APPENDIX. 3 



any wish exist on their part to avert the present pub- 

 lication. But before I proceed to the correspondence, 

 or touch upon the immediate details with which it is 

 associated, I must in passing, say a word upon the pe- 

 culiar position occupied by the Editor of a scientific 

 periodical ; and I must refer to circumstances either di- 

 rectly arising from my connection with the Magazine, or 

 which have occurred to me since the direction of that 

 journal was first committed to my charge : — circumstan- 

 ces which, though they never can be wholly discarded 

 from my recollection, I had ceased to look upon, but as 

 of bye-gone times, only noted down in the pages of my 

 own memory. Now however, they must be ushered into 

 daylight. — They now assume an importance which makes 

 it imperative in me not to slur them over, since, by so do- 

 ing, I should leave the door open for it to be said, that 

 though on this occasion I had come forward with an ap- 

 parent vindication, there were things of earlier date which I 

 had prudently never ventured to discuss, — never attempted 

 to grapple with. 



The Editor of a scientific journal, and the conductor 

 of a periodical devoted to general literature, respectively 

 occupy ground so widely dissimilar, that in the title of 

 their avocations is to be found the main relation of agreement 

 between them. As it regards the degree of intellectual ac- 

 quirement, necessary to qualify them for their respective du- 

 ties, they are placed on the same footing ; but farther than 

 this the parallel does not necessarily hold. The majority 

 of contributors to the latter class of publications, transfer 

 their ideas to paper as an honorable means of subsistence, 

 elaborating the materials according to the greater or less 

 demand for the supply. The great mass of readers read 

 for self-instruction or amusement, and the object gratified 

 they look no farther. Their interest in the contingent cir- 

 cumstances attending the publication of the periodical they 

 purchase, only extends to its regular appearance on the 

 first day of the month ; and should it retire from the stage, 

 the event merely gives them an opportunity of making a 

 fi'esh selection from amongst a hundred others. Who the 

 Editor may chance to be, or anything relating to him, forms 

 as little an object of their consideration as the name of 

 the founder who casts the type, or that of the manufacturer 

 who supplies the paper. But in that restricted section of peri- 

 odical literature, whose constitution diff'ers from that of the 

 general mass, inasmuch as the results of observation are 

 here at a premium, and those of imagination at a dis- 



