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