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    This book is intended to serve as a weapon in the hands of the champions of social progress in their battle with the representatives of superstition. It describes the history of this struggle. Contents: The Antagonists; Struggles in Greece; Science in Alexandria; Christians and Emperors; Alexandria tragedy; Bruno, the wanderer; Bruno, the martyr; Galileo to 1616; Trial and sentence; Recantation and after; The future.

    It's newness, however, represents not a break with the past rather a continuity. For many years the Merriam – Webster dictionaries have formed a series, in which the unabridged dictionary has been the parent work and the collegiate dictionary the largest abridgment. From each successive revision of the unabridged work, new abridged books have sprung. In 1898 the first edition of the Collegiate appeared, based on Webster's International Dictionary. In 1910 a second edition appeared. The publication of the first edition of the New International Dictionary began another Merriam–Webster series and made necessary the Third Edition of the Collegiate (1916), revised in 1931 as the Fourth Edition. The publication in 1934 Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition, another complete revision of the unabridged dictionary, inaugurated a new Merriam-Webster series to which this present work belongs.In it's new edition, then, the Collegiate Dictionary is carrying on two traditions -- the tradition of a series and the tradition of a book. The editors, in preparing the present work, have had constantly before them its place in the series and a high standard of quality of its predecessors, the four earlier Collegiates.

    There may be numerous typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there.