The New International Encyclopædia/Preface

PREFACE.

THE work which is now given to the public after years of diligent preparation is not a new edition or revision of the International Cyclopædia. It is not based upon that or upon any other publication. The comparatively small portion of text which has been retained unaltered from the International Cyclopædia and incorporated in these volumes has been so retained because it has successfully stood the test of searching criticism, and because the Editors regard it as satisfying the most exacting requirements. This, however, is the full extent of the new Encyclopædia's obligation to the old. The present work has been planned and executed as a wholly independent and original undertaking. It represents the practical knowledge gained from an editorial experience of many years. It embodies the results derived from a critical study of all the most famous works of reference which have at any time appeared in Europe or in the United States.

Every encyclopædia which has secured a lasting hold upon the confidence of the reading public has necessarily been distinguished by some especial merit of its own; yet in the case of each existing publication, this peculiar merit has invariably been offset to a greater or less extent by some counterbalancing defect. Hence, there has always been discernible a decided difference of opinion, both among critics and among readers, as to which one of the standard encyclopædias best fulfills the proper function of such a work. The ideal encyclopædia is one that combines four attributes: first, accuracy of statement; second, comprehensiveness of scope; third, lucidity and attractiveness of presentation; and fourth, convenience of arrangement. Any compilation of this character, which conspicuously fails to embody all of these essential qualities, falls short to that extent of the ideal; and it must be said that no one of the great encyclopædias which are already in existence can fully stand this test. In the course of time there have gradually been developed three distinct and well-known types of encyclopædic publications, each one of which may be regarded as the concrete expression of a single predominating purpose. Thus the Encyclopædia Britannica represents, in most of its departments, accuracy combined with fullness of detail, and in its own especial sphere, which is that of science, it long remained without a rival. It is, indeed, as every one is well aware, far less a true encyclopedia than a collection of elaborate monographs, so scholarly and so diffuse that many of these so-called articles have actually been published separately as treatises on their respective subjects. Nevertheless, the Encyclopædia Britannica, though its authority has been very great, has never proved to be a wholly adequate and satisfactory work of reference. In the first place, through the massing of its information under a comparatively few titles, it is ill adapted for popular use, even with the aid of the ponderous index which its publishers appended to it in a final volume. In the second place, it omits so many topics of general interest as to oblige its purchasers to supplement it by some more popular if less monumental work. Finally, the treatment of its most important topics is extremely technical and therefore to the great majority of readers almost unintelligible. Hence, the Encyclopædia Britannica, while generally accurate and authoritative, is neither truly comprehensive in its scope nor lucid in its method of presentation, while it is decidedly inconvenient for purposes of ready reference.

The great French encyolopædia of Larousse is found in every important library throughout the world, and it is in some respects a model work. In it, the different departments are judiciously divided, and they are treated in detail under the separate titles most appropriate to these divisions. The work, moreover, is unusually complete, and the literary treatment of the different topics included in its text is clear and at times vivacious and entertaining. There exists, however, throughout its pages a lack of accuracy which frequently misleads the reader, while the number of the volumes and their excessive bulk render the encyclopædia both inconvenient in use and almost prohibitory in cost.

The famous Conversations-Lexikon, completed and first published by Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus in 1812, and continued by him and his successors through many subsequent editions down to the present time, is an approximation to the ideal encyclopædia. Its accuracy has become proverbial. Its selection of topics and its careful division and sub-division of them for treatment in detail have secured both comprehensiveness of scope and convenience of arrangement. Where it falls short of approaching something like perfection is in the dryness of its narration and its thoroughly German neglect of literary form. Nevertheless, on the Continent of Europe it has long been accepted as the standard encyclopedic work of reference, and it has been translated and imitated in almost every country, notably in the valuable and popular encyclopædia of Chambers, of which the edition that appeared at Edinburgh in 1860 was not only based upon the Conversations-Lexikon, but was confessedly in part translated from it.

These three types of encyclopædia represent, as it were, the survival of the fittest, and each of them owes something to the others. Historically, all three have been developed out of the ponderous compilations of the eighteenth century, among which Zedler's Universal-Lexikon, in sixty-four volumes (1750), d'Alembert and Diderot's famous Encyclopédie in twenty-eight (1772), and Ersch and Gruber's Allgemeine Encyclopädie in more than one hundred and sixty volumes remain the most remarkable examples. The gradual evolution of the modern encyclopedia forms, indeed, an interesting study. The older works originally grouped their articles under related departments rather than in alphabetical order; and it was only after many years that the alphabetical arrangement came into general use as being infinitely more convenient for the reader, even though theoretically less scientific. The elaborate system of cross-references, which is now a subject of especial study on the part of all encyclopædic editors, was first developed by Ephraim Chambers in the early part of the nineteenth century. The elucidation of the text by means of diagrams, maps, portraits, colored plates, and other illustrations, was at first quite sparingly employed; but it was an interesting feature of the Encyclopædia Britannica, and was finally adopted on a very lavish scale by Brockhaus and by Meyer in Germany.

All modern encyclopædias have incorporated these three features as being absolutely essential. Such fundamental differences as are perceptible between them will be found to exist partly in the scope and purpose of each separate publication, and partly in the method by which the original design has been carried out by those to whom the task has been committed. It therefore seems desirable that, in writing these words of introduction, the Editors of the New International Encyclopædia should set forth as briefly, yet as clearly as is possible, the manner in which they have endeavored to insure at least a close approximation to what, in their best judgment, an ideal encyclopædia should be.

Since accuracy is very properly regarded as the most essential of all the attributes of such a publication, the Editors have been at especial pains to make this work in its several departments fitly representative of modern scientific scholarship. There has long prevailed in certain quarters a definite yet quite untenable belief that this result can be most satisfactorily attained by assigning sets of articles to separate contributors of eminence, for them to write what pleases them and then to sign what they have written. The signed article, it has been claimed, is the best possible guarantee of accuracy, since it carries with it the weight and the authority of its author's name. This theory, however, will not bear a close examination. For it is evident that no single specialist, however eminent, can be so thoroughly equipped at every point as to leave in what he writes no room for criticism. He has his individual preferences strongly marked, and necessarily also his individual bias. In treating matters of scientific doctrine, therefore, he will quite unconsciously give to his statements the coloring of his own personal beliefs. In discussing controversial topics, he will with the same unconsciousness lay more stress upon the theories which he holds himself than upon those which are accepted and maintained by other men of equal eminence. Moreover, he is apt to assume upon the reader's part too great a familiarity with the subject, and hence to employ language which is excessively technical and difficult to understand. Finally, when the individual contributor is permitted to treat his chosen topics in his own way and without reference to what other contributors have done, there will necessarily result a lack of symmetry and proportion which will be perceptible to the most casual reader of the completed work. These facts have been so often demonstrated in the past as to have led the editors of the Brockhaus Conversations-Lexikon to reject the signed article altogether, and to substitute for the individualistic system another system under which each article, though originally written by a single specialist, is subsequently criticised by other specialists through whose hands it passes and by whom it is so modified as, in its final form, to be no longer the work of one particular individual. It represents instead the collective knowledge and the different view-points of a number of highly trained and able men, while it usually receives, as well, a finishing touch from the general editor, who bears constantly in mind the inestimable value of simplicity, proportion, and clearness. No signed article can ever have the completeness, the authority, and the practical value of an article prepared in such a way as this; and the proof of the assertion is found in the undisputed fact that the encyclopædia of Brockhaus has been universally recognized as the most minutely accurate work of reference that exists to-day. Moreover, as a practical matter, the signed article frequently involves a certain inevitable deception. As new editions of an encyclopædia appear, a multitude of changes in the text are necessarily demanded in order to add new facts and modify old theories; and these changes are often made by other hands than those of the original contributors, so that many articles to which a writer's name is signed are no longer in reality his own. Hence the Editors of the present work have, after much deliberation, dispensed entirely with the signed article. In its stead, they have arranged that every important contribution to the work, while written by a specialist of acknowledged competence, shall nevertheless pass through other hands and receive its final form upon the basis of mutual discussion, criticism, emendation, and suggestion. It is proper here to acknowledge the great value of the assistance rendered by Mr. Louis Heilprin, who has read all the proofs, and whose minute and varied knowledge and wide experience have assured a very high degree of accuracy.

In the second place, the endeavor has been made to render this Encyclopædia more comprehensive in its scope than any other. The rapid march of science during the past few years, the new inventions and discoveries that have been made, the political and social changes that have been effected, and the multitude of absolutely new interests that have arisen in almost every department of human activity, have added an immense mass of topics to the list with which former encyclopædias have had to deal. It is believed that all these topics have here received adequate and accurate attention; while a much greater completeness than is usual will be found in the treatment of nearly every department. It is desirable to call especial attention to the amount of space that has been given to the subject of Geography, both physical and political, and to the carefully selected information relating to municipal organization and the management of public utilities—information such as has never before been systematically given in any encyclopædia published in the English language. Something also should be said of the fullness and the modern character of the articles bearing upon the several departments of Biology, Botany, Education, and Psychology, the Mechanical Arts, Physics, Military and Naval Science, Sociology, and Biography. As to the last-named subject, it may be said, without fear of contradiction, that no eucyclopædic reference-book in England or America contains as titles so many names of men and women; while the information given under these titles is brought down to the very eve of the publication of this work. Another department of great interest and value is that which has to do with what may be called miscellaneous information and which covers a range of topics not heretofore included in a general encyclopædia. Under this head will be found, for instance, the titles of famous books, comprising works of fiction, the names of the important characters in imaginative literature, the explanation of political nicknames and popular allusions, and in fact all that class of subjects which has ordinarily been found only in Readers' Handbooks, and similar special compilations. It should be noted, too, that the pronunciation of all unusual, technical, or foreign words has been carefully figured in accordance with a simple phonetic system, and that their etymology has been systematically traced. This etymological work has been done with careful regard to the conclusions of the newest school of philological research, and the facts are set forth as simply and as clearly as is possible. For the convenience of the general reader, all the words and stem-forms belonging to the Greek or to the Oriental languages have been transliterated. Care has been taken to supply every important article with a well-selected bibliography for the guidance of those who may wish to pursue the subject in all its ramifications; and the bibliographical material will be found to comprise not only the standard works, but also special monographs, pamphlets, and papers published by the various learned societies. The Encyclopædia as a whole, then, is in reality a library whose books are so divided and arranged as to make the information which they afford immediately and conveniently accessible to the reader. It is this completeness which justifies the title “International” in its application to this work. The word is one which possesses a new significance to Americans at the present time, when our country has shaken off its former isolation, and has developed so many points of contact, political and commercial, with the other nations of the earth. Yet while the work is international, it is international from an American point of view, and it very naturally gives the fullest treatment to those topics which are of immediate and vital interest to Americans.

With regard to the third essential—lucidity and attractiveness of presentation—the recognition of its value which has been expressed above, will afford, perhaps, a clue to what the Editors have endeavored to accomplish. There exists a kind of writing which has become so stereotyped as to be well known to every one, and which might be fittingly described as the encyclopædic style. It is in literature what a monotone is in music—utterly devoid of individuality, of variety, and of interest. It sets forth every possible subject in the same dull way and robs the most living themes of their vitality. This style has even acquired, by the influence of tradition, a pseudo-sanctity, until many persons have become convinced that an encyclopædic article must inherently and inevitably be a synonym for dullness. This view the editors are very far from entertaining, or from desiring to perpetuate; and so the principal contributors have been selected not only for their special knowledge, but also for their possession of a clear, attractive style; and in those articles of which the subjects lend themselves to a distinctly literary treatment, the authors have been expected to write with the same freedom and with the same personal touch as would characterize their contributions to any literary publication of a high class. As the Encyclopædia is intended first of all for the general reader, it has been written from the general reader's point of view, and in such a way as to be free from all vexatious technicalities. Regard, moreover, has been had to form, and to a logical order of presentation. In every detail, the endeavor has been made to compact really valuable information instead of loosely assorted and often unrelated facts. Even the statistics, which in many works of this character are thrown together in a mass, have been used in such a way as to exhibit comparisons which are significant and which possess an interest of their own for every person of intelligence. In short, the aim has been consistently to present each subject not only so as to inform, but likewise so as to attract and entertain.

The fourth essential of a useful encyclopædia is found in the practical convenience with which it may be consulted. This practical convenience has been studied very carefully both by the Editors and by the contributors with the object of enabling a reader to find, with the least possible expenditure of time and patience, the information of which he is in need. This end has been attained, first, by giving a conspectus of each topic as a whole; second, by treating the same topic more in detail under all the natural divisions into which it falls; and finally, by working out a system of cross-references which may serve as guides from each topic to the others which supplement it and provide the collateral information necessary to its fullest understanding.

It is thought that the illustrations of every kind will be found superior to anything hitherto attempted in any encyclopædia. These illustrations have not been gathered together in a haphazard fashion and merely for the purpose of providing the volumes with a certain number of attractive pictures; but they were suggested and selected by the various contributors, or prepared with their coöperation. In many cases much assistance was derived from the Governmental Departments in Washington, where all the plates relating to Natural History were examined and verified by experts in the Government's employ.

The Editors are thoroughly aware of the formidable character of their undertaking. No one, in fact, who has not been intimately associated with the making of a great encyclopædia can fully understand the difficulties which are inherent in such a task, involving as it does the coöperation of a large body of highly trained and scientifically qualified experts, and demanding so many and such varied forms of effort-organization, selection, knowledge, literary skill, critical judgment, and a true sense of proportion. Nor has it been forgotten that such a work as this should be something more than a convenient book of reference. Encyclopædias have in the past performed, and they are still performing, a remarkable educational function in disseminating exact knowledge upon an immense variety of subjects. It would be difficult to overestimate the influence which has been exercised by such famous works as those which have been mentioned in the preceding pages; for they have been really libraries, and to thousands upon thousands of families they have been the only libraries available. To prepare a book which shall professedly discharge a function so important is no light undertaking; to obtain even a fair measure of success is a memorable achievement. It is the hope of the Editors of this Encyclopædia that the test of time will show them to have profited alike by the merits and by the defects of the works which have preceded it; and that the result may be approved as embodying the experience of the past with an intelligent conception of the requirements of the present.

DANIEL COIT GILMAN.
HARRY THURSTON PECK.
FRANK MOORE COLBY.

⁠New York, June 5, 1902.