Various

“ As the Journal has advanced and death has removed its scientific [Pg xiii] contributors, younger men and men still younger, have recruited the ranks, and volunteers have enlisted in numbers constantly increasing, so that the flower of the host are now in the morning and meridian of life.
We have been constantly advancing, like a traveller from the equinoctial towards the colder zones,–as we have increased our latitude, stars have set and new stars have risen, while a few planetary orbs visible in every zone, have continued to cheer us on our course. ”

“ From these sources our country reaps, and will long continue to reap, an abundant harvest of information: and if the light of science, as well as of day, springs from the east, we will welcome the rays of both; nor should national pride induce us to reject so rich an offering. ”

“ In a word, the whole circle of physical science is directly applicable to human wants, and constantly holds out a light to the practical arts; it thus polishes and benefits society, and every where demonstrates both supreme intelligence, and harmony and beneficence of design in the Creator. ”

“ Our mineralogy, however, is a treasure but just opened. That both science and art may expect much advantage from this source, is sufficiently evinced by the success which has crowned the active efforts of a few ardent cultivators of this science: several new species have been added to it in this country; great numbers of American localities of minerals discovered, and interesting additions made to our materials, for the useful and ornamental arts.
"Mineralogy is most intimately connected with our arts, and especially with agriculture. ”

“ To account for the formation and changes of our globe, by excursions of the imagination, often splendid and imposing, but usually visionary, and almost always baseless, was, till within half a century, the business of geological speculations; but this research has now assumed a more sober character; the science of geology has been reared upon numerous and accurate observations of facts; and standing thus upon the basis of induction, it is entitled to a rank among those sciences which Lord Bacon's Philosophy has contributed to create. ”

“ Even the Ohio, which within the memory of the oldest living men, rolled along its dark waters through interminable forests, or received the stains of blood from deadly Indian warfare, now beholds on one of its most beautiful hills, and near its splendid city, a permanent observatory with a noble telescope sweeping the heavens, by the hand of a zealous and gifted observer. ”

“ Here also (in Yale College) successful observations have been made with good instruments, although no permanent building has been erected for an Observatory.
We only give single examples by way of illustration, for the history of the progress of science in the United States, and of institutions for its promotion, during the present generation, would demand a volume. It is enough for our purpose that science is understood and valued, and the right methods of prosecuting it are known, and the time is at hand when its moral and intellectual uses will be as obvious as its physical applications. ”

“ In no way can a knowledge of them be so readily and extensively diffused as in a scientific journal. To this object, therefore, a part of our labors (should there be a call for it) will be devoted, and every necessary aid will be given by plates and descriptions.
"Science and art mutually assist each other; the arts furnish facts and materials to science, and science illuminates the path of the arts. ”

“ The outlines of American geology appear to be particularly grand, simple, and instructive; and a knowledge of the important facts, and general principles of this science, is of vast practical use, as regards the interests of agriculture, and the research for useful minerals. Geological and mineralogical descriptions, and maps of particular states and districts, are very much needed in the United States; and to excite a spirit to furnish them will form one leading object of the contemplated journal. ”

“ Our Zoology has been more fully investigated than our mineralogy and botany; but neither department is in danger of being exhausted. The interesting travels of Lewis and Clark have recently brought to our knowledge several plants and animals before unknown. Foreign naturalists are frequently exploring our territory; and, for the most part, convey to Europe the fruits of their researches, while but a small part of our own productions is examined and described by Americans: certainly, this is little to our credit, and still less to our advantage. ”

“ Archibald Bruce, (our earliest purely scientific journal,) which had been begun a few years before, was most favorably received both at home and abroad, but it never passed beyond one volume of 270 pages; and as the declining health of Dr. Bruce rendered the prospect of its continuance hopeless, it was thought that we ought not to lose the advantage already gained, and that a high demand of duty required that some man devoted to science, should undertake to sustain its interests and those of the connected arts, in our rising country. ”

“ Is it not, therefore, desirable to furnish some rallying point, some object sufficiently interesting to be nurtured by common efforts, and thus to become the basis of an enduring, common interest? To produce these efforts, and to excite this interest, nothing, perhaps, bids fairer than a Scientific Journal. ”

“ Philadelphia may also boast of her cabinets of natural history, public and private: and one of the noblest collections of birds in the world,4 bestowed on his country by Mr. Wilson of Delaware, has been, within a few months, added to the valuable collections of the Academy of Natural Sciences at that place.
When we began our Journal, not one of the States had been surveyed in relation to its geology and natural history; now those that have not been explored are few in number. ”

“ In tracing back the associations of many gone-by years, a host of thoughts rush in, and pensive remembrance of the dead who have labored with us casts deep shadows into the vista through which we view the past. ”

“ Nor is it to be forgotten that we have awakened an European interest in our researches: general science has been illustrated by treasures of facts drawn from this country, and our discoveries are eagerly sought for and published abroad. ”

“ Bibliographical and Obituary Notices of scientific men; essays on Comparative Anatomy and Physiology, and generally on such other branches of medicine as depend on scientific principles:–
Meteorological Registers, and Reports of Agricultural Experiments: and we would leave room also for interesting miscellaneous things, not exactly included under either of the above heads.
Communications are respectfully solicited from men of science, and from men versed in the practical arts.
Learned Societies are invited to make this Journal, occasionally, the vehicle of their communications to the public. ”

“ Natural History, in its three great departments of Mineralogy, Botany and Zoology:–
Chemistry and Natural Philosophy, in their various branches; and Mathematics, pure and mixed.
It will be a leading object to illustrate American Natural History, and especially our Mineralogy and Geology.
The Applications of these sciences are obviously as numerous as physical arts and physical wants; for no one of these arts or wants can be named which is not connected with them.
While Science will be cherished for its own sake, and with a due respect for its own inherent dignity ”

“ If a retrospective survey of the labors of thirty years, on this occasion, has rekindled a degree of enthusiasm, it is the natural result of an examination of all our volumes, from the contents of which we have endeavored to make out a summary both of the laborers and their works. ”

“ This very hour is saddened by such an event,–but we will continue to labor on, and strive to be found at our post of duty, until there is nothing more for us to do; trusting our hopes for a future life in the hands of him who placed us in the midst of the splendid garniture of this lower world, and who has made not less ample provision for another and a better.
Yale College, April 19, 1847. ”

“ The Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences had also published a single volume as early as 1813. Since that time the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, the Boston Society of Natural History, the Albany Institute, and the Maryland Academy of Sciences have stood prominent among associations of a like nature, and their memoirs now constitute an important item in our scientific history. ”

“ Geometry, and mathematics both pure and mixed, can never cease to be interesting and important to man, as long as the relations of quantity shall exist, as long as ships shall traverse the ocean, as long as man shall measure the surface or heights of the earth on which he lives, or calculate the distances and examine the relations of the planets and stars ”

“ The portrait prefixed to this volume was engraved for a very different purpose and for others than the patrons of this Journal. It has been suggested by friends, whose judgment we are accustomed to respect, that it ought to find a place here, since it is regarded as an authentic, although, perhaps, a rather austere resemblance. In yielding to this suggestion, it may be sufficient to quote the sentiment of Cowper on a similar occasion, who remarked–"that after a man has, for many years, turned his mind inside out before the world, it is only affectation to attempt to hide his face." ”

“ No one, it is presumed, will doubt that a Journal devoted to science, and embracing a sphere sufficiently extensive to allure to its support the principal scientific men of our country, is greatly needed ”

“ It may prove only that the attempt was premature, and that our country is not yet ripe for such an undertaking; for without the efficient support of talent, knowledge, and money, it cannot long proceed. No editor can hope to carry forward such a work without the active aid of scientific and practical men; but, at the same time, the public have a right to expect that he will not be sparing of his own labor, and that his work shall be generally marked by the impress of his own hand. ”

“ Among them are persons distinguished for their capacity and attainments, and, notwithstanding the local feelings nourished by our state sovereignties, and the rival claims of several of our larger cities, there is evidently a predisposition towards a concentration of effort, from which we may hope for the happiest results, with regard to the advancement of both the science and reputation of our country. ”

“ The materials for the pile, have however been selected and brought in, chiefly by other hands, and if the monument which has been reared should prove to be "ære perennius," the honor is not the sole property of the architect; those who have quarried, hewn and polished the granite and the marble, are fully entitled to the enduring record of their names already deeply cut into the massy blocks, which themselves have furnished. ”

“ Such are the disguises worn by many most useful mineral substances, that an unskilful observer is liable to pass a thing by, as worthless, which, if better informed, he would seize with avidity; and, still more frequently, a worthless substance, clothed perhaps in a brilliant and attractive exterior, excites hopes altogether delusive, and induces expense, without a possibility of remuneration. ”

“ A diffusion of correct [Pg x] knowledge on this subject is the only adequate remedy for either evil.
"Our geology, also, presents a most interesting field of inquiry. A grand outline has recently been drawn by Mr. Maclure, with a masterly hand, and with a vast extent of personal observation and labor: but to fill up the detail, both observation and labor still more extensive are demanded; nor can the object be effected till more good geologists are formed, and distributed over our extensive territory. ”

“ It will be perceived, therefore, that we have not departed from the principle which has governed us from the beginning, and when our mantle shall fall, there are those at hand who may, if it be worth the effort, arrest it in its descent and wear it more worthily than we have done. ”

“ It has a large gratuitous distribution, both at home and abroad, and an extensive good-will exchange with works often having no particular bearing upon its peculiar objects. It has incurred a heavy extra expenditure in reprinting exhausted numbers, for the purpose of furnishing entire sets of the work. No application for an entire set has ever yet been disappointed, and complete sets of the volumes are to be found in many institutions and in the hands of many individuals, both in Europe and in the United States. ”

“ Boston, which at our earliest date presented only the limited collection of the Linnæan Society, now opens to the student a rich and beautiful museum of natural history; and Harvard University at Cambridge has a fine botanical garden under an able and zealous botanist–a well furnished and successful observatory, [Pg xvi] and a rich collection of minerals and fossils, including a skeleton of the Mastodon, which is rivalled only by the specimen of unexampled magnitude and perfection, in the private museum of Dr. ”

“ The late Exploring Expedition with the National Institute, has enriched the capital with treasures rarely equalled in any country, and the Smithsonian Institution recently organized at Washington, is about to begin its labors for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men. ”

“ Entire sets have often been presented gratuitously to our infant colleges and to scientific institutions and distinguished individuals in Europe. A few remain on hand, and it is our intention to furnish them as long as we can afford to republish, or can repurchase numbers that have run out. ”

“ Of smaller articles and notices in the Miscellany, we have not made any enumeration, but they evidently are more numerous than the regular articles, and we presume that they may amount to at least 2500.
Of party, either in politics or religion, there is no trace in our work; of personalities there are none, except those that relate to priority of claims or other rights of individuals. ”