HE purpose of the present volume, as its name suggests, is to offer help towards self-instruction in the various arts and sciences, utilizing the New International Encyclopædia as a general text-book. There is little need to emphasize in this place the rôle of popular educator played by a work like the Encyclopædia. This has been long recognized; and, from a mere work of reference consulted at odd moments for fragments of information, the modern Encyclopædia has become in thousands of homes a source of common culture, the basis of a thorough training in the principles and facts of History, Law, Literature, the Fine Arts, Religion, Biology, Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, or Agriculture. Especially where access to large libraries is difficult or impossible, its value is apparent. In every department of human knowledge, it speaks with a copiousness unequalled in the average text-book and a degree of authority attainable only when every department, and subdivision of a department, is covered by an acknowledged specialist in the field. A glance at any chapter in the book will show the method pursued. The aim has been to make every chapter a complete summary of the subject with which it deals by arranging the material as the reader or student would find it arranged in a systematic treatise on the subject. The amount of text in each chapter has necessarily been reduced to a minimum, only so much being given as is essential to trace the connection between the successive groups of titles. But, when it is considered that every title in every group represents from two or three hundred to fifteen thousand words of text, the completeness of treatment will be realized. Within the chapter the material has been divided and subdivided in such a manner as to facilitate study on special topics. If the reader, for instance, desires to make himself particularly well acquainted with a certain period in American History, he need but turn to the proper section in Chapter I., where the subject of American History is outlined in five sub-headings with as many groups of titles; and at the end of the section on American History he will find a list of authorities in whose works he may carry on supplementary reading to any extent. In the same manner, a person interested in the ceremonial or hymnology or clerical vestments of the Roman Catholic Church will find these topics treated in related groups of titles as a section in the chapter on Religion. Under Chemistry one may study the entire subject, carefully outlined for such a purpose, or may concentrate on the acids or the salts or the fats. In every chapter, the technical exposition is supplemented by comprehensive lists of biography wherein the historical aspect of the subject finds complete treatment. In quoting titles in the lists, the form given is that, of course, which appears in the Encyclopædia; as, CRUELTY TO CHILDREN, PREVENTION OF; or, MACHINERY, ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF. Where reference is made to a long article, the particular section is indicated; as, "See section The Renaissance under SCULPTURE," in which case, the reader will turn to Sculpture in the Encyclopædia. In the biographical titles, the full Christian name, or the corresponding initials, is given as a rule; as ADAMS, SAMUEL; ADAMS, H., KIPLING. The alphabetic arrangement of titles in the Encyclopædia makes reference to volume and page obviously superfluous. It is in its orderly marshalling of the material contained in the Encyclopædia that we believe the value of this book consists. It is quite unlikely that the average reader, left to his own guidance, will plan his course in such a manner as to produce the fullest results with the least waste of time. Where the subject is unfamiliar, he is as apt at the start to hit upon the middle of it as upon the beginning, and, in passing from article to article, there is always the danger of his missing the logical sequence of topics. A mere index would here be useless. What is necessary is a carefully planned outline that shall lead the reader, step by step, from elementary principles to the most specialized treatment. Such a guide this Outline aims to be. The preparation of this volume, carried on under the supervision of the Editors, has been in the direct charge of Mr. SIMEON STRUNSKY, of the staff of the New International Encyclopædia. -THE EDITORS, |