Ixxvill 
mea TURE 
" (Jury 6, 18 : 
FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT TO READERS OF “NATURE.” 
HE proprietors of Tue Times have, within recent years, greatly ex- 
tended the scope of that newspaper's operations. The impression of 
Tue Times which appears at four o'clock in the morning is now followed 
not only by a second edition, published at half-past one in the afternoon, 
chiefly for circulation in the City; by THe Mart, published three times a 
week, and by THe Times Week Ly Epition; but also by LIrERATURE, a 
critical review which appears every Saturday. 
The publication of occasional biographies, annual summaries, and other 
monographs, reprinted from the columns of THe Times, has been followed 
by the publication of a series of periodical law reports and digests of cases, 
as well as by the half-yearly ‘‘ Issues,” an acconnt of newly-organised public 
companies. 
Four years ago THE Times Atlas was published, to which THE Times 
GAZETTEER has recently been added. Andin March, 1898, Tue Times 
Reprint of the Encyclopedia Britannica (oth edition) was offered to the 
public. In the course of only one year, more than 18,000 copies—450,000 
volumes—of this standard work have been sold by Tue Times. 
A NEW WORK OF REFERENCE. 
The undertakings of Tue Times are now further extended by the issue of 
Tue Century Dictionary, a word-book and fact-book combined, at once 
the most complete lexicon of the English language and the most convenient 
encyclopedic work of reference for the purpose of quickly arriving at isolated 
facts, 
Peculiarly useful as a dictionary to the possessors of the Encyclopedia 
Britannica (which indeed contains not less than 10,000 words which no pre- 
vious dictionary had defined) THe Century Dictionary is alsoa most con- 
venient adjunct to the Encyclopzedia Britannica from another point of view. 
The exhaustive treatises in the Encyclopedia Britannica discuss groups of 
facts. They are the best monographs in the language, and the reader who 
has an hour's time to spend will always find in the Encyclopedia Britannica 
a clear and agreeably written account of any branch of art, science, or history 
which he desires to investigate. 
FOR BUSY MEN AND WOMEN. 
Tue Century Dicrionary, on the other hand, divides the vast structure 
of knowledge in greater number of compartments, enabling the reader to 
find, with the least loss of time, any one item of information at which he may 
desire toarrive; to examine, so to speak, the contents of any one pigeon- 
hole without handling the papers in any other pigeon-hole. The Ency- 
clopedia Britannica invites the reader to contemplate broad gardens of 
knowledge, while WHE Century Dscrionary presents to his hand which- 
ever one of the individual flowers he happens at the moment to want. 
Such is the relation between the two books, if Tue CenTurY DICTIONARY 
be regarded as a fact-book. 
As a word-book, it is incomparably the best dictionary in existence. The 
New English Dictionary will no doubt be of very great value, and especially 
to philologists, when it is completed, ten years hence ; but, meantime, THE 
Cenrury Dictionary is the largest as well as the most comprehensive and 
beautifully illustrated lexicon of the English language. It completes, in the 
most admirable fashion, THE Times Library of Reference, and it will no 
doubt find its way to the shelves of every well-chosen library, however 
modest 
NOW, RATHER THAN LATER. 
There is, however, in this connection, a very relevant question, as to the 
desirability of procuring the work as soon as possible. Book-buyers have 
learned by experience, that most books are at first offered in an expensive 
form, and later, ina cheaper guise, at reduced prices. ‘The novel published 
last year in three volumes, at a guinea and a half, may be had this year for 
six shilli the book of travel which cost fifteen or eighteen shillings a 
few months ago, isto be procured to-day, by those who waited patiently, for 
half the pric Tue Times has, however, in its issue of the Encyclopedia 
Britannic d of THe Century Dictionary, broken away from this tradi- 
tion. It offered the first few thousand copies of the Encyclopedia Britannica 
1 
hundred letters from purchasers of the Century DicTioNaRy. 
~ Che Cimes 
THE CENT@RY DIGHIONARY 
A FACT-BOOK AND WORD-BOOK COMBINE 
A NEW WORK ON A NEW PLAN—GIVING, FOR THE FIRST TIME, EVERY FORM 
USAGE KNOWN, WHETHER ENGLISH, AMERICAN, AUSTRALIAN, PROVINCIAL OR COLLOQUIAL. 
Eight sumptuous volumes; '7,000 large quarto pages; 500,000 definitions; 7,500 illustrations; 300,000 quotati 
a work of which the editorial cost, alone, was more than £200,000: 
OF SPELLING, PRONUNCIATION, 1 
| at 20 per cent. less than the price at which many thousands of copies ¥ 
subsequently sold. Those who promptly ordered their copies had the bes| 
of the minimum prices. They took the trouble to act assoon as the offer | 
made, and those who waited were compelled either to do without the 
or to pay more for it. 
THE SECRET OF THE BARGAIN. 
In the case of THE Cenrury Dicrionary, a limited edition was offere 
few weeks ago, for £13, in half Morocco binding, or thirteen monthly 
ments of one guinea each: little more than half the publishers’ price. 
price still obtains, and any reader who at once applies to THE Times fe 
copy of the work may benefit by this temporary arrangement. The best 1 
to introduce a really good work of reference is to sell as quickly as possi 
without regard to immediate profits, a limited edition of it; for, if the b 
will speak for itself, every copy that finds its way to any house supplie| 
most eloquent and unanswerable advertisement. This is what is now bi 
done with THe Century Dictionary. But the price will be increase 
soon as the remaining copies of this first edition have been exhausted, ; 
there is now so little time to lose that those who intend to procure the w) 
at the present prices will do well to make immediate use of the order form 
A ROYAL ROAD, 
The old saying that there is no royal road to learning is a wholese) 
maxim for nursery use. The first marches upon that laboured route m- 
necessarily be difficult, for the power of rapid and accurate comprehens_ 
can only be acquired by vigorous preliminary discipline. The long way 
league upon league of cube root, irregular verbs, and the catalogue of ki 
and queens—hardens the muscles once for all, and those who shirk in 1 
shady by-paths never acquire a sturdy gait. When, however, the end of {| 
broad high road is reached, the conditions of the journey are greatly alter¢| 
The professional man has his mountain to face: the distant summit to 
attained by the few, the hill pastures of moderate success by the many. F 
all the rest of us, further progress is not obligatory. If we read books wor 
reading, and read them intelligently, we get more out of life than if « 
confine our energies to the gaining or spending of money, but no very stro 
incentives impel us. 
‘'GENERAL INFORMATION.” 
In the course of the more or less desultory progress toward the positi 
occupied by what one calls ‘well informed ’” men and women, we are all 
liberty to select our own itineraries. And good books of reference u 
questionably offer us a royal road to this supplementary sort of learnin 
Once at the end of the prescribed routé, there is no reason why we shou 
not stray at will, and be the better for our little excursions, if only we pau 
to examine what we see about us. It is this habit of observing, of questionin 
of verifying that we’ need to cultivate. But it is a habit which those wh 
have completed the tasks of routine education are not likely to acquir 
unless the way is made very smooth for them. 
NEW WORDS AND NEW FACTS. 
It is in this connection that Tur Century DicTioNaRY may be fairl 
considered to provide a royal road tolearning—to that sort of learning whic 
enables us to think intelligently and to talk intelligently about the currer 
topics of the day. ‘The occurrence in one’s newspaper of an unfamilic 
word, the mention of an unknown substance or an unknown proces: 
arouses in the average reader’s mind enough of curiosity to mak 
him turn to a work of reference, if he knows that the informatio 
he desires will easily be found. But such casual invitations to th 
pursuit of knowledge are hardly strenuous enough to draw him amon 
the bristling difficulties of special text-books. He will learn a little if he i 
not afraid of having to learn too much; he will spend five minutes ver: 
profitably, if he is not afraid that he will be led to make too good a use o 
half an hour. With all the good will in the world one cannot learn every 
thing there is to learn, and if, when we are confronted by any new fact, we 
learn only enough about it to understand a paragraph in a newspaper, or < 
page ina review, we are at any ratea little better off than if we had remainec 
WHAT SOME EARLY PURCHASERS SAY ABOUT THE “ CENTURY DICTIONARY.” 
THE NEW WORK ISSUED BY The Times, 
AR HERE have been published, in the columns of THE TIMES, since its issue of the Century DieTionary was first announced on May 8th, more than a 
It is impossible to reproduce them all in the limited space of this one advertise- 
in outer darkness. 
nt, but a few representative letters from different classes of subscribers will show how general is the usefulness of the work. 
1ese letters are not empty compliments. 
worth. The point of view from which they 
hey are quite prepared to find fault if there is fault to be found. 
heir money than they had hoped to get. 
is these show, too, how the 
id magazines are, necessarily, the opinions of specialists. 
ed to the needs of the g ral reader. 
more for t 
Suc 
for new. 
directly 
Here we have the direct expression of the possessor's judgment upon the work—the opinion of the man who bought it to use, 
They are written by people who sent money to THE TIMEs, expecting to receive from THE TIMEs full 
regard the volumes of the Cenrury Dictionary 
There is none. 
is not an indulgent one. When they unpack the 
They see that they made a good bargain; that they got even 
public use the Century Dictionary, and what they find in it. The opinions of the critics who review books 
A work of reference may be of the utmost interest to them, and yet not be Iu 
< 
and finds it useful. 
