sept 1799).
• 1800-03174 "Lesson on Concealment; or, Memoirs of Mary Selwyn," Monthly Magazine, II.3 (March 1800).
• 1800-04251 "The Difference between History and Romance." Monthly Magazine and American Review II.4 (April 1800).
• 1800-07001 "On the Scheme of an American Language," Monthly Magazine, III.1 (July 1800), 1-4.
• 1800-07011 "On a Taste for the Picturesque," Monthly Magazine, III.1 (July 1800), 11-13.
• 1800-07019 "The Trials of Arden," Monthly Magazine, III.1 (July 1800). Dated "New York, April, 1800."
• 1800-08087 "On Conversation," Monthly Magazine, III.2 (Aug. 1800), 87-88.
• 1800-10259 "Thoughts on American Newspapers. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine," Monthly Magazine, III.4 (Oct. 1800), 259-64.