PREFACE
And in most cases there is no room for hesitation. Although the list includes more than half the literary genius of Europe and America of the last one hundred years, as well as a surprising number of eminent artists, statesmen, men of science, philosophers, reformers, and men of affairs, the sentiments quoted under each name are unmistakable. The Dictionary represents a revolt of modern culture against the Churches. In the ethical sense many of the men and women included here have retained to the end an appreciation of Christ and Christianity. Many were opposed to aggressive criticism. These things are duly noted. But the revolt, intellectual and emotional, against the creeds is seen to be overwhelming in the world of higher culture; and in an extraordinary proportion of the more recent cases the revolt extends to every attempt to formulate a religious philosophy. It is a new Götterdämmerung.
For the ordinary biographical details I must express my obligations to a large number of encyclopaedias and works of reference. In particular, I must acknowledge my indebtedness to Who s Who? (and the corresponding works in German, French, Italian, Norwegian, and Swedish, as well as the American Who s Who?) and to our great Dictionary of National Biography. To the soundness and scholarship of the latter, indeed, the compiler must, in passing, yield the tribute which his experience has inspired. The list of works, in many tongues, to which he is indebted would, however, require many pages. Mainly, this compilation is based upon the published biographies .and works of the distinguished men and women who are included in it. It has been quite impossible to mention more than a few of the works written by the authors included in the list. The names of the works actually consulted by the compiler would, in fact, occupy considerably more than a hundred pages of this volume. It may therefore be superfluous, in view of the magnitude of the task, to ask for lenient consideration if any name of apparently obvious relevance is found to have been omitted. Still less is it necessary to disarm criticism in advance if the references to Continental scholars be not actually up to date at times. No countries except England and America have published new editions of their Who s Who? since 1914; nor have the customary academic annuals appeared since the great catastrophe. Many men whom the compiler would have included have on this account been regretfully omitted. Yet this collection of nearly three thousand distinguished names, with a few other names which owe their inclusion to gratitude for their efforts or sacrifices rather than to personal distinction, may give the reader a novel and not unimportant clue to the spirit of the time.
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