Editorial

EDITORIAL A N editor is expected to have a policy and, in this case, a part of the policy is to have no editorials. But as this is the first number of a new periodical, the rule· may be suspended for the occasion so as to permi·t a brief explanation. THE QuARTERLY is a journal authorized and supported by the University of Toronto. It is like other similar ventures in being an instrument for the encouragement of many undertakings ·which would never come to maturity without assistance of this kind. It implies the belief that there are in the Dominion many ·who can contribute worthily to the common stock of knowledge : when the scholar has achieved his task he must :find some channel of communication , both to complete his own labour and to benefit others. One of the important functions of a university is to provide the means for thus increasing the fruitfulness of education. .The scope and character of this journal·can be inferred from the contents of this number. It does not provide space for :fiction or poetry,-a rule which it is our privilege to ignore in .the case of The Iceberg. The world is full of interests and some limitations must be adopted to avoid chaos. For special vocations there are technical journals; to record the passage of events there are the publications which rate their material by its news value; current politics have a special kind of attraction which supports ·a variety of periodicals , daily, weekly and monthly. Among all these the vocation of the scholar would seem to be the proper field for a publication rooted in the life of a university. But some further qualification is needed, for s·cholarship becomes daily more specialized and its work is often excessively technical. The old ideal of a "gentleman's magazine," described by our forefathers as amusing because it was reminiscent of all the nine Muses, and instructive because it was concerned with serious topics competently treated,-this ideal is still perhaps the best pattern for a quarterly which is intended to be neither vocational nor technical and yet remains within the limits of scholarship and academic interests. No policy can be absolutely defined, so the matter must be left with these suggestions and, in addition, the statement that the QuARTERLY is started with the belief that many contributors will find in it an qpportunity for which they might otherwise look in vain. The editorial work is carried on by an editor with the assistance of a group of advisors, which includes representatives of many different interests. Neither the contributors nor the advisors are exclusively persons attached to the University, as the scope of the periodical is determined by the character of its material and not by local restrictions. The edit~r takes this opportunity to acknowledge the assistance in the production of the first number generously given by his advisors at the University of Toronto and in other parts.of Canada. ...