stent questions have often to go without an answer; to
the Schoolmaster and Tutor; to the student with a shallow purse; to the
Busy Man and Man of Business, it is believed that this volume will prove
a solid help.

The subjects, as hinted, are various, and these the Editor may be
permitted to classify in a general way under something like the following
rubrics:--

1. Noted people, their nationality, the time when they flourished, and
what they are noted for.

2. Epochs, important movements, and events in history, with the dates and
their historical significance.

3. Countries, provinces, and towns, with descriptions of them, their
sizes, populations, etc., and what they are noted for.

4. Heavenly bodies, especially those connected with the solar system,
their sizes, distances, and revolutions.

5. Races and tribes of mankind, with features that characterise them.

6. Mythologies, and the account they severally give of the divine and
demonic powers, supreme and subordinate, that rule the world.

7. Religions of the world, with their respective credos and objects and
forms of worship.

8. Schools of philosophy, with their theories of things and of the
problems of life and human destiny.

9. Sects and parties, under the different systems of belief or polity,
and the specialities of creed and policy that divide them.

10. Books of the world, especially the sacred ones, and the spiritual
import of them; in particular those of the Bible, on each of which a note
or two is given.

11. Legends and fables, especially such as are more or less of world
significance.

12. Characters in fiction and fable, both mediaeval and modern.

13. Fraternities, religious and other, with their symbols and
shibboleths.

14. Families of note, especially such as have developed into dynasties.

15. Institutions for behoof of some special interest, secular or sacred,
including universities.

16. Holidays and festivals, with what they commemorate, and the rites and
ceremonies connected with them.

17. Science, literature, and art in general, but these chiefly in
connection with the names of those distinguished in the cultivation of
them.

Such, in a general way, are some of the subjects contained in the book,
while there is a number of others not reducible to the classification
given, and among these the Editor has included certain subjects of which
he was able to give only a brief definition, just as there are doubtless
oth