The establishment of a new Journal is a hazardous and expensive
undertaking. Every reader of this volume receives what has cost more
than he pays for it, and in addition receives the product of months of
editorial, and many years of scientific, labor. May I not therefore
ask his aid in relieving me of this burden by increasing the
circulation of the Journal among his friends?
The establishment of the Journal was a duty. There was no other way
effectively to reach the people with its new sphere of knowledge.
Buckle has well said in his "History of Civilization," that "No great
political improvement, no great reform, either legislative or
executive, has ever been originated in any country by its ruling
class. The first suggestors of such steps have invariably been bold
and able thinkers, who discern the abuse, denounce it, and point out
the remedy."
This is equally true in science, philanthropy, and religion. When the
advance of knowledge and enlightenment of conscience render reform or
revolution necessary, the ruling powers of college, church,
government, capital, and the press, present a solid combined
resistance which the teachers of novel truth cannot overcome without
an appeal to the people. The grandly revolutionary science of
Anthropology, which offers in one department (Psychometry) "the dawn
of a new civilization," and in other departments an entire revolution
in social, ethical, educational, and medical philosophy, has
experienced the same fate as all other great scientific and
philanthropic innovations, in being compelled to sustain itself
against the mountain mass of established error by the power of truth
alone. The investigator whose life is devoted to the evolution of the
truth cannot become its propagandist. A whole century would be
necessary to the full development of these sciences to which I can
give but a portion of one life. Upon those to whom these truths are
given, who can intuitively perceive their value, rests the task of
sustaining and diffusing the truth.
Mrs. Croly of New York remarked in her address to the Women's Press
Association of Boston. "The general public resents the advocacy of a
cause and resists any attempt to commit it to special ideas. A paper
that starts to represent a cause must be maintained by individual
effort, and often at great sacrifice."
The circulation of the Journal is necessarily limited to the sphere of
liberal minds and advanced thinkers, but among these it has had a more
warm and enthusiastic reception than was ever before given to any
periodical. There must be in the United States twenty or thirty
thousand of the class who would warmly appreciate the Journal, but
they are scattered so widely it will be years before half of them can
be reached without the active co-operation of my readers, which I most
earnestly request.
Prospectuses and specimen numbers will be furnished to those who will
use them, and those who have liberal friends not in their own vicinity
may confer a favor by sending their names that a prospectus or
specimen may be sent them. A liberal commission will be allowed to
those who canvass for subscribers.
Enlargement of the Journal.
The requests of readers for the enlargement of the Journal are already
coming in. It is a great disappointment to the editor to be compelled
each month to exclude so much of interesting matter, important to
human welfare, which would be gratifying to its readers. The second
volume therefore will be enlarged to 64 pages at $2 per annum.