74 6 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ing the general plan now entered upon, 

 we expect to enlarge its resources, to 

 make more prominent the applications 

 of science to common life, to give a 

 more popular form to its discussions, 

 and, in short, to make it a magazine 

 that no family with brains in it can af- 

 ford to do without. 



Our object will continue to be to 

 furnish a higher grade of reading for 

 purposes of public instruction. In this 

 matter the press of the country has 

 been false to its trust. "We have an 

 educational system that brings the 

 whole mass of the people up to the 

 reading-point, and hardly carries them 

 beyond it. The school-master, when he 

 has done with them, hands his pupils 

 over to the editors, and the Dailies, 

 "Weeklies, and Monthlies, go on with the 

 work of education. In the school they 

 are taught to worship books, and to 

 consider print and wisdom as synony- 

 mous, so that there arises a supersti- 

 tion that mere reading is an intellectu- 

 al virtue. "Were the supreme object of 

 education to make customers for news- 

 papers, our system could hardly be im- 

 proved. But how does the press meet 

 its responsibilities and use its power? 

 "With rare exceptions, it must be said, 

 by ministering to popular weaknesses. 

 Editors fill their pages with worth- 

 less gossip, with interminable comment 

 on passing frivolities, with trashy and 

 demoralizing fictions, with the lies, 

 libels, and multitudinous inanities of 

 politics, and with endless, ambitious 

 writing on every empty topic that will 

 serve to make a sensation and beguile 

 the reader without the exertion of 

 thought. It is not in this way that the 

 serious work of public education is to 

 be carried forward. Excess of reading 

 without regard to its quality is a per- 

 nicious dissipation, and, besides wast- 

 ing precious time, it disqualifies those 

 who indulge in it from that serious 

 effort of thought which is the first con- 

 dition of mental improvement. The 

 main purpose in starting our magazine 



was to do something to counteract this 

 baneful influence, to contribute some- 

 thing toward elevating the standard of 

 popular reading, and to promote the 

 higher ends of education by diffusing 

 valuable knowledge, and making acces- 

 sible the productions of the world's 

 ablest thinkers. 



A few have criticised the Monthly 

 as containing too much foreign matter; 

 but our aim is to get the best, be it for- 

 eign or domestic. In the interests of 

 truth we have to guard against the "bias 

 of patriotism," and all who do this will 

 recognize that the leading intellectual 

 work of the world is now done in 

 Europe. A spurious patriotism fos- 

 ters national jealousies and teaches U3 

 that foreigners are our enemies; but, 

 in the sphere of science, the selfish 

 and paltry antagonisms of men can be 

 forgotten, and to talk about " foreign- 

 ners " is impertinent. Our allegiance 

 is to the age and to the growing spirit 

 of liberality, which is its greatest honor. 

 But we shall guard against undervalu- 

 ing American scientific thought, and 

 would refer to the present contents of 

 the Monthly in attestation of this pur- 

 pose. 



Again thanking our friends for their 

 generous encouragement, we ask for 

 its continuance, and an increase of their 

 efforts to promote the diffusion of our 

 magazine. As it was for the people 

 to decide whether it should be sus- 

 tained, so it will be for them to enlarge 

 the sphere of its usefulness by extend- 

 ing its circulation, and thus enabling 

 us to carry out our plans for its im- 

 provement. 



MR. GODWIN OST THE LIMITS OF 

 SCIEXCE. 



Me. Parke Godwin, of the Evening 

 Post, w r as chosen to speak for the press 

 at the Tyndall banquet ; but he saw fit 

 to throw his toast behind him, and take 

 up a more ambitious role. He used the 

 occasion to give a lesson to the scientific 

 gentlemen present as to the proper 



