The New York herald., 1922-02-19

OF GEOGRAPHY AND ASTRON-
OMT. BY Edward Luther Stevenson
Published for the Hispanic Society
by the Ya.e University Press.
TN the name Of true scholarship
and high literary achievement
hearty congratulations should
be rendered DR.. Stevenson as author
Of this work and to the Hispanic
Society for sponsoring 1t through
long years OF arduous research. end
less correspondence and costly prep
aration. 1t is not indulging in ex-
aggeration Of its innate worth to say
that no public library no college or
university library. or other like col
lection which includes books of ref
erence can afford to be without it.
And 1t is by no means improbable
that the volumes will be cherished in
the homes of a great many thought
fui men and women who appreciate
the value and interest OF 50 rare
disclosure OF historical knowledge.
Hundreds of books have been
written about what our ancestors did
in the world they lived in. Expedi-
tons have been financed at heavy
expense to make archaeological and
other misunderstanding to our fund
Of information concerning the poll
tics. homo life. agriculture and other
activities OF human beings once re-
siding in widely separated areas of
the earth and now. passed away.
Such books, in many instances. have
been and are Of profound interest
and Importance. But in his new work
on terrestrial and celestial globes DR..
Stevenson tells us not so much what
our ancestors did as what they
thought of the world they lived in
their conceptions of the earth and its
surroundings. Directly. as well as
indirectly. he gets at the inner mental
machinery OF those men of past CEN
turies and reveals II to his reader.
This was a task for a man of intel
Iectual caliber.
AS the author remarks in his fore
word, hitherto there has not appeared
I'm English detailed treatise on
globes terrestrial and celestial. He
might have gone further and said
that hitherto in no language has
there appeared such an exhaustive
treatise as this. or one written with
such regard for the niceties of clear.
flowing and ADEQUATE literary style.
Furthermore. the treatise is beauti-
full as specimen of typography. and
the many Illustrations on fine paper
lend richness. In addition to a gen.
erai index there Is appended In Vol
II. special index of globes and globe
makers, beginning with the earliest
dlscoverable names of the makers,
their places of residence. the kind of
globe OF globes each made. dates
when made and the diameter Of each.
A lengthy and comprehensive biblio-
graphical list has its proper place.
At the end of each chapter are notes
OF explanation or comment which in
themselves well might rank as ac-
complishment worthy a man of true
scholarship in this special field. Thus.
briefly. may be given a somewhat
general. though very slight, idea OF
that which the reader may expect to
find And knowing even SO little Of
the work there will be no surprise
ten years DIR. Stevenson has been
constantly engaged with it, except
for the period of war. He has gath
cred material and illustrations from
public museums and private collec-
tiOns. from archives open to all. from
others carefully guarded. from his
torical societies and palaces. from
hundreds of sources In various parts
of the earth. And here. at last. we
have the result.
The book concerns itself with
globes from the earliest times to the
close OF the eighteenth century.
When the study first was undertaken