Introduction
Notes

[1] The Student was one of publisher John Newbery's many contributions to the literary scene. Christopher Smart edited the journal at some point, presumably beginning with the issue of May 31, 1750 when the subtitle changed from the Oxford Monthly Miscellany to the Oxford and Cambridge Monthly Miscellany. The journal ran for approximately a year and a half, beginning in January 31, 1750.

[2] Raymond Williams notes that the use of "class" in the modern sense as a "would-be specific description of a social formation" comes into currency during the period 1770-1840. He proposes that the "middle class" is always in some sense indeterminate, because it represents an interposition between persons of "rank" and the "common people" (61,63). Thus, the middle class is always a relational construct, defined by what it is not as much as what it is. I will use the term "middle class" to roughly represent the lower gentry, the professionals, merchants, and tradespeople.