The Standard American Encyclopedia of Arts, Sciences, History, Biography ...

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4. Accuracy. Without this quality encyclopedic work is of no use whatever. False information is not information at all. It is better that the reader should not be informed at all than that he should be misinformed. Whatever merit a cyclopedia may possess in other respects, whatever may be its beauties of style, the extent and variety of its subject-matter, if the fundamental requisite of accuracy be wanting then is it nothing or worse than nothing to its possessor.

Perhaps the greater part of inaccuracy in cyclopedias is due to original defects of knowledge on the part of those who prepare the contributions. A great part is also due to the fact that the compilers of cyclopedias have copied the errors in preceding works of ref erence without taking the pains to verify the correctness or incorrectness of the parts thus transcribed. In almost every department of the average cyclopedia the ruinous results of this method may be seen. An error once fixed in a cyclopedia is taken by other writers for truth, and is disseminated by them in a thousand forms. Still another fruitful source of inaccuracy is the fact that many of the great cyclopedias were composed long ago. What was knowledge or an approach to knowledge at the middle of the eighteenth century is by no means knowledge or a near approach to knowledge at the close of the nineteenth. Diligent and capable authors then wrote according to the limitations of science, learning, scholarship of the age. Since then many departments of knowledge have been revolutionized; others have been reformed, many have been amended. A new edition of an old cyclopedia is not a new or recent cyclopedia. It is still an old cyclopedia, and it bears along from generation to generation the imperfect or wholly incorrect information of the age in which it was produced.

The Standard American is a recent cyclopedia. It comes fresh and revised from the studies of the great scholars of the day, and is not infested with the erroneous knowledge or half-knowledge of the last century. The contributors have exercised the greatest care as to the accuracy of their information. They have striven to avoid the transcription of error from older works of reference. They have been, in particular, careful to accept only the newest and nearest approach to actual knowledge as it now exists and is taught among men.

5. Recency. This suggests that we dwell on recency as one of the prime essentials in a work of this kind. The world of to-day is not concerned about the opinions prevalent in past ages, but is profoundly interested in the facts and principles of current knowledge. The book of reference must conform to this standard. It must discard old opinion for new fact. If old opinion be withdrawn from the average cyclopedia how great would be the shrinkage! In the Standard American Encyclopedia the aim has been to eliminate all the useless drift of knowledge, to throw out the residue of useless materials that have been borne along out of a misinformed past, and to incorporate only such attested truth as the past has transmitted and the present has approved. It is by following this method that the work has been reduced to its present admirable dimensions. While the topics have been multiplied the treatment has been changed in the light of the most recent scholarship until within the limits of these eight volumes the whole circle of human knowledge is contained, or at least reflected and defined.

6. Illustrations. In modern times copious and artistic illustration is more and more demanded as an auxiliary of text-books and treatises of all kinds. The improvement in illustrative art has kept pace with the advance in knowledge. The illustrator has come to the aid of the author; the two labor together in the great work of making easy and expeditious the task of acquiring knowledge. Photography has been a great aid in making the transcript alike of science and history. Many cyclopedias have not availed themselves of

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the help of illustration; others have availed themselves to a limited extent. In others the illustrations, though abundant, are poor, imperfect, and misleading. No other cyclopedia is so abundantly and accurately illustrated as the Standard American. The inaps number over two hundred, and are of the most recent and elegant execution. The more than three thousand five hundred illustrations are the best and most striking to be found in any work of reference. With these illustrations the reader is assisted and informed on almost every page. He has not only a brief, concise, comprehensive, and accurate elucidation of the subject in the text, but also the aid and interest of the best illustrations which the engraver's art can supply.

7. Style and Appearance. The Standard American Encyclopedia is written throughout with strict regard to elegance of style. This has much to do with the popularity and sound reputation of the work. The style is, in historical matters, a picturesque abridgment of the leading facts; in scientific matters it is expository and simple; in biography sympathetic and clear; in artistic subjects as little technical as is consistent with the nature of the theme. It is confidently believed that no other work of the kind has an equal merit in the beauty of style maintained throughout. The general appearance of the Standard American Encyclopedia speaks columns in its favor. The elegance within is answered with equal external beauty. The eight volumes of the work are ideal in their form and binding. They are models of what the people want. They constitute in themselves a little library of universal knowledge and are an ornament, as well as an essential, to any bookshelf or literary table or desk in America. The work as a whole commends itself in this age of cyclopedias and dictionaries as the one work suited alike to the scholar's study, to the school library, to the businessman's counter, and to the workingman's small collection of intellectual treasure-a work not to be spared by any class of Americans-equally useful and well-nigh indispensable to all.

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INDEX

TO THE

MAPS, CHARTS, AND DIAGRAMS.

ABRAHAM, FAMILY AND DESCENDANTS OF...

ABYSSINIA And NeighboRING STATES..
ACADIAN PENINSULA..

AFGHANISTAN, (COLORED).

AFRICA, (COLORED).....

AFRICA, EQUATORIAL, (Colored)..

ALABAMA, (COLORED)....

ALASKA, (COLOred)..

ALBERTA, CANADA..