The Twentieth Century Encyclopedia

This is an age of great things, great thoughts, great inventions, and great events. New ideas are crowding upon the old. The World is at sea, daily touching upon some fresh shore of fancy or fact. What was up-to-date in the closing years of the old century is rapidly being left behind in the opening years of the new. In these days of active thought and busy enterprise, to live without an encyclopaedia of information is to pass through life seriously handicapped. You must keep gathering knowledge or you will stagnate. You must fill your mind with information if you would be ready to grasp opportunity as it flies. And yet no man, no matter how retentive his memory, can keep in mind more than a small fraction of the things desirable to know. Facts are accumulating too fast for that. There are thousands of events which the best of us cannot hope to keep in our memories, like coins in our purse, ready to lay hand upon at a moment's notice. Realizing fully that it is not sufficient to have an alphabetical treatment of a multitude of subjects, but rather an intelligent topics of useful information, we have arranged our work in the form of Departments, each embracing some broad field of affairs, and each systematically subdivided into convenient sections and paragraphs, in which the several topics under each department are clearly and succinctly handled. Thus, in the Department of Business an effort is made first to give a sufficient knowledge of Language-the instrument of all communication, chapters being given on the proper use of English. Then follow lessons on Penmanship, illustrated by valuable copy-plates; on Banking, Money, Business Forms, Book-keeping, the ready manipulation of figures, helps in Everyday Law, etc. All these form trustworthy sources of reference for men in business, and the best possible assistance in training the young and the in experienced. By diligent application and earnest study, one may obtain from these pages all the essential elements of a business education,. This is but one of numerous departments. Those interested in Science, for instance, may find here a general resume of the practical application of scientific discoveries and a succinct account of all that is new and fresh in scientific discovery and application . These are matters with which everyone should be familiar, and the effort has been made to be treat the subject broadly and comprehensively. A gain, in the field of practical Mechanics will be found helps and suggestion that cannot but appeal to everyone who cares to work with hands and tools, or needs to oversee the work of others. The farmer will find his special needs amply dealt with, the housekeeper will requires no fuller or more carefully or more carefully prepared cook-book than we present, and persons in every field of life cannot fail to find something adapted to their special needs. Turning form the practical to the social side of life this will be found as fully dealt with. The pleasure of existence is largely enchanged by a recognition of the customs prevalent in polished and cultivated society, and the laws of Etiquette become important to all who have to meet others in social intercourse. It will suffice to say that the treatment of this important subject is full and all embracing. The same may be said of the Sport and Games, outdoor and indoor alike, which add so greatly to the enjoyment of life. We may make passing mention, also of the extended Encyclopaedia of General Facts, which rounds up the work and adds enormously to its utility.

Dettagli