Harmsworth Popular Science

Abstract

THE days when Science was an intellectual preserve for the few are long since past, and popularisation has become an art—increasingly an art. For if we compare a work like that before us with the “Useful Information for the People,” or the “Science for All,” or the “Popular Educator” of half a century ago, we cannot but admit that popularisation has made strides. The scope is more ambitious, bigger and deeper subjects are tackled; the mode of presentation is more interesting, which implies greater psychological skill; the style tends to be clearer, more vivid, less wordy; the illustrations are often extraordinarily educative; and the whole thing is more vertebrated. Sometimes it is the evolution-idea that gives unity to the treatment; sometimes it is an enthusiastic conviction that Science is for Man —to aid him to enter into his kingdom; more rarely the unifying aim is to work out a course of intellectual gymnastics—“a brain-stretching discipline.”

Harmsworth Popular Science.

Edited by Arthur Mee. In 43 parts. (London: The Amalgamated Press, Ltd.)