Bkickle's Modern Cyclopedia of Universal Information. Vol. I. Edited by
Charles Annandale. (Blackie and Son.)—In these days of encyclopaedias and encyclopedic dictionaries, it must be regarded as rather a daring experiment on the part of the Messrs. Blackie to attempt, as they are now doing, to cover the whole field of human knowledge in a work to consist of eight volumes of about five hundred pages each, and which is, among other things, to be a dictionary of dates, a biographical dictionary, a gazetteer of the world, a repertory of political knowledge, a household book of reference, and a dictionary of commerce and commercial products, industrial arts and manufactures, raw materials, and technology. To a certain extent, however, this new venture is differentiated from other works of an encyclopedic character which either have been or are now being published, in that it is intended to be " specially valuable to those who, through the pressure of their daily occupa- tions, can spare little time to acquire information on the many topics with which they desire to become better acquainted." The articles are, of course, terse in the extreme, and those of them that are biographical are apt, to judge from the first volume of the work, to become bald compilations of dates. The Life of Addison bears somewhat the appearance of this, though, owing to skilful condensation, the Life of Bismarck does not. Then, occasionally, certain things are taken for granted which appear to stand in need of explanation. Thus, in the few lines that are devoted to Abu Elea, "the Mandi's troops" are spoken of as if everybody knew who "the Mandi," speaking generally, is, or which Mandi it was whose forces were defeated by Sir Herbert Stewart. Sometimes, too, actuality seems to be sacrificed for brevity. Thus, while North Berwick is quite accurately described as a Scotch Royal borough and seaport, why is the fact not mentioned that it is at the present moment one of the most popular seaside resorts in Scot- land ? These are, however, but trifling matters. The Modern Cyclo- pedia is, so far as we have tested the articles in the first instalment, destined to be not so much a rival as a valuable addition to the
various books of reference now in existence. They are distinguished by accuracy not less than by succinctness. We have been par- ticularly struck with the scientific, geographical, and legal articles, such as "Atomic Theory," " Abyssinia," "Atmospheric Railway," " Attachment," and " Bankruptcy." The work is being admirably supervised by Mr. Annandale, the successful editor of "The Imperial Dictionary."
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