The reader's guide to the Encyclopaedia Britannica : $b A handbook containing sixty-six courses of systematic study or occasional reading

THE READER’S GUIDE
                                 TO THE
                        ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA


     A HANDBOOK CONTAINING SIXTY-SIX COURSES OF SYSTEMATIC STUDY OR
                           OCCASIONAL READING


             THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA COMPANY, Limited
                                 London

                  THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA COMPANY
                                New York




            Copyright in the United States of America, 1913,
                                   by
                  The Encyclopaedia Britannica Company




                              INTRODUCTION


In your ordinary use of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, you give your
attention to the _one_ article that will answer the _one_ question you
have in your mind. The aim of this Guide is to enable you to use the
Britannica for an altogether different purpose, namely, for systematic
study or occasional reading on any subject.

The volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica contain forty-four million
words—as much matter as 440 books of the ordinary octavo size. And the
subjects treated—in other words, the whole sum of human knowledge—may be
divided into 289 separate classes, each one completely covering the
field of some one art, science, industry or other department of
knowledge. By the mere use of scissors and paste the alphabetical
arrangement of the articles could be done away with, and the Britannica
could be reshaped into 289 different books containing, on the average,
about half as much again as an ordinary octavo volume. It would
misrepresent the Britannica to say that you would then have 289
_text-books_, because there is an essential difference in tone and
purpose. A text-book is really a book intended to be used under the
direction and with the assistance of a teacher, who explains it and
comments upon it. The Britannica, on the other hand, owes the position
it has enjoyed since the first edition appeared in 1768 to the fact that
it has succeeded, as no other book has succeeded, in teaching without
the interposition of a teacher.

It is not, of course, claimed that the idea of reading certain groups of
Britannica articles in the order in which they will combine themselves
into complete books is a novel invention. Thousands of men owe the
greater part of their educational equipment to a previous edition of the
Britannica. And not only did they lay out their own courses of reading
without the aid of such a Guide as this, but the material at their
disposal was by no means so complete as is the 11th Edition. Every
edition of the Britannica before this one, and every other book of
comparable size previously published, appeared volume by volume. In the
case of the last complete edition before the present, no less than 14
years elapsed between the publication of the first volume and the last.
It is obvious that when editors have to deal with one volume at a time,
and are unable to deal with the work as a whole, there cannot be that
exact fitting of the edges of one article to the edges of another which
is so conspicuously a merit of the 11th Edition. All the articles in
this edition were completed before a single volume was printed, and the
work stood, at one stage of its preparation, in precisely the form
which, as has already been said, might be given to it by merely
rearranging the articles according to their subjects.

In this Guide, the principal articles dealing with the subject of each
chapter are named in the order in which you may most profitably study
them, and the summaries of the larger articles afford such a preliminary
survey as may assist you in making your choice among the courses.
Besides, where it seems necessary, there is added to the chapter a
fairly complete list of all articles in the Britannica on the subject,
so that the reader may make his study exhaustive.


A brief review of the six parts into which the Guide is divided will
show the general features of its plan, of which a more detailed analysis
is given in the Table of Contents.

Part 1 contains 30 chapters, each designed for readers engaged in, or
preparing for, some specific occupation. To the beginner, who still has
everything to learn, the advantages derived from such a course of study
may well be so great as to make the difference between success and
failure in life, and to those who have already overcome the first
difficulties, to whom the only question is how marked a success awaits
them, the Britannica can render invaluable service of another kind. No
amount of technical training and of actual experience will lead a man of
sound judgment to believe that he alone knows everything that all his
competitors put together know; or that his knowledge and theirs is all
that ever will be known. The 1500 contributors in 21 different countries
who wrote the articles in the Britannica include the men who have made
the latest advances in every department of knowledge, and who can
forecast most authoritatively the results to be expected from the new
methods which are now being experimentally applied in every field of
activity.