General hele 1-16.46 PREFACE. THE Compilation of an encyclopædia may be fairly regarded as one of those "inventions" that are said to be born of necessity. The march of science, the growth of literature, the development of art, combine to demand an encyclopædia. With the increase of stores comes the need of the store-house, with the larger wealth of grain comes the necessity of a commodious granary. And this is precisely what an encyclopædia is—a store-house of knowledge, a granary of the treasures of truth. The word encyclopædia has a very wide significance. We are greatly indebted to the dead languages of long ago for many of our best names and clearest definitions. This word, for example, is composed of two Greek words, núnλos, a circle, and raideia, instruction or knowledge. In the combination of these two words we get this comprehensive word encyclopædia, which means, the circle of knowledge, the complete round of the arts, the sciences, and all literature. Many centuries ago-long before the invention of the printing press - great students felt the need of something like an encyclopædia. Seneca complains of the distraction" that comes of a multitude of books; and, in effect, suggests that every man should make his own encyclopædia. "What is the use," he asks, of countless books and libraries whose owner hardly reads through their titles in his whole life? ** We ought to imitate the bees, and to separate all the materials which we have gathered from multifarious reading, for they keep best separate; and then by applying the study and ability of our own minds, to concoct all those various contributions into one flavor." These words were spoken before the dawn of the Christian era, when reading was a luxury rather than a habit, and books were among the costliest treasures men possessed. How much more impressively would Seneca speak if he could witness the flood-tides of literature that in our age are pouring forth their treasures night and day without ceasing. * There are two forces at work in these days that tend to make a good encyclopædia an indispensable possession. The first of these is the vast number of books published, rendering it quite impossible for the most industrious student to keep abreast of the literature of his time; and the next is the busy, restless character of the age, that absorbs so largely the energies of men in the acquirement of material wealth, that they have but little time, and by reason of the weariness that comes of overwork, but little inclination for literary pursuits. In this connection the wonderful growth of literature in the past few years is well worth a moment's consideration. In the full blaze of the noontide we are apt to forget the grayness of the dawn; and in the prodigal richness of our literary possessions we are apt to forget that it is not so very long since libraries were the luxuries of the rich, and the books of the poor were few. It is within the remembrance of men now living, when a dozen books would comprise the library of ordinary homes, but now the households are few where there is not a moderate representation, at least, of general literature. There is an embarrassment of poverty, and there is an embarrassment of riches, and which of the two is most embarrassing it is not quite easy to tell. In the matter of literature we are suffering most from the embarrassment of riches. It is a pleasant thing to ramble along the banks of a river, but to stand upon the shore of an illimitable sea inspires awe rather than gladness. And this is exactly our case in the matter of books. They overflow all our banks of opportunity, they inundate us with their wealth. In support of this conclusion a few figures relative to the great mass of books issued annually by the press of Europe and America may be at once interesting and suggestive. Literature has three distinct departments; the technical, the general, and the ephemeral. Under the head of the technical, all works of reference are included, such as encyclopædias, dictionaries, lexicons, text-books, manuals, and the like. These are for the university, the college, the high school, and the study. The increase in this department is not, of course, very large, and yet the annual growth of even technical literature is much greater than we commonly suppose. These books are for study and consultation rather than for reading. Under the head of general literature, the whole realm of books which people read, rather than study, must be classed. Poetry, history, fiction, travel, biography, essays, and criticism all come under this head. It is with this department of literature we are now dealing. The ephemeral, which includes newspapers, magazines, reviews, and the like, has perhaps hardly a just claim to be regarded as literature. The enormous quantity of this class of work poured forth every day from the press, utterly defies all attempt at tabulation. Concerning the output of general literature it is possible to arrive at some approximate understanding. The number of new separate books published in Europe and America annually, has been steadily on the increase for the last twenty-five years, until now the press of Europe and America issues more than 20,000 new works of general literature every year. The man who boasts that he will keep abreast of current literature, is confronted with the Herculean task of dealing annually with 20,000 books, to say nothing of the claims of books of reference and ephemeral literature, which cannot be wholly set aside. Now, what are the possibilities for the most studious and industrious of men ? If we take these volumes as averaging the size of an ordinary book of about three hundred pages, we shall be under rather than over the mark. The ordinary reader will not read more than one such book a day, even if he should devote the major portion of his time to the task. Now, let us give our diligent student his Sundays free from reading, with a few days for holidays, and, at most, we find he is able to get through three hundred volumes a year. No one will deny that the reading of three hundred books a year represents good, hard, honest work, even if the reader has little else to engross his attention. But the march of literature is too much for him. He begins the race on the New Year's morning bravely; he toils faithfully on through spring and summer, through seed-time and harvest, but when the end of the year comes, he is nineteen thousand seven hundred books behind, and the dawn of the new year brings him twenty thousand more! Let us suppose this course of diligent reading to be pursued for the larger working portion of a long life, say for fifty years. What then? Our untiring student has read fifteen thousand books! But literature even if her pace has remained the same has beaten the student by nine hundred and eighty-five thousand volumes! There is no logic so stern and unbending as the logic of facts. And this set of facts may well make a thoughtful man pause and wonder. What shall we do? Because of the impossibility of dealing with this great mass of literature, shall we give up in despair? Shall we refuse a well-chosen bouquet because we cannot have all the flowers of the garden? Shall we decline to gaze upon the patient, peaceful stars, because we can only see a few thousands, while uncounted millions lie beyond the range of our vision? True wisdom suggests that we use the winnowing fan with unsparing hand; that we let the chaff fly on the wings of the wind, while we garner the finest of the wheat with jealous care. But after all our winnowing, and care, and prudence, there must remain an enormous mass with which we cannot deal. And it is just here where a comprehensive and reliable encyclopædia comes, if not to solve the whole problem at issue, at least to render efficient and invaluable aid in circumstances environed with perplexities. The Encyclopædia Britannica—of the latest and ninth edition, of which this is a condensed, amended, and an Americanized edition, prepared at infinite cost and labor for American people—is without controversy, the grandest monument of scholarly research and patient endeavor in the whole realm of literature. It was commenced in 1771, and was then composed of three volumes, and was little more than a dictionary of arts and sciences. The first edition of the encyclopædia proper was issued in 1776, when historical and biographical subjects were added, increasing the stately compilation from three to ten volumes. In 1797 the third edition of eighteen volumes was issued. In 1810 the fourth edition appeared, composed of twenty volumes. The latest and ninth edition, of twenty-four |