'THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA."
CTo THE EDITOR 07 THE " SPECTATOIL'l STH,—It will probably interest the readers of the Spectator to know that the University of Cambridge is taking over the oopyright and control of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," and will publish a new and complete edition of the work about the end bf the present year. This eleventh edition, which has been eight years in preparation, is a fresh and original survey of the world'eknowledge. It will be comprised in twenty-eight quarto volumes, of which the last will be devoted to a comprehensive index.
Nearly a century and a hall have elapsed since the first
edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" was produced in three quarto volumes by "a Society of Gentlemen in Scotland." Ten suecessive editions have been published in that time, and the work has won a well-deserved reputation as the most 'comprehensive 'and authoritative of encyclopaedias. It has come to be regarded,, indeed, not merely as a register of scientific and historical progress, but as an instrument of that progress, thanks to the fact that it has been written by the very men who are thtmselves prominently engaged in the task of advancing contemporary knowledge. The proper home of such a work is not a firm of publishers, nor a news- paper office, but a great learned institution, with whose educational labours the task of producing a great work of reference and instruction can be most fitly co-ordinated. It is therefore felt that, in undertaking to publish the eleventh edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," and in giving the work a permanent home, as it is hoped, at Cambridge, the University ha l; made a further advance in the great move- ment of University extension, to use that much-abused phrase in its widest sense.
The publication of this eleventh edition of the "Encyclo- paedia Britannica." at the University Press is a natural step in the evolution of the University as an educational institu- tion and a centre of research. The mediaeval University of Cambridge began its educational labours as an institution almost exclusively for the education of the clergy, to whose needs its system of studies was necessarily in large measure accommodated. The Revival of Learning, the Renaissance, and the Reformation widened its sphere of intellectual work and its interests, as well as its curriculum. The nineteenth century saw the complete removal of the tests which formerly slant the gates of the English Universities against a large part of the people. The University extension movement, first advocated at Cambridge in 1871 on the ground that the Universities were not mere clusters of private establishments, but national institutions, led to a wider conception of the possibilities of utilising the intellectual resources of the University for the general diffusion of knowledge and culture, and the system of local examinations brought the University into close contact with the secondary education of the country.
But the public to whom the University of Cambridge thus appealed, though larger than that of the College lecture- rooms, was still necessarily limited. Practically it is only through the medium of its printing press that the modern University can establish direct relations with the whole English-speaking world. The present time seems to be appropriate for an effort towards thus signally extending the intellectual and educational influence of the University of Cambridge. It is to this end that the University has acquired the copyright of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," and will shortly issue the eleventh edition. These twenty-eight volumes give a reasoned survey of every field of research, written by eminent specialists, and presented in the form which experience has shown to be most convenient. This eleventh edition will therefore be offered to the public by the University of Cambridge in the hope and belief that it will be found to be a trustworthy guide to sound learning, and an instrument of culture of world-wide influence.
In many important departments of human knowledge—the perspective of history, the " values " of art and literature, the foundations of theology and Biblical criticism, the theory and applications of physical science—the attitude both of the expert and of the public has changed so remarkably since the ninth edition was in preparation that the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," could only preserve its own high standard of authority, by being remade substantially as a new work. The very foundations of human knowledge have been laid afresh in the last thirty or forty years, and a change has passed over the whole field of learning, theoretical as well as practical, which could not be adequately expressed by mere revision. In the domain of science this is at once apparent ; but it is equally true of history, in which the exact study of sources and the discoveries of archaeologists have revolutionised the point of view. The enlarged disclosure of pre-Hellenic civilisation has made it necessary to write anew the whole of the articles dealing with early Greek history and culture, and so with innumerable subjects throughout. In this great task the editors have fortunately had resources at their disposal which could not be foreseen by their predecessors. Their net has been cast over a wide area, of which Cambridge forms only one centre. The whole world of learning has been at their disposal, and just as an English University often goes outside its own schools for professors and lecturers, so the editors of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" have drawn, not upon Cambridge alone, but upon many other Universities, from Oxford to Berlin, from Edinburgh to Kyoto.
Various features which the Syndics of the University Press hold to be as valuable as they are novel will be associated with the eleventh edition. The whole work has been simul- taneously prepared, thus permitting of adequate editorial control, and enabling the whole twenty-eight volumes to be issued at the same time. But of these features the Syndics will speak elsewhere and at a later date. I may, however, point out that effect has been given to the desire which you, Sir, expressed, in reviewing the ninth edition, for an "Encyclopaedia Britannica" "of a size which could be lifted without a back-ache and read while sitting in a chair" (Spectator, December 15th, 1888). This desire the Syndics hope to satisfy by printing a special impression of the work on India paper, thus, for the first time, bringing the "Ency- clopaedia Britannica," within the category of Dr. Johnson's "most useful books,"—" books that you may carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand."—I am, Sir, &c.,
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