ft PREFACE. 



have recorded their comprehensive views, and their most 

 striking discoveries, it is not difficult to observe and de- 

 duce the distinct and separate utilities of each, and the 

 duties to be expected from the editors and proprietors of 

 such undertakings. Among the most obvious of these it 

 is indispensable that a new work should be called for, 

 by circumstances which point out advantages of size, 

 plan, and materials, not before adopted, and that the 

 means to be employed, in the actual performance, should 

 be such as must determine its worth and authority with 

 every description of readers. 



We are already in possession of the large Cyclopedia 

 of Dr. REES, which has advanced to its twelfth volume, 

 by a progress that insures its regular completion, and in 

 a style of execution which is truly honourable to the 

 skill and diligence of those who have undertaken it ; to 

 the activity and enterprize of the proprietors, and to a 

 nation which has ever taken the lead in science and the 

 arts. On the smaller Dictionaries it is needless to en- 

 large. After various deliberate consultations between 

 the Proprietors, the Editor, and the principal gentle- 

 men engaged in the different departments, it was con- 

 cluded, that a new Dictionary, appropriated exclusively 

 to the Arts and Sciences, and containing a dense, ac- 

 curate, and ample exhibition of our whole knowledge 

 respecting them, might with the greatest advantage be 

 comprehended in the limits of six large octavo volumes. 

 It was accordingly decided, that the undertaking should 

 be entered upon with vigour and activity, at the same 

 time that the utmost attention should be paid to the 

 means by which alone it was possible to insure the value 

 of the intended work. The year preceding its appear- 



