The theme for the celebration of the Library of Congress treasures, "The World Encompassed," is suggested by the title of a nephew's account of Sir Francis Drake's circumnavigation of the earth. This account is part of the Sir Francis Drake collection donated by patrons to the library. In April 1581, Drake was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I for what was then the most profitable enterprise in the history of seafaring. Drake's career can remind those accustomed to television images that show reality as though it has sharp edges of some easily forgotton ambiguities and fuzzy edges of the great history-making adventures--whether they are the circumnavigations of the earth or the circumnavigations of the mind. Of all the nation's institutions, none tries more strenuously, more grandly, or more effectively to encompass the world than the Library of Congress. The library's treasures bear witness to that endeavor. Drake's voyage reminds us that only rarely is some great world-encompassing project accomplished in a predicted time. Great enterprises are enterprises of high risk, and high risk means great uncertainty. The Library of Congress, or any great library, is a point of embarkation on voyages for which there can be no timetable. Commitment to any of the greatest enterprises--circumnavigation of the earth or of the English language or of the world of science--is heroic because it is a commitment to the unknown. (HTH)