make any progress in ufeful knowledge. To accomplish therefore effectually what Mr Chambers by means of his prefatory fcientifical analyfis attempted in vain, they endeavoured to give a compendious, yet clear and fatisfactory, account of the feveral arts and sciences under their proper denominations, whilft the fubordinate articles in each were likewife explained under their technical terms. Thefe fubordinate articles they divided into three kinds; of which the first confifts of fuch as, independent of particular systems, admit of a full and complete illuftration under their proper names; the second, of fuch as require to be partly difcuffed under the fyftems to which they belong, and partly under their own denominations; and the third, of fuch as appertain to fyftems of which all the parts must be elucidated together. Articles of the first kind admit of no references; thofe of the fecond, being only partially explained under their proper denominations, demand references to the fyftems where the illuftrations are completed; and those of the laft are wholly referred to the systems of which they are conftituents.

SUCH has been the arrangement of the Arts and Sciences in every edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica; and it furely falls not under that censure which Dr Reid pronounced with juftice on many other works bearing a fimilar title.

In the fpirit of true philofophy, that great man obferves, that the same subject may admit, and even require, various divifions, according to the different points of view from which it is contemplated; and we doubt not but, if he had been asked, he would candidly have acknowledged, that the divifion and arrangement of the Encyclopædia Britannica are calculated to answer every purpose which can be expected from a general repofitory of arts, fciences, and mifcellaneous literature. They are fuch as must give to readers of every description the most easy access to the objects of their pursuit : for whilft the philofopher or fyftematic artist may be fully and regularly informed by turning to the general name of the fcience or art which he wishes to explore, the man who has occafion to confult only particular topics will find them illuftrated under the terms by which they are denominated. Contemplated from this point of view, the arrangement of the Encyclopædia Britannica needs not fhrink from a comparison even with that of the Encyclopédie Methodique; for though that voluminous work, confisting of a dictionary of dictionaries, may have the appearance of being more fyftematically arranged; yet we, who have had occafion to confult it frequently, have never found our object the more readily for having been obliged to travel in queft of it through different alphabets.

A DICTIONARY, in which the feveral arts and fciences are digefted into diftinct treatifes or systems, whilft the various detached parts of knowledge a e explained in the order of the alphabet, feems indeed to have received the best form of which fuch a work is fufceptible; and may certainly be made to answer one end, which more philofophical arrangements never can accomplish. Under the various letters of the alphabet, it is obvious that the whole circle of the fciences may be completely exhaufted; and that every discovery, ancient or recent, may be referred to the particular fyftem which it VOL. I. Part I. b tends

Such is that great and general analyfis of knowledge, which has by fome of our correspondents been recommmended to us in terms of the highest praise, and to which elegance and accuracy cannot perhaps be retufe1. Its utility, however, as prefixed to a dictionary of arts and sciences, is not very apparent. From each word, which in this table is printed in capitals, many branches are made to spring, which in the dictionary are all treated as separate articles. Thus from METEOROLOGY we are referred, in a lubordinate analysis, to AIR and the ATMOSPHERE; including, 1st, The history of its contents, ÆTHER, FIRE, VAPOUR, EXHALATION, &c. 2d, METEORS formed therein; as CLOUD, RAIN, SHOWER, DROP, SNOW, HAIL, DEW, DAMP, &C. RAINBOW, PARHELION, HALO, THUNDER, WATERSPOUT, &c. WINDS, MONSOON, HURRICANE, and the like. As every word printed in capitals, as well in this fubordinate divifion as in the general table, is the title of an article treated feparately in the Cyclopædia, we must turn backwards and forwards through more than 24 references before we come at the detached topics, which we are directed to unite into a fyftem of METEOROLOGY. The number of articles which must be united in the fame manner to conftitute the Compiler's fyftem of METAPHYSICS is upwards of 2o ; and those which are referred to THEOLOGY above 300!

Snow,

tends to confute or to confirm, without having recourse to the awkward expedient of employing several alphabets, or the still more inconvenient arrangement by which the fyftems themselves are broken into fragments.

Bur on this topic it is needless to expatiate. The very favourable reception with which the two former editions of the Encyclopædia Britannica were honoured by the Public; the ftill greater encouragement which has been given to the prefent; and the adoption of the plan by the editors of other repofitories of arts and fciences-bear ample teftimony to the excellence of the arrangement. On this fubject we exprefs ourselves with the greater ease and the greater confidence, that we cannot be accused of flattering our own vanity, or publishing our own praises; for the merit of forming the arrangement, as well as of introducing into the Work various branches of knowledge, from which, as they are not generally to be found in dictionaries, it derives a juft claim to the favour of the Public, belongs not to the Compilers of the prefent Edition.

AFTER furveying any particular art or science, our curiofity is excited to acquire fome knowledge of the private history of those eminent perfons by whom it was invented, or has been cultivated and improved. To gratify this curiofity, thofe who formed the plan of the Encyclopædia Britannica refolved to enrich it with a department not to be found in any prior collection of the fame kind except the French Encyclopédie. Of all the various fpecies of narrative-writing, it is acknowledged that none is more worthy of cultivation than BIOGRAPHY; fince none can be more delightful or more ufeful, none can more certainly enchain the heart by irrefiftible intereft, or more widely diffuse inftruction to every diverfity of condition. Its tendency to illustrate particular paffages in general history, and to diffuse new light through such arts and fciences as were cultivated by the perfons whofe lives are related, are facts too obvious to require proof. It exhibits likewise the human character in every poffible form and fituation. It not only attends the hero through all the buftle of public life, but purfues him to his moft fequeftered retirements. It shows how diftinguished characters have been involved in misfortunes and difficulties; by what means they were extricated; or with what degree of fortitude and dignity they difcharged the various functions, or sustained the viciffitudes, fometimes profperous and fometimes adverse, of a checquered and a fluctuating life. In fuch narratives men of all ranks must feel themfelves interested; for the high and the low, as they have the fame faculties and the fame fenfes, have no less fimilitude in their pains and pleasures; and therefore in the page of honeft biography, those whom fortune or nature has placed at the greatest distance, may mutually afford inftruction to each other. For these reasons it is, that every man of learning and tafte has efteemed the biographical labours of Plutarch among the most valuable and interefting remains of antiquity.

THE lives and characters, therefore, of fuch perfons as have excelled in the arts either of war or of peace, of fuch as have diftinguished themselves either on the theatre of action or in the recefs of contemplation, will be found in the Encyclopædia Britannica alphabetically disposed under their proper names. Many indeed are omitted, for whom the reader will naturally look; fome because, in the order of the alphabet, we had paffed the initial letters of their names before we had intelligence of their deaths; others, through the inadvertency, whether excufable or not, of the Editors; feveral, for a reason which shall be afterwards affigned for omiffions of a different kind, and perhaps of greater importance; and a very few from the contemptuous refufal of their friends to answer the Editor's letters refpectfully requefting the neceffary information (B),

B

But

) of this treatment we have not indeed often had occafion to complain. While men of the first eminence in church and state have readily anfwered the letters that were addreffed to them, and either communicated the

in

BUT while one part of our readers will regret that we have given no account of their favourite philofopher, hero, or statesman, others may be disposed to remark, that we have dragged from obfcurity the names of many perfons who were no proper objects of fuch public regard. To these we can only reply, that, with the greatest biographer of modern times, we have long thought that there has rarely paffed a life of which a faithful narrative would not be useful; and that in the lives of the moft obfcure perfons, of whom we have given any account, we faw fomething either connected with recent discoveries and public affairs, or which we thought capable of affording a leffon to great multitudes in fimilar circumftances.

BETWEEN eminent atchievements and the scenes where they were performed, there is a natural and neceffary connection. The character of the warrior is connected with the fields of his battles; that of the legiflator, with the countries which he civilized; and that of the traveller and navigator, with the regions which they explored. Even when we read of the perfons by whom, and the occafions on which, any particular branch of knowledge has been improved, we naturally with to know fomething of the places where fuch improvements were made. This curiofity, fo natural and fo laudable, has been frequently felt by ourselves during the compilation of this Work; and to gratify it in others, we have fubjoined to the name of every confiderable place an account of its fituation, its climate, its foil, its peculiarities, its inhabitants, with their manners, cuftoms, and arts; its revolutions, laws, and government, with whatever elfe appeared neceffary for the reader's information, and at the fame time admiffible into a Work of fuch variety and extent. It is indeed probable, that by many of our readers we shall be thought to have done too much rather than too little in this department; and to have filled our pages with accounts of towns and villages not of fufficient importance to demand general attention. Eut were it known how many of fuch places we have excluded from our Work, though recommended to us by fome of our moft obliging correfpondents, thofe who reflect upon the different taftes of mankind, and confider that we wrote for the Public at large, would forgive us for having occafionally employed a few fentences in the defcription of others, which, whatever betheir real importance, could not have been omitted without disappointing a very numerous clafs of readers.

THE knowledge of hiftory is fo important, not only to the statesman and the legiílator, to whom indeed it is abfolutely neceffary, but likewife to every man who moves in a sphere above that of the loweft vulgar, that a Work profeffing to be a general repofitory of arts, fciences, and literature, would be exceedingly defective, if it did not contain fome information of the transactions of those who have been in poffeffion of the world before us; of the various revolutions of ftates and empires; and of all the other means which have contributed to bring every thing into the flate in which we behold it. Fully aware of this, the Compilers of the Encyclopædia Britannica, befides giving. a general view of universal hiftory and chronology, have enriched this edition with a fhort, though they hope luminous, detail of the progress of each particular nation, which from the remoteft period to the present time has acted a confpicuous part on the theatre of the world. The reader therefore will here find a very comprehenfiveview of CIVIL HISTORY, ancient and modern, in all its branches. Nor have the hiftories of NATURE and RELIGION been neglected. Of the former, it is not perhaps too much to say, that in all the fubdivifions of its three great kingdoms, it will be found more fully, more accurately, and more fcientifically, detailed in this Work than in any other dictionary which has yet been published. Of the latter, a brief view is given under the general article HISTORY; the unavoidable defects of which are in a great measure 1 2 fupplied.

information which was requested, or politely affigned reasons for wishing the lives of their friends not to be published in the Encyclopædia Britannica, the Editor recollects but two men who maintained a fullen filence; and these he cannot confider as moving in a sphere much higher than his own.

fupplied by the accounts that will be found, under their proper denominations, of all the confiderable fects and opinions which have prevailed in the religious world from the earliest periods to the present day.

SUCH was the plan of the fecond edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica; to which, as it feems hardly capable of improvement, the Compilers of the third have, with a few flight variations, ftrictly adhered. Still, however, there was ample room for the efforts of all their industry and all their learning; for the rapid progress of the phyfical sciences had rendered the labours of their predeceffors in many departments useless. Befides the introduction of fome thousands of new articles, there are not many of great importance, thofe in biography and geography alone excepted, which ftand in this Edition as they flood in the laft. Such recent discoveries as could be introduced, have -been mentioned with reference to their proper authors; and, while the feveral fciences have been treated more fully and fyftematically, greater care has been employed to trace the history of each from its first invention, and to apply them all to the arts of life. To accomplish a task fo arduous and fo important, neither labour nor expence has been fpared. Literary journals; the memoirs and tranfactions of philofophic focieties; and all the most valuable dictionaries of arts and fciences, both in our own and in other languages, have been conftantly consulted. The works of the most eminent aùthors, as well ancient as modern, who have written on any particular art or fcience, have been collected and compared. Such of them as treat of topics, about which there is no room for controverfy, and are at the fame time fufceptible of abridgement, have been abridged with the greatest care; whilst others, more concife and tenacious of their fubjects, have been more closely purfued and more faithfully retained. Upon those branches of science on which the works of other authors furnished nothing fit for the purpose of the Editors, original effays and treatifes are inferted, which were compofed either by themselves, or by fuch of their friends as they knew to be intimately acquainted with the fubject. On difputed points, whether in the phyfical or moral sciences, arguments and objections have been displayed in their full force; and of each of the various fects into which the Chriftian church is divided, the account is generally given by the most eminent clergyman of that fect to whom the Editors could find accefs.

AFTER the utmost exertions, however, of our attention and induftry, we are fenfible, perhaps more fenfible than any of our readers, that the Work paffes from our hands in a ftate far from perfection; and that the man who fhall not discover in the Encyclopædia Britannica miftakes, needlefs repetitions, and even culpable omiffions, will bring to the examination of it no great stock of general knowledge. But for thefe offences the Editors perhaps need no other apology than what will be furnished by the nature of the Work and the hiftory of its publication.

In a collection fo extenfive and multifarious, a few mistakes, repetitions, and omiffions, might furely be paffed over without severity of cenfure, although the publication had from the beginning to the end been fuperintended by the fame man; but they will be allowed to have been almost unavoidable, when it is known that, after the Work was far advanced, it was committed to the care of a new Editor, who, though he was in a great degree a stranger to the contents of the printed volumes, found no clue of his predeceffor's which could guide him accurately through thofe to be compiled.

WE beg it to be underflood, that this obfervation is not made with a view to remove any fhare of blame from the fecond to the firft Editor; for Mr Colin Macfarquhar, who conducted the publication beyond the middle of the twelfth volume, was a man whom few who knew him will be difpofed to blame, and on whofe industrious integrity thofe who knew him beft must admit that it would be difficult to bestow too much praife. Born in Edinburgh of parents refpectable, though not affluent, he was, at an early period of life, bound an apprentice to a printer. This profeffion gave him a taste for science and literature, or rather furnished him with opportunities

•

tunities of cultivating the tafte which he derived from nature; and he foon became well acquainted with the most popular writers in natural history and in natural and moral philofophy. When he opened a printing-house of his own, rectitude of conduct quickly recommended him to friends and to employment; and the unremitted profecution of his ftudies eminently qualified him for fuperintending the publication of a new dictionary of arts, fciences, and literature; of which, under the title of ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA, the idea had been conceived by him and his friend Mr Andrew Bell engraver. By whom these gentlemen were assisted in digesting the plan which attracted to that Work so much of the public attention, or whether they had any affiftance, are queftions in which our readers cannot be interested. Suffice it to fay, that Mr Macfarquhar had the fole care of compiling the prefent Edition; and that, with the aid of a very few literary friends, he brought it down to the article MYSTERIES, in the twelfth volume, when he was cut off in the 48th year of his age by a death which, though not fudden, was perhaps unexpected. His career was indeed fhort; but of him it may be faid with as much propriety as of moft men, Nemo parum diu vixit, qui virtutis perfectæ perfecto functus eft munere.

AMONG his literary correspondents was the Reverend Dr Gleig of Stirling, who had written for him various articles, of which fome were publifhed during his lifetime and others in their order after his death. Thefe fhall be afterwards enumerated with thofe furnished by other occafional contributors; but they are mentioned at present, because they account for that partial regard of Mr Macfarquhar for their author, which, on the death of the former, induced the trustees for his children, together with Mr Bell the furviving partner, to requeft the latter to undertake the tafk which their deceased friend had hitherto discharged with so much credit to himself. In this propofal, after some hesitation on account of his distance from Edinburgh, Dr Gleig acquiefced; but when he entered on his new office, he found matters in a ftate of no little confusion. Mr Macfarquhar, though his death had not been long expected, had laboured long under a complication of diseases; the confequence of which was, that the materials which he had prepared for the prefs were almost exhausted; and of those which were first called for, fome had not paffed through his correcting hand.

THIS circumftance may perhaps account for fome defects and inaccuracies in that part of the Work, to which the second Editor looks back with the leaft fatisfaction: but that which must be his apology for several repetitions and omiffions, was the neglect of his predeceffor during his laft illness to make an intelligible index to his own labours. From the want of fuch a neceffary guide, Dr Gleig was perpetually liable, notwithstanding his utmost circumfpection, to give under one title an explanation of subjects which had been before explained under another; and to omit articles altogether, from a persuasion that they had been difcuffed in fome preceding volume under the general fyftem to which they belong.

NEITHER his repetitions nor omiffions, however, are so many as fome have fuppofed them; for what has been haftily cenfured as a repetition, is frequently nothing more than the neceffary resumption of fome important fubject. Availing himself. of the excellence of the plan upon which the Encyclopædia Britannica is conftructed, he took the opportunity, when he found any fyftem fuperficially treated, to fupply its defects under fome of the detached articles belonging to it. Of this he fhall mention as one inftance HYDROSTATICS; which, confidered as a fyftem, muft be confeffed to be defective; but he trufts that its defects are in a great measure fupplied under the separate articles RESISTANCE of Fluids, RIVER, SPECIFIC Gravity, and WaterWORKS.

THAT in the Encyclopædia Britannica no account is given of fome things which should have a place in a general repofitory of arts, fciences, and mifcellaneous literature, must be acknowledged; but it muft likewise be acknowledged that fuch omiflions are neither numerous nor very important; for many fubjects, which have been fup- posed to be omitted, are treated under titles different from thofe under which they have

1