NOTICE. 
  
  
to subjects of a universal interest, the lapse of time (now ten years) since the publication 
of that work began, as well as the difference in the relative importance of the same 
subject in different countries, has rendered great alterations necessary in order to 
adapt the information to the present time and to Great Britain. The employment 
of illustrative engravings and maps, is another feature in which the present work differs 
from the Geerman. 
The general character of the work, now thus far advanced, is indicated by its title— 
A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the People. The several topics are not handled 
with a view to the technical instruction of those who have to make a special study of 
particular branches of knowledge or art. The information given may be characterised as 
non-professional, embracing those points of the several subjects which every intelligent 
man or woman may have occasion to speak or think about. At the same time, every 
effort is made that the statements, so far as they go, shall be precise and scientifically 
accurate. Omne great aim in the arrangement of the work has been to render it easy of 
consuliation. It is expressly a Dictionary, in one alphabet, as distinguished on the one 
hand from a collection of exhaustive treatises, and, on the other, from a set of Dictionaries 
of special branches of knowledge. To save the necessity of wading through a long treatise 
in order to find, perhaps, a single fact, the various masses of systematic knowledge have 
been broken down, as it were, to as great a degree as is consistent with the separate 
explanation of the several fragments. In the greater number of articles, however, there will 
be found copious references to other heads with which they stand in natural connection ; 
and thus, while a single fact is readily found, its relation to other facts is not lost sight of. 
It will be observed, that by means of accentuation, some assistance is given in the 
pronouncing of the proper names which form the heads of the articles. At the 
conclusion of the work, it is intended to give a copious General Index, referring not only 
to the distinct articles, but to subjects casually noticed—an arrangement which cannot 
fail to be of considerable use to those who wish to consult the work on many matters of 
interest. 
W. & R. CHAMBERS. 
EpINBURGH, March 31, 1860,