PROFESSOR WHITNEY'S GREAT WORK.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 822, 21 February 1903, Page 2

PROFESSOR WHITNEY'S GREAT WORK.

The Century Dictionary & Cyclopaedia A Atlas is useful to everybody because it is a concentrated library. No one is too busy to acquire information when it is to be had with so little loss of time.

The technical definitions in “ The Century ” are, of course, less useful to the specialist in that line, than to the general reader, for tile man who has devoted himself to any one line of study is already familar with his own range of words and facts. But when he returns to any other group of subjects, his attitude becomes that of the general reader. And if he sees

that his own field of knowledge is satis* factorily treated, he may safely assume that he has tested the general character of the work. Irom this point of view the body of expert opinion furnishes convincing proof of the value of this great work of reference, which “ The Times ” is now ofi'ering in New Zealand. Clearness is the first essential in all methods of exposition, and it can be attained onJ y ty men who are thorough masters of tne objects they discuss. There were no hack writers among the staff of 500 men who made “ The Century ” —editors and contributors alike were men of the highest distinction in their various fields of activity. The philological pre-eminence of the work is easily accounted for when one remembers that it was edited by Professor William Dwight Whitney, the famous word-historian, whe was selected by the editors of the “ Encyclopedia Britanniea ” to write the article “ Philology ” for that work.