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.
