Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 March 1890 — A NEW WONDER. [ARTICLE]

A NEW WONDER.

We live in a world of wonder®; and one of the greatest of the age has reached Laßne Bros and an attempt will now be made to describe it. Since 1771 the Encyclopaedia Britannica has been the crowning work in English literature. Its history and growth are a part of the history of the growth and diffusion of knowledge. As enlightenment and culture have increased this monnmental curriculum of learning lias grown and kept pace with them. A word as to its growth will be interesting. The success of the original, published in 1771, was such that the editors and publishers were awakened to a sense of the true importance of the task they had taken in hand, and to the necessity for a more comprehensive scheme than at first adopted; and its reception inspired them to soon set about its enlargement and revision. Since thenJt Ms: been standard; and as the literary world demanded, from time to time it run through eight successive editions and supplements, as follows: First edition, 3 vols published 1771. Second edition, 10 vols. 1778-1783. j Third edition, 18 vols. 1788-1797. | Supplement, 2 vola 1801. Fourth edition, 20 vols. 1801-1810. Fifth edition, 30 vols., completed 1817, with supplement of 6 vols. 1816-1824. Sixth edition, 20 vols., 1823. Seventh edition, 21 vols. 1830-1842. Eighth edition, 21 vols. 1853-1861. The reader will see that since this last revision great scientific discoveries have been made, much history has been written, unknown territory has been explored, and countless mighty events been written by time. To keep pace with this progress, we now have the ninth edition, of 24 volumes, averaging 850 pages each, 20,000 pages, 250,000 subjects. The following comparison of amounts of type required, and prices of other great works is by Prof. A. P. Lyon, of New Yorfc, in the Electrotype Journal:

The Bible contains 3,500,000 ems. Webster's Die. 20,000,000 ems; at sl2 Chambers’ Cyc. 48,000,000 ems; at SSO. Johnson’s Cyc. 56,000,000 ems; at S4B. Appleton’s Cyc. 60,000,000 ems: at SBS. Encyclo Britannica, 140,000,000 ems; at $l2O to $192. The completion of tha ninth edition has enabled the public to measure this magnificent work and compare it with other cyclopaedias. The result has been to establish beyond question its unqualified superiority. It is a giant where others are pigmies. It stands the noblest work in all literature; the only adequate representative of the advanced thought and scholarship of the world. In the amount of brain-work furnished, it immeasurably transcends all competition. It is the only encyclopaedia in which each principal subject' is treated by an acknowledged authority upon tfiii~OTßjecfc Nu other has spent one-third as much money on literary labor, as the Britannica. Not one has given SIO,OOO for a single article, or S6OO a page for wiitten matter, as it has. No other can show a list of principal contributors either go eminent in their, departments of scholarship, so varied in nationality and profession, or so numerous. The full list of contributors numbers 1,145 persons, and include j the most eminent literary and scientific names of Europe and America. | The English edition of the work ! is sold in this country at SB.OO per volume, and the Ameiican edition j at $5.00 per volume, in cloth binding; making the cost of the set of 24 yds., respectively $192 and j $l2O. While the Britannica is the ac- \ knowled standard, incomparably the best and most desirable cyelo- i psedia in existence, its high cost has placed it beyond the reach of most people. This bar to its popular use has now been removed. j By a new process of etching upon zinc, giving a clearer and harder surface than even an electrotype plate, the art of reproduction has at length been brought |o a high perfection. The new popular edition of the Britannica is a perfect and exact reproduction of the original work, page for page, by this new process, which, for clear ness and beauty of print, leaves nothing to be desire<L And it is this which is now offerred to oar people, either free, or if preferred, at an astonndingly low price, by 4be—enterprise .0f... LaßnaTkaSu. Rensselaer, IncLl leading grocers. Do not think this is in any way a cheap, old and unsalable book, on flimsy straw or “onlanndried bass-wood” in paper covers, JHb£ with a glued back. We have seen it, and it is made better than the

average book in jour library. It is a handsome, large, new volume, in genuine English cloth, heavy oakum —not straw—boards, doub-le-hinged flexible back, and on fine super-sized and super-calendared book-paper, with colored maps, plates, illustrations, index, marginal references only American reprint having them) and—just call and examine it for yourself, at the store of Laßue Bros, cheapest house in town. The method of reaching the people is new and unique, and we are glad to say, free from any disreputable taint of lottery or gambling; it is to be given away by leading merchants--, where people of culture already place their confidence and their custom, and where one would naturally look for work of this grade. The publishers have in each case selected as their agents, firms of a character and reputation which comport with the dignity of this prond work; the how-to-possess-it will be explained in person at the above named store. They have acquired the exclusive right to handle it in Rensselaer, lnd., and by the terms of their contract it will never be sold here through agents or in the trade. Tralywemaaysay withthe poet—“We are living, we are (lWe)ling In a grand and awful time, In an age, on ages telling, To be living 1» sublime!” The thought that this grand work, which is in itself a lihraiy of human knowledge, has at last, by the benifjpeut genius of American scientific invention, been placed within the reach of the humblest and poorest of otur favored land, should awaken in us thankfulness that we live in America. From Our Electric Light Superintendent. Messrs. Laßue Bros. 1 am fully satisfied that there is no other encyclopedia that excells the Britannica, which you have. It treats at length all subjects of importance, both of this and oiher countries. We have well said when we say “secure the Encyclopaedia Brittannica.”

B. F. FERGUSON.