42 
THE NATURALIST AND COLLECTOR 
The Editor’s Note Book. 
Leonata —Are these things spoken or do I but dream? 
Don John— Sir, they are spoken and these things are true. 
Much Ado About Nothing. 
It is with pleasure that we again 
greet our friends in a typographical 
form designed to be so strikingly 
artistic as to need no special comment. 
Since our first number was issued 
many replies and queries have been 
received, relative to our paper, and in 
commendation of our efforts. For all 
kind words which may have been said 
in our behalf, we are truly thankful. 
When we undertook the publication of 
this journal, it was, indeed, not with" 
out doubts as to its financial success, 
but the numerous replies and liberal 
patronage received, have assured us of 
its future success. There need be no 
fear of its succumbing as it is founded 
on a firm basis. To make our maga- 
zine the nearer realize our highest 
conceptions, we need your hearty co¬ 
operation. To make it all that we 
desire it should be, will require more 
than our efforts alone. Your efforts 
at aiding us, if not more than saying a 
favorable word about us to some 
interested friend, however slight this 
effort may seem, when joined with the 
efforts of others, will form one mighty 
wave of sympathy which will eventu¬ 
ally overcome all the obstacles in the 
way to the elevation of our class publica¬ 
tion. 
t t t 
For the past few years our publica¬ 
tions have been entirely too conven¬ 
tional. “Variety is the spice of life” 
and nowhere more so than in a maga¬ 
zine. A style adopted and rigidly 
carried out, in time, becomes 
monotonous. A conventional style 
of writing and typography appears 
in the journals to the exclusion 
of what, while not necessarily of a 
superior nature, but which neverthe¬ 
less occasionally inserted would form 
a pleasing contrast to the stiff form of 
modern scientific articles. The general 
run of articles as published are of a too 
ultra-conventionalistic scientific form. 
Nothing appears in what may be 
termed an Oologist’s monthly, but 
simply staid, time-worn descriptive 
articles. Were a few short, but timely 
articles on the new discoveries in the 
various fields of science occasionally 
inserted, they would form a pleasing 
feature of what is otherwise so conven¬ 
tional as to be almost unbearably 
monotonous—they not diminishing the 
interest in the particular branch to 
which the magazine may be devoted— 
but only refreshing the wearied mind 
and making the leading articles more 
enjoyable by the change. A short poem, 
or story with Naturalistic tenden¬ 
cies helps to brighten the often too dry 
pages of a scientific magazine, and 
awaken new interest in literary fields— 
so necessary to a full comprehension 
of the more intricate and philosophical 
branches of science. We shall en¬ 
deavor to keep the Naturalist and 
Collector out of the rut of convention¬ 
alism and while not approaching im¬ 
pressionism to make its pages attractive 
and interesting to all who read it. 
t t t 
Our next issue will be approximately 
what the conceptions of our readers 
deem a magazine should b e. It will be 
the most interesting number of a 
Naturalist’s m agazine ever published. 
