N.O T, 1.C:-E 
ET is now considerably more than a hundred years since Ermxaim CHAMBERS gave 
  
to the world his Cyclopaedia, or Universal Dictionary of Knowledge—the prototype, 
as it proved to be, of a number of similar works, in DBritain as well as in other 
countries, which must have contributed in mo small measure to increase the sum of 
general intelligence. In nearly all these works there has heen a tendency to depart 
from the plan of their celebrated original, as concerns some of the great departments of 
science, literature, and history ; these being usually” presented, not under a variety 
of specific heads, as they commonly occur to our minds when information is required, but 
aggregated in large and formal treatises, such as would in themselves form books of 
considerable bulk, By such a course it is manifest that the serviceableness of an 
Encyclopzedia as a dictionary for reference is greatly impaired, whatever may be the 
advantages which on other points are gained. 
With a view to bring back the Encyclopxdia to its original purpose of a Dictionary 
of Knowledge, even down to matters of familiar conversation, the Germans formed the 
plan of their Conversations-Lexicon; a work which, extending to a long series of volumes, 
has passed through ten editions, and obtained a world-wide celebrity. Believing that a 
translation of the latest edition of that well-conceived and laboriously executed work 
would be generally acceptable, the Editors made an arrangement for that purpose with 
the proprietor, Mr Brockhaus of Leipsic. After some time, however, had been spent in 
translating, the task of adapting the information to English requirements was found 
so difficult, that the resolution was taken to bring out a substantially new work, following 
in its construction the admirable plan of the Conversations-Lexicon, but making use of 
its valuable matter, only so far as it might be found suitable. 
CuAMpERS'S ENCYCLOPZEDIA, therefore, although constructed on the basis of the 
latest edition of the Conversations-Lexicon, is, in no part, a mere translation of that 
work. All that specially relates to Great Britain and her colonies, as well as to the 
states of North and South America, is collected from new and more direct sources. 
The articles also on the physical sciences and practical arts receive greater prominence 
than in the German work, and are nearly all original, being mostly the work of 
contributors having special knowledge of the subjects. Xven in the articles of the 
Conversations-Lexicon relating to Germany and other continental countries, as well as