The article then points out that “far from being just to Catholics, the Britannica pointedly and persistently discriminated against them.” The article on the Episcopalians was assigned to the Rev. Dr. D. D. Addison, Rector of All Saints, Brookline, Mass.; that on Methodists to the Rev. Dr. J. M. Buckley, Editor of the Christian Advocate, New York; that on the Baptists to the Rev. Newton Herbert Marshall, Baptist Church, Hampstead, England; that on the Jews to Israel Abrahams, formerly President of the Jewish Historical Society and now Reader on Talmudic and Rabbinic Literature in Cambridge, and so on for the Presbyterians, Unitarians, Lutherans, etc. But in the case of the Catholic Church not only its history but its theology was given to a critic who was neither a theologian, nor a cleric, nor even a Catholic, and who, as Father Campbell notes, is not known outside of his little London coterie.
The Britannica’s editor also apologized for his encyclopædia by stating that “Father Braun, S. J., has assisted us in our article on Vestments, and that Father Delehaye, S. J., has contributed, among other articles, those on The Bollandists and Canonization. Abbé Boudinhon and Mgr. Duchesne, and Luchaire and Ludwig von Pastor and Dr. Kraus have also contributed, and Abbot Butler, O. S. B., has written on the Augustinians, Benedictines, Carthusians, Cistercians, Dominicans and Franciscans”; and, finally: “The new Britannica has had the honor of having as a contributor His Eminence James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, who has written of the Roman Catholic Church in America.”
“But, after all,” answers Father Campbell, “it was not a very generous concession to let Father Joseph Braun, S. J., Staatsexamen als Religionsoberlehren für Gymnasien, University of Bonn, assist the editors in the very safe article on Vestments, nor to let the Bollandists write a column on their publication, which has been going on for three or four hundred years. The list of those who wrote on the Papacy is no doubt respectable in ability if not in number, but we note that the editor is careful to say that the writers of that article were ‘principally’ Roman Catholics.
“Again we are moved to ask why should a Benedictine, distinguished though he be, have assigned to him the history of the Augustinians, Franciscans, Dominicans, etc.? Were there no men in those great and learned orders to tell what they must have known better than even the erudite Benedictine? Nor will it avail to tell us that His Eminence of Baltimore wrote The History of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, when that article comprises only a column of statistics, preceded by two paragraphs, one on the early missions, and the other on the settlement of Lord Baltimore. No one more than the illustrious and learned churchman would have resented calling such a mere compilation of figures a History of the Catholic Church in the United States, and no one would be more shocked than he by the propinquity of his restricted article to the prolix and shameless one to which it is annexed.”
Here in brief is an account of the “impartial” manner in which Catholicism is recorded and described in that “supreme” book of knowledge, the Encyclopædia Britannica. And I set down this record here not because it is exceptional but, to the contrary, because it is representative of the way in which the world’s culture (outside of England), and especially the culture of America, is treated.
The intellectual prejudice and contempt of England for America is even greater if anything than England’s religious prejudice and contempt for Catholicism; and this fact should be borne in mind when you consult the Britannica for knowledge. It will not give you even scholarly or objective information: it will advise you, by constant insinuation and intimation, as well as by direct statement, that English culture and achievement represent the transcendent glories of the world, and that the great men and great accomplishments of other nations are of minor importance. No more fatal intellectual danger to America can be readily conceived than this distorted, insular, incomplete, and aggressively British reference work.
XII
TWO HUNDRED OMISSIONS
The following list contains two hundred of the many hundreds of writers, painters, musicians and scientists who are denied biographies in the Britannica. There is not a name here which should not be in an encyclopædia which claims for itself the completeness which the Britannica claims. Many of the names stand in the forefront of modern culture. Their omission is nothing short of preposterous, and can be accounted for only on the grounds of ignorance or prejudice. In either case, they render the encyclopædia inadequate as an up-to-date and comprehensive reference work.
It will be noted that not one of these names is English, and that America has suffered from neglect in a most outrageous fashion. After reading the flamboyant statements made in the Encyclopædia Britannica’s advertising, glance down this list. Then decide for yourself whether or not the statements are accurate.
Objection may be raised to some of the following names on the ground that they are not of sufficient importance to be included in an encyclopædia, and that their omission cannot be held to the discredit of the Britannica. In answer let me state that for every name listed here as being denied a biography, there are one or two, and, in the majority of cases, many, Englishmen in the same field who are admittedly inferior and yet who are given detailed and generally laudatory biographies.
LITERATURE
- “A. E.” (George W. Russell)
- Andreiev
- Artzibashef
- Hermann Bahr
- Henri Bernstein
- Otto Julius Bierbaum
- Ambrose Bierce
- Helene Böhlau
- Henry Bordeaux
- René Boylesve
- Enrico Butti
- Cammaerts
- Capuana
- Bliss Carman
- Winston Churchill
- Pierre de Coulevain
- Richard Dehmel
- Margaret Deland
- Grazia Deledda
- Theodore Dreiser
- Eekhoud
- Clyde Fitch
- Paul Fort
- Gustav Frenssen
- Fröding
- Fucini (Tanfucio Neri)
- Garshin
- Stefan George
- René de Ghil
- Giacosa
- Ellen Glasgow
- Rémy de Gourmont
- Robert Grant
- Lady Gregory
- Grigorovich
- Hartleben
- Heidenstam
- Hirschfeld
- Hugo von Hofmannsthal
- Arno Holz
- Richard Hovey
- Bronson Howard
- Ricarda Huch
- James Huneker
- Douglas Hyde
- Lionel Johnson
- Karlfeldt
- Charles Klein
- Korolenko
- Kuprin
- Percy MacKaye
- Emilio de Marchi
- Ferdinando Martini
- Stuart Merrill
- William Vaughn Moody
- Nencioni
- Standish O’Grady
- Ompteda
- Panzacchi
- Giovanni Pascoli
- David Graham Phillips
- Wilhelm von Polenz
- Rapisardi
- Edwin Arlington Robinson
- Romain Rolland
- T. W. Rolleston
- Rovetta
- Albert Samain
- George Santayana
- Johannes Schlaf
- Schnitzler
- Severin
- Signoret
- Synge
- John Bannister Tabb
- Tchekhoff
- Gherardi del Testa
- Jérôme and Jean Tharaud
- Ludwig Thoma
- Augustus Thomas
- Tinayre
- Katherine Tynan
- Veressayeff
- Clara Viebig
- Annie Vivanti
- Wackenroder
- Wedekind
- Edith Wharton
- Owen Wister
- Ernst von Wolzogen
PAINTING
- George Bellows
- Carrière
- Mary Cassatt
- Cézanne
- Louis Corinth
- Maurice Denis
- Gauguin
- Habermann
- C. W. Hawthorne
- Robert Henri
- Hodler
- Sergeant Kendall
- Ludwig Knaus
- Krüger
- Jean Paul Laurens
- Leibl
- Von Marées
- René Ménard
- Redon
- Charles Shuch
- Lucien Simon
- Steinlen
- Toulouse-Lautrec
- Trübner
- Twachtman
- Van Gogh
- Vallotton
- Zorn
MUSIC
- d’Albert
- Arensky
- Mrs. Beach
- Busoni
- Buxtehude
- Charpentier
- Frederick Converse
- Cui
- Arthur Foote
- Grechaninov
- Guilmant
- Henry K. Hadley
- Josef Hofmann
- Edgar Stillman Kelly
- Kreisler
- Leschetitzky
- Gustav Mahler
- Marschner
- Nevin
- Nordraak
- John Knowles Paine
- Horatio Parker
- Rachmaninov
- Ravel
- Max Reger
- Nikolaus Rubinstein
- Scharwenka brothers
- Georg Alfred Schumann
- Scriabine
- Sibelius
- Friedrich Silcher
- Sinding
- Taneiev
- Wolf-Ferrari
SCIENCE AND INVENTION
- William Beaumont
- John Shaw Billings
- Luther Burbank
- George W. Crile
- Harvey Cushing
- Rudolph Diesel
- Daniel Drake
- Ehrlich
- Simon Flexner
- W. W. Gerhard
- Samuel David Gross
- William S. Halsted
- Wilhelm His
- Abraham Jacobi
- Rudolph Leuckart
- Franz Leydig
- Jacques Loeb
- Percival Lowell
- Lyonet (Lyonnet)
- S. J. Meltzer
- Metchnikoff
- T. H. Morgan
- Joseph O’Dwyer
- Ramón y Cajal
- Nicholas Senn
- Marion Sims
- Theobald Smith
- W. H. Welch
- Orville Wright
- Wilbur Wright
PSYCHOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY
- Ardigò
- Bergson
- Boutroux
- Hermann Cohen
- John Dewey
- Edelmann
- Freud
- Guyau
- G. Stanley Hall
- Hildebrand
- Jung
- Külpe
- Lipps
- Josiah Royce
- Alois Riehl
- Sibbern
- Soloviov
- Tetans
- Windelband