PREFACE. 



-cMtgi^o 



THE most difficult, and yet somehow the most necessary thhig 

 the Editor of a magazine has to do, is to indite a Preface to 

 his yearly volume. He appears year after year before nearly the 

 same audience, to say the same things, and to endeavour to say them 

 in a different way, all the time feeling that the audience is taking a 

 critical note as to whether the act is well done or not ! 



But this annual custom is not without its advantages. It enables 

 the Editor to issue a personal " Encyclical Letter " to all those with 

 whom he has been brought into contact during the past twelve 

 months, directly or indirectly. There are hundreds of correspondents 

 whose faces he has never seen, and perhaps never will see, with 

 whose hand-writing he is as familiar as if he had known them 

 in the flesh since childhood ! From all of these he is in the habit 

 of receiving favours. They communicate to him the results of 

 their reading and investigation ; or they generously come forward to 

 help young students and observers with their own richer and fuller 

 knowledge and experience. 



This is an opportunity not to be neglected by the Editor for 

 returning to all such amis de la conr, his warmest thanks ; but in doing 

 so he adopts the worldly motto which declares the sincerest gratitude 

 is that based upon " favours to come ! " 



We are aware of what many correspondents and subscribers 

 (who know nothing of the endeavour to cram into our monthly issue 

 more than it can possibly hold), may sometimes consider an unexplain- 

 able oversight, in not inserting every paragraph or article they send 



