The young folks' cyclopaedia of common things

Front matter

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Preface To The First Edition

Tue Young Folks’ Cyclopedia of Common Things has been prepared to fill a vacancy, the existence of which the writer believes no unprejudiced person will deny. Intelligent parents and teachers need not be told that one of the most important habits which can be cultivated in a child is that of consulting works of reference. There are dictionaries and atlases for the use of young folks, but unfortunately all the popular cyclopzdias are written in language which a child cannot understand, and no attempt has been made, it is believed, previous to the publication of this work, to bring cyclopeedic knowledge within the range of a child’s intellect. Yet questions are almost continually arising in the studies, and in the daily experience of youth, which such a cyclopzedia would answer without trouble to parents or teachers—to say nothing of numerous questions put by children, which many adults would find a difficulty in answering satisfactorily without reference to books.

In the present work the writer has attempted to furnish in simple language, aided by pictorial illustrations where thought necessary, a knowledge of things in Nature, Science, and the Arts which are apt to awaken a child’s curiosity. Such features of Astronomy, Chemistry, Physics, Natural History, and Physiology as can easily be made intelligible are explained, special attention being given to the natural objects which most immediately affect human happiness—such as the phenomena of air, light, heat, and electricity, and those parts of the human system whose health is influenced by our habits. Much attention has been given, too, to the description and explanation of the manufacture of articles in common use, and of the various processes connected with the Arts; while all the animals interesting from their domestic relation or as objects of curiosity have been treated as fully as the limits of the work will permit. If the iii iv PREFACE 1O THE FIRST EDITION:

writer has seemed in some instances to go beyond the scope of “common things,” it is because he has preferred to err on the side of completeness rather than on that of omission. The scheme does not embrace any account of Persons or Places, as they would have added too much to the bulk of a single volume.

The arrangement is the same as in other cyclopzedias, as the work is intended to be but a stepping-stone to the more comprehensive ones for adults, and as it is deemed of importance to accustom the child early to the forms and methods which experience has shown to be the best. It has been thought proper, however, to omit all abbreviations, and in most cases to put the Scientific classification and etymologies at the end instead of at the beginning of articles, where they will be less likely to destroy the continuity of the narrative, and to blunt the child’s interest. While it is not expected that the work will be made a text-book in any of the departments treated in it, it is yet hoped that both pupil and teacher may find it a valuable adjunct to all the more important studies pursued in school, and that it may be thought worthy of a place wherever a knowledge of common things is a necessity.

A large number of works have been consulted and freely used, and the writer, without giving any extended enumeration of authorities, desires to acknowledge his indebtedness to the following ones in particular : The American Cyclopedia ; Johnson’s Universal Cyclopzedia; The Encyclopzedia Btitannica; Chambers’ Encyclopaedia ; Tomlinson’s Cyclopedia of Useful Arts ; Ure’s Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines; Goodholme’s Domestic Cyclopedia ; The Popular Science Monthly ; Harper's Monthly; Scribner’s Magazine; St, Nicholas; The Science Primers, edited by Professors Huxley, Roscoe, and Stewart; Holt’s Hand-books for Students and General Readers; Packard’s Guide to the Study of Insects; Hooker’s Child’s Book of Nature ; and the works of Audubon, Wilson, Baird, Brewer, Agassiz, Storer, Huxley, and Figuier,

J}. DECAyR: New York, August 1, 1879.