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viii Encyclopedia Press, Inc. It has always been an entirely independent organization, expressly organized for the special purpose of publishing the. Until it was completed the Company, therefore, did not undertake to bring out any other book or to enter any other field of business. Its members—all men of prominence in business and financial circles—have given their entire time and the fruits of their long experience to the production of this work. They have dealt successfully with the diverse problems which such an enterprise involves on the material and technical sides: printing, plate-making, advertising, and selling. The whole financial administration of the has been conducted on sound business principles.

From the appearance of the first volume of the to the conclusion of the Index Volume, the work met with a cordial reception everywhere. Reviewers not only spoke of it in terms of unusual praise, but they also recognized in it at once the powerful influence for good. Hilaire Belloc, for instance, spoke of it as "one of the most powerful influences working in favor of the truth." Georges Goyau recommended it as expressing the genius of Catholicity and spoke of its vast army of contributors as forming a modern intellectual crusade. The Dublin Review pronounced it the "greatest triumph of Christian science in the English tongue." The Protestant Press commented most favorably on the scholarliness and fairness of the articles, one weekly recommending it as the "greatest work undertaken for the advancement of Christian knowledge since the days of Trent." According to the Saturday Review, London, it was a "model of reference works." According to the Athenæum, it was a "thorough and learned enterprise." Churchmen, men of affairs, journalists, educators, librarians and editors all vied with one another in praising the scholarship of the.