AN EDUCATIONAL BOON.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9944, 20 January 1900, Page 2

AN EDUCATIONAL BOON.

It is difficult to exaggerate the educational influence for good that tho introduction of such a work as the London Times' roprint of the Encyclopaedia Britanniea into tho homes of NewZealand people means. It brings within tho immediate reach of all who have it the concentrated knowledge of tho ago, the thoughts and opinions of tho greatest men of tho century, and in compact form provides those who are fortunate enough to havo a copy with a library that comprised the sum of the world's knowledgo up to the period when tho last volume was penned. It may bo Raid that science advances so rapidly, that art develops in new directions, that literature grows with such speed, that history goes on apaco, that geography is being so constantly added to, that no book of reference which is not brought up to date year by year can be said to keep up with tho times; but the Encyclopmdia Britanniea haa intrinsic merits and a permanent value that nothing can over alter. The writings of men like Swinburne, Lord Kelvin, Sir Aichibald Geikie, Andrew Lang, James Bryco, John Morley, Professor Seeley, Lord Rayleigh, Sir Robert Ball, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mathcw Arnold, John Addingtou Symonds, Dean Farrar, Professor Huxley — to mention only a few out of scores of the ablest experts and writeis ol the age — can never bo "stale, flat, and unprofitable" or even out. of dale. In any case, however, a new edition of tho Encyclopedia Britanniea. bringing the scientific and similar articles abreast of tile latest facts and theories, cannot possibly be completed for 10 or 15 years, o\en if it wore commenced now, and tho tenth edition haa not yet been seriously contemplated. Tho prospects of a new edition, therefore, are in tho dim future, and need not bo considered by anyone who would like to havo beside him the work of reference of tho highest reliability, a book able to give an authoritative opinion upon well-nigh everything the student or tho reader wishes to know, a library containing the condensed wisdom of the ancients, and the scientific knowledge and learning of the moderns. The adveitisement appears on our fourth page.