TO OUR READERS. 3 



who reminds us that " every phenomenon has its reason, and 

 every effect its cause." By patient searching into these, and by 

 viewing them all as links in the great and wondrous chain which 

 leads us through Nature up to Nature's God, we are using the 

 most effectual means of training our intellectual faculties to their 

 highest development, and providing for ourselves pleasures that 

 are quite unknown by others, to whom Nature is as yet but a 

 sealed book. 



It only remains to thank those whose kind co-operation has 

 been given in the preparation of this first number of our 

 Journal, and on whose help reliance is placed for the future. 

 The Committee are anxious to spare no pains in promoting its 

 efficiency and success, but these must necessarily depend in 

 great measure upon the amount of support it receives, and the 

 kind of matter furnished to fill its pages. It is now sent 

 forth, not without some misgivings in this most critical age, 

 but hoping that due allowance may be made for what is a 

 first attempt in an hitherto untried field, and only asking for it a 

 kindly reception, and a fair and unprejudiced judgment as to its 

 merits or demerits. And so this first " Address to our Readers " 

 may fitly close with the familiar lines of Goldsmith : — 



" Blame where you must, be candid where you can ; 

 And be each critic the good-natured 7na?ir 



