The main design in these volumes is to present a panorama of the world in the early 20th Century. Its various lands and peoples are surveyed in turn, and their characteristics pictured on a scale not always, indeed, proportionate to their relative importance, since about China, for instance, an English reader naturally desires more information than as to the state of his own country. The author has tried to include geographical, political, ethnological and social features, with glances at scenery and at natural history, without, however, going much into scientific questions that cannot be handled to advantage in such a work. History, also must be but lightly touched on in pages dealing with that time, yet sometimes sketches of past events seem not out of place, especially they can be thrown into the form of footnotes. A large amount of statistical and commercial facts, partly set forth in tabular form and party exhibited by means of diagrams or other devices that appeal to the eye, is placed apart at the end of each volume for the benefit of readers who seek such solid information. A full index is given with the last volume. The author has done his best to go to the latest and most trust-worthy sources of information, and ventured occasionally to quote lively passages of personal description and experience that, placed as foot-notes, go to illustrate the text.
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