Page:EB1922 - Volume 30.djvu/9

Rh while they were in the making. The generous reader may pardon some incidental defects or omissions, in consideration of his having the use, practically at once, of the full Supplement, as complete as it could reasonably be made, and not having to wait several years for a succession of volumes with long intervals between them. In the latter case each volume would be apt to exasperate him by cross-references from its articles to others in a volume still inaccessible; each earlier one, furthermore, would become relatively out-of-date as soon as the next one appeared; and the whole must lack organic unity, because the subject-matter, as distributed in one volume or another, must necessarily have been dealt with at different dates from dissimilar viewpoints.

These New Volumes, systematically arranged, in accordance with the traditional standards of the Encyclopædia Britannica, so that the articles may be adapted either for continuous reading or for occasional reference, have been planned as a guide to an appreciative understanding of contemporary affairs. The reader has before him what may be described as an international stock-taking, by carefully selected authorities, of the march of events all over the world from 1909–10 to 1920–1, and of the nature and critical value of such advances as were made in the principal branches of knowledge during that period. In this respect the New Volumes aim at giving a key to the problems of to-day, so far as these contemporary problems are bound up—as indeed they are to an unprecedented extent—with the new social and economic issues which only began to emerge in their present magnitude, or to impress themselves on the public, as the result of the tremendous upheaval caused by the World War. Yet it is necessary, in the interests of a publication which is essentially educational, to add one proviso. It remains as true as ever that contemporary human life and interests are organically related not only to the immediate developments of one preceding decade but to those of a succession of earlier decades and epochs, back to the abysses of time. The great Drama is of the Ages, and can only be appreciated with all its Acts on record. The eye which looks only at the passing scene is too often colour-blind. The roots of the Post-War World go down into the Pre-War World. Its proper interpretation can be found only in the light of all that earlier history on which we can look back—as we cannot do on contemporary affairs—with assurance that it is seen in perspective and in ordered values, as the result of an accumulation of disinterested criticism. The Post-War World is the residuary legatee of the Pre-War World, from which it inherits the whole basis of its intellectual equipment. The present survey of recent happenings, indispensable though it may be as an account of the Post-War World, can only therefore be utilized perfectly when it is regarded as an integral part of the unitary library of education represented in all the thirty-two volumes now forming the complete Twelfth Edition. The structure of that great edifice, with its contents, is not substantially affected by the fact that it has been built with an Annexe for housing more recent