A volume of such variety of subject and great extent affords fine opportunity for illustration. The publishers have taken full advantage of this, and have beautified it in a manner which commends itself to every eye and taste. Rarely has a volume been so highly and elegantly embellished. Each subject is illuminated so as to increase the pleasure of reading and make an impression which will prove lasting. As to its aim and scope, its number of specially qualified authors, its vigor and variety of style and thought, its historic comprehensiveness and exactness, its great wealth of illustration, its superb mechanism, its various other striking features, the volume may readily rank as one of the century’s triumphs, a wonder of industrious preparation, and acceptable to all. At any rate, no such volume has ever mirrored any previous century, and none will come to reflect the nineteenth century with truer line and color. Not only is the work a rare and costly picture, filled in with inspiring details by master hands, but it is equally a monument, whose solid base, grand proportions, and elegant finish are in keeping with the spirit of the era it marks and the results it honors. Its every inscription is a glowing tribute to human achievement of whatever kind and wherever the field of action may lie, and therefore a happy means of conveying to twentieth century actors the story of a time whose glories they will find it hard to excel. May this picture and monument be viewed, studied, and admired by all, so that the momentous chapters which round the history of a closing century shall avail in shaping the beginnings of a succeeding one. AUTHORS AND SUBJECTS JAMES P. BOYD, A. M., L. B., WONDERS OF ELECTRICITY. REAR-ADMIRAL GEORGE WALLACE MELVILLE, _Chief of Bureau of Steam Engineering, Navy Department, Washington, D. C._ THE CENTURY’S NAVAL PROGRESS. SELDEN J. COFFIN, A. M., _Professor of Astronomy, Lafayette College, Easton, Pa._ ASTRONOMY DURING THE CENTURY. THOMAS MEEHAN, _Vice-President Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia_. STORY OF PLANT AND FLOWER. MARY ELIZABETH LEASE, _First Woman President of Kansas State Board of Charities_. PROGRESS OF WOMEN WITHIN THE CENTURY. ROBERT P. HAINS, _Principal Examiner of Textiles, United States Patent Office, Washington, D. C._ THE CENTURY’S TEXTILE PROGRESS. GEORGE EDWARD REED, S. T. D., LL. D., _President of Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa._ THE CENTURY’S RELIGIOUS PROGRESS. JAMES P. BOYD, A. M., L. B., GREAT GROWTH OF LIBRARIES.