American Moral and Sentimental Magazine ( New York 1797-1798). An Annotated Catalogue

This New York semi-monthly periodical edited by Thomas Kirk appeared from July 1797 through May 1798 under a voluminous title that marks it as a hybrid serial-anthology/magazine: The American Moral & Sentimental Magazine, consisting of a Collection of Select Pieces, in Prose and Verse, from the Best Authors, on Religious, Moral, and Sentimental Subjects, calculated to Form the Understanding and Improve the Heart. Kirk was especially zealous to defend the “sacred and eternal obligations of Virtue and Religion” as that “affords a pleasure truly rational and refined.” Readers were invited to forward their own or any compositions to the editor, but from the outset, it was apparent that the editor would provide a “Collection of Select Pieces” and had material in hand that might or might not be supplemented by local contributions. In particular, as is documented in this annotated catalogue, Kirk provided a great deal on the “moral” and only a modest number of “sentimental” articles. As the annotations here demonstrate, just as travel narratives could serve the cause of religion, morality could be served by a judicious selection from the literature of sentiment, works wherein rough passions were modestly checked by refined emotions and a rational sensibility.