study designed to supplement, or to take the place of, some part of the
usual school and college curriculum. The educational articles in the
Britannica are the work of 704 professors in 146 universities and
colleges in 21 different countries. No institution of learning in the
world has a faculty so numerous, so authoritative, or so highly
specialized. Nor has any system of home study ever been devised by which
the student is brought into contact with teachers so trustworthy and so
stimulating. The fascination of first-hand knowledge and the pleasure of
studying pages intended not for reluctant drudges submitting themselves
to a routine, but for students eager to make rapid progress, are factors
in the educational value of the Britannica that cannot be overestimated,
and the elasticity with which any selected course of study can be
enlarged and varied is in full accordance with the modern theories of
higher education.