No truly great book needs an explanation of its aim and purpose. A
great book just grows, as has this Book of Wonders.
It began with the attempt of a father to answer the natural questions
of the active mind of a growing boy. It developed into a nightly search
for plain, understandable answers to such questions as “What makes
it night?” “Where does the wind begin?” “Why is the sky blue?” “Why
does it hurt when I cut my finger?” “Why doesn’t it hurt when I cut my
hair?” “Why does wood float?” “Why does iron sink?” “Why doesn’t an
iron ship sink?” on through the maze of thousands of puzzling questions
which occur to the child’s mind. It has grown until the answers to
the mere questions cover practically the entire range of every-day
knowledge, and has been arranged in such a form that any child may now
find the answer to his own inquiries.
As the mind of the child matures, the questions naturally drift toward
the things which the genius of man has provided for his comfort and
pleasure. We have become so accustomed to the use and benefits of these
wonders produced by man that we generally leave out of our books the
stories of our great industries, and yet the mind of the child wonders
and inquires about them. We have so long worn clothes made of wool or
cotton, that we have forgotten the wonder there is in making a bolt
of cloth. Every industry has a fascinating story equal to that of the
silkworm, which moves its head sixty-five times a minute while spinning
his thousand yards of silk.
Can you tell What happens when we telephone? How a telegram gets
there? What makes an automobile go? How man learned to tell time? How
a moving-picture is made? How a camera takes a picture? How rope is
made? How the light gets into the electric bulb? How glass is made?
How the music gets into the piano? and hundreds of others that embrace
the captivating tales of how man has made use of the wonders of nature
and turned them to his advantage and comfort? The Book of Wonders does
this with illuminating pictures which stimulate the mind and give a
bird’s-eye view of each subject step by step.
Where shall such a book begin? Shall it begin with the Story of How
Man Learned to Light a Fire--he could not cook his food, see at night,
or keep warm without a fire; or should it begin with How Man Learned to
Shoot--he could not protect himself against the beasts of the forest,
and, therefore, could not move about, till the soil or obtain food to
cook until he knew how to shoot or destroy.
What was the vital thing for man to know before he could really become
civilized? Some means, of course, by which the things he learned--the
knowledge he had acquired--could be handed down to those who came after
him so that they might go on with the intelligence handed down to them.
This required some means of recording his knowledge. Man had to learn
to write. Without writing there could be no Book of Wonders, and the
book, then, begins naturally with the Story of Mow Man Learned to Write.