A UNIVERSITY

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 124, 21 November 1931, Page 19

A UNIVERSITY

ALL IN ONE BOOK

"Regarded merely as a publishing enterprise, "An Outline of Modern Knowledge" is an astonishing achievement. It contains IUG 4 pages aiuLapproximatcly half a million words, no article being less than 20,00.0 words in length. To encompass so much in a book of reasonable dimensions, the publishers had 1o use a specially manufactured paper, thin but opaque. And yet it costs, but a shilling or so more than the ordinary novel.

The general editor of i.iio volume, Dr. William Kose, contributes an introduction in which' he very ably discusses the modern outlook on. many matters. Incidentally ho very aptly sums up the purpose and scope of.the volume under review. "The composite view of the universe is no longer systematic or even intelligible," he says, "but at the. same time as it is being widened and deepened it is growing more confused. Insofar as it is possible- to construct a clear picture, which must necessarily be in the nature- of a mosaic, of the present achievements of human thought and knowledge, and to summarise- the evidence which may point to a directive or purposive agency in the- universe, this book attempts to do so." :" ' ■

The volume is ■.intended i'or the genera! reader; nothing will be found in it which' is not perfectly intelligible to everyone who possesses an ordinary education, aud a point has been made of using the simplest language and of explaining such technical terms as are used/ This amazing. ' .compilation ranges .fronv * the '. ; necessity for ciipsyoliics,.'which is much more respectable than it sounds, to the construction of the sonata' and what a .Rotary Club is and why. It is not'so much'a bed book as a veritable- bedside university, ..

The book is divided generally into sections, dealing with. ..science, philq-, Sophy, religion, sex-, •--mathematics, astronomy, biology, anthropology, cosmogony,, psychology, psycho-analysis, archaeology, economics,. politics, finance, industry, internationalism^ history, " ethnology, literary criticism, music, architecture, and art. !t would be invidious to quote names of tho. scholars and experts who have-' supplied tho various "outlines" without naming them all, but it can bo asserted without question that rarely, if ever before, has there been gathered together in one volumo the wisdom and experience of so many eminent authorities iv all departments of human knowledge. And it is worthy of particular note; that no part of tho book has previously been published in: any form; every contribution has :becn written specially for publication in this volume.

The final thouglrnbt thfe least virtues of the. volume are that in addition to a generous index' and cross-references, there are synopses of all the " outlines" (which enable the reader to obtain a bird's eye view of the subject before reading the whole article)- and numerous illustrations.